Part 12: Moscow Sheremetyevo (SVO) and Aeroflot's domestic lounge

We had our arrival gate at a jet bridge and I was one of the first to leave the plane. After a short walk I was already at passport control - which luckily had no queues whatsoever. Of course, just like in the supermarket I still managed to choose the wrong counter. I like Russia (as a tourist, not in a Donald Trump way) and I like Russians, counting many of them as good friends. Russians might have the reputation of being stern-faced cold people, but believe me, that is only so on the outside. Once you have befriended them, they can be the most warm and fantastic people you might meet. Unfortunately, that doesn't count for anyone working behind a glass window or counter of some sorts. Cashiers, ticket sellers at train stations, government officials - with very little exceptions Russians turn into the devil's own lackeys trying to make your life as miserable as possible. Compared to the Russians, the people at the TSA and CBP are like theme park entertainers in a Mickey Mouse costume.

Of course, my Russian boarder guard didn't speak a word of English. He did manage to shout the word "passport" and "visa" as well as "where" (no idea if it meant from where I came or where I would head to). Even though I didn't have that much stamps and visas in this relatively new passport it took him ages to inspect literally every single page. At one point he even took an old-fashioned magnifying glass to inspect it. After no shorter than 15 minutes did he finally decide to scan my passport (EU biometric passport) - which somehow did not work. After ten more minutes trying to scan it and looking downright angry he started to shout "njet" and "no". I'm not easily intimidated or scared, but at this moment I really didn't know what he meant. He refused me entry? My passport wasn't working for some reasons? Only five minutes later did some answer came when he closed down his entire passport booth! As I guess his scanner/software just malfunctioned I asked him where to go, after which he shrugged his shoulders. Given that the lines were huge at this time, I politely went in front of the next queue while apologising to the first persons in line that my booth closed and the officer sent me here. Fortunately, the lady manning this booth was a tiny bit more friendly and stamped me into Russia within two minutes after successfully scanning my passport.

I'm not sure if at that point I might have missed a sign, but following the signs to domestic connections I ended up in Sheremetyevo's arrival hall landside (international terminal D). From there I had to take up the elevator and still walk a fair bit to the domestic part of terminal D, only to go through security again. No idea if it's the normal way or if there is a shortcut, but it took me from arrival at the gate about an hour until I finally cleared security at the domestic terminal. As I still had about an hour left, I quickly headed for the domestic lounge.

Now in all fairness: I'm not so sure what to think of this lounge. My first impressions when I arrived where frankly very bad. Looking back at the few pictures I took I'm however thinking now: was it really that bad? It looks quite acceptable!

My first impressions were bad for three main reasons: the lounge was dark and grubby, it was super crowded, and the toilets were outright disgusting - looking like they weren't cleaned in a while. The fact that there were only two toilets (one broken) and an urinal for such a crowded lounge didn't help either.

As it was so crowded I didn't manage to snap any pics as I felt a bit uncomfortable doing so. I only snapped a few quick pictures later when the lounge started to get more quiet. Only at that moment did I manage to find an empty seat in the part of the lounge furthest away from the exit, which was a lot brighter than the dark and dank area around the lounge entrance.


Aeroflot domestic departures. Midnight seems to be a peak time for domestic flights with lots of red-eyes departing for destinations East across the vast landmass of Russia


Some seats in the brighter area of the lounge



Food wise there wasn't that much available. Some sweets, bread, cold cuts - that was about it at the time I was in the lounge. As I wasn't hungry I didn't taste anything whatsoever. Booze seemed to be OK enough - some wines, a sparkling wine (forgot to check which!), some hard alcohol and soft drinks. I was puzzled by the choice of beers on offer. Zhiguli is fair enough as a Russian brand which is also offered by Aeroflot on board. But the domestic lounge had 'quality' Hollandia beer as well - which is famous in Holland for being dirt cheap and a beloved brand among the homeless. Why on earth offer this in a lounge? For the sheer reason of another check-in to my Untappd account (and to send a picture to my Dutch friends to have a good laugh about it) I took a bottle - and it was as disgusting as I remember it was.


Disgusting beer in the Aeroflot lounge

As I didn't like the lounge that much, I decided to get out of it and head to my boarding gate, where they just started with boarding. Weirdly, no priority boarding was enforced and everyone had to get in the same few buses. The drive to our plane seemed to be eternal - the bus driver was not doing faster than 20 due to the snow and ice, and it seemed that the plane itself was parked all the way in Omsk instead of a far-flung Sheremetyevo corner. After half an hour (!) driving in a cramped bus we finally arrived at the aeroplane, where there was even a huge scrum to get on board first. Not a real business-class like experience here!

In short: I'm really conflicted about this bit of the trip and actually curious to hear the opinions from frequent flyers who traveled more times via SVO to domestic Russian destinations. Is the lounge always this bad? Am I exaggerating and might it be an OK lounge at less crowded times? In any case, the transfer at SVO from international to domestic wasn't the smoothest of ever transfers, but considering it's Russia it was fine enough. The lounge itself was dirty, dark, crowded and mediocre when it comes to F&B. The boarding madness and the crowded bus to the plane were a sheer hell and not really something to happily endure in the middle of the night shortly before a long red-eye flight. If one bit of my trip would be the most disappointing, it was this. Luckily, the upcoming domestic Aeroflot flight made me forget all of it in a positive way!.

Next up: Aeroflot domestic business class from Moscow to Irkutsk