I like Aeroflot and I fly with it regularly as it often provides the right balance of price, quality and schedule. I have flown Aeroflot both in business class and premium economy. I consider it in competition with LOT, Finnair and Turkish -- companies whose hubs are located not far from central Europe and that connect Europe and Asia.

Despite my liking, I have to confirm that Aeroflot does not provide much help in case of disruption. Partly this is due to the airline's management choices and partly to the fact that Sheremetevo is not yet optimised for transfers. Moreover, SVO Air Traffic Control seems overwhelmed -- a situation that is getting akin to that of Istanbul. This brings to delays even if the flight times are typically increased by some 30 minutes to make up for expected congestion.

An example from this week.

The incoming flight takes off on time, goes on hold even before approaching SVO, then again over Moscow due to bad weather. Lands about one hour behind schedule. Should go to terminal D but is redirected to terminal E. There, another 20+ minutes of wait on the tarmac to arrange disembarking from backdoor as there is an issue with being at terminal E. This means exposure to heavy rain and a long bus transfer back to terminal D. Meanwhile, no information is provided on connecting flights. At this point, my connecting flight should take off in 30 minutes (original connecting time was around 2 hours).

At terminal D, a couple of Aeroflot staff provide information on the gate of connecting flights by writing them on the boarding pass. One can only assume that this means the flight is delayed and connection still possible. After them, the (in)famous transit passport control (one booth open out of five), boarding pass control (single position) and X-ray machine security control (2 machines, both working). This is a dreaded bottleneck and reason for much frustration of Aeroflot passenger. (I wonder if passengers of any other airline connect at SVO,) There is no priority lane for business class passengers and/or for short connections. Begging other passengers to let pass is the only option. Being familiar with this scenario, other passengers usually oblige -- solidarity is stronger at times of despair.

Despite chaos, I made it through passport control and security in a few minutes. At that point, my connecting flight was supposed to take off. A look at the monitor said that it was on-time -- but so were all other flights, which could not be given the weather disruption.

Hence, I went as quickly as possible to gate, normally a 20 minutes walk, with hand luggage and a trolley. I ran when I could and had also to climb a broken escalator between terminals D and E. This obviously is not something that can be done with children, elderly people, etc.

I got to gate as passengers line up for boarding. The monitor indicates "go tocgate" for this flight, and "boarding soon" for the next two flights, which are eight hours later, i.e. the next morning. The boarding take place randomly, with no priority calls and no enforcement of priority in the priority lane. This brings more disruption and time wasted. The flight eventually takes off one hour after schedule, but lands only 30 minutes late given the "padded" schedule. Finally, the plane goes to a gate where the jetbridge is unavailable so that passengers have to get off the stairs and then back other stairs to reach the airport at the intended point.

I have given feedback on the above to the purser of the second flight, who was much more interested in passing on the blame than in accepting Aeroflot's role in poor planning and managing disruptions.

This will not prevent me from flying Aeroflot again, but I do understand that other passengers do not want to be exposed to the possibility of going through this experience.

I find it unfair to charge rebooking fee when the transfer at SVO is so poorly managed. This undermines the whole Aeroflot strategy to make SVO a connecting hub. While Aeroflot may not care about exposing connecting passengers to hardship (there could be always new uninformed ones) and about clients feedback more generally, it is doubtful that an airline with this standard could be labelled "four stars".