I recently flew three S7 segments within a week, and since they don’t have much coverage online I thought I’d post some observations for others searching in the future. With my wife I flew three 4-5 hour segments on HKG-IKT (Hong Kong to Irkutsk, A320neo), IKT – VVO (Irkutsk to Vladivostok, red eye domestic, A320) and then VVO-HKG (Vladivostok to Hong Kong, A320neo). One flight was paid (2000 miles meant it earned 140TPs on BA), the other two were Avios bargains (less than £20 taxes).This gave me a chance to experience both domestic and international flights, as well as the newest planes in the S7 fleet (the A320neo), at least when you consider that their B737max is grounded.

Check-in: You can do mobile check-in, but unless you print it out you can’t get through Russian security checks, they really do want something to stamp. Hence you should enjoy the experience of checking in online, but still have to head to the desks for a relatively short queue or perhaps try home printing.

Lounges: Very poor in Russia, at HKG I was given the HK Airlines lounge (right next to the S7 gate), but instead I visited the Cathay First class Pier, where they were slightly surprised to see an S7 pass but let me in. IKT check-in staff failed to tell us that the (poor) business lounge was a completely separate entrance to the lounge, which meant going through security, exiting, then re-entering. I guess at least the lounge existed, we were told we should have been given some invite to get free drinks from the lady there, though she was "nice" enough to give us water, hence maybe they didn't expect us to go there. The VVO lounge was nicer and right next to the gate, though seemingly the alcohol was paid for (?), since we were on a midday flight I wasn't drinking so didn't try that out.

Boarding: Short priority queue in HK, a completely separate business class bus from IKT straight from the lounge, nothing in VVO. You were welcomed with a soft drink, though being last (row 2...) meant you may not get your choice of water or juice.

Seat: Large American First class style seats in 2x2 format. However – no entertainment, no footrest and a seat recline of about 10 degrees. The seats were big and comfortable enough for the daytime, but the night flight wasn’t a pleasant four hours. We reserved our seat in advance via the telephone call centre, the website wouldn’t let you, but our fellow passengers didn’t do that I think, hence we got what we wanted (row 2).

Food & beverage: Good quality mains, small portions, a variant on beef/chicken or vegetarian on real pottery and a tray. Drinks were fairly poor quality and varied (e.g. prosecco on HKG-IKT, but not on VVO-IKT). They don’t load enough meals to allow each passenger to have their first choice, and I had a menu on only one of the three flights. I didn't get my first or second choice meal on the VVO-HKF route as we were served last, though we were OWE, slightly sad to see two kids get the meal I wanted then pretty much left it uneaten :P

Entertainment: The domestic A320 had nothing, the A320neos had WiFi provided entertainment on an S7 App. I had a glance and the international selection was reasonable, if not brand new releases. I didn’t appreciate that business class didn’t get headsets or a tablet – it was bring your own. In actual fact economy was slightly better as the seats had space in front of the seat to put in a tablet, but not in business, so you had it in your hands or on the table.

Service: The flight attendants preferred to communicate in Russian via my wife, but had clearly been on customer service training – they smiled and were helpful and friendly, and kept my glass filled up throughout the trips. Each trip, even the domestic, gave us a small goodie bag, similar to a pencilcase, with mouthwash, eyemask and similar. We also got slippers. I thought this was the best part of the flights actually and credit to S7 for this.

Arrival: I appreciated that when we arrived in IKT we had a separate business class bus, this got us to immigration first, saving a lot of time. This was the best part of the service. Amusingly the equivalent bus on departure meant we were last onto the plane, mainly as we arrived about the same time as the main bus, but we were kept on the bus till everyone else was onboard. This would have been nice in the cold, but it was unnecessary in summer.

Priority recognition: Zero, considering we’re both one world emeralds there was no recognition, personal welcome or anything that made me feel that they appreciated our business. On the VVO-HKG flight we didn’t get our first meal choices as the orders were taken in row order and we were in 2DF.

Overall I’m not going to be choosing S7 if I had an alternative higher quality carrier available, and I’m surprised that people are willing to do longer flights with them. For direct flights I would tolerate them if necessary (preferably using Avios), but probably look for an alternative indirect option like Korean airlines when paying money. At least the price of business class was both consistent and unchanging even nearer the date, at about £400 per segment. My view of S7 is that they are a good European, but a poor Asian airline in terms of their offering across the board. I’ve spent too long in the last few years on the likes of Cathay Pacific and not BA (against who, S7 would be a reasonable offering as the same basic plane set-ups would then have perks like the better business class seats and some entertainment).