OmniSheep

You can... Just add a long stopover in Hel and stay less than 24hrs in Moscow - Russia allows 24h transit without Visa.
Leave your baggage in Hel for the trip to Moscow to avoid any complications

SFOPeter

You can book this one way SFO-JFK-HEL-SVO for $1785 with a 3 day stopover in HEL. They will not check for a Russian visa on the SFO-JFK-HEL segments as that will be your final destination that day. Make the last leg Aeroflot and Finnair will likely never find out about skipping it, not that it really matters.

https://goo.gl/flights/SLzNu

ft543

[QUOTE=SFOPeter;30448700] Make the last leg Aeroflot and Finnair will likely never find out about skipping it/QUOTE]

Could you elaborate on this a bit? It seems to go against everything else I've read on FT. Is it just an Aeroflot thing or did you get away with dropping a leg before?

Croupier

SFOPeter

[QUOTE=ft543;30460578]You can generally drop the last leg, but if you abuse it repeatedly with an airline they will get mad about it.

njwatson32

Wide-open availability starting in April on days where Finnair has a flight from SFO.

Can't post links yet but it's easy to find on Google Flights.

mczlaw

I am in the midst of this itinerary. Funny thing happened at the HEL airport. I had checked in for both HEL-SVO and SVO-HEL, the latter on SU. The AY gate agent asked me about a Russia visa. Told her I didn't need one because I was turning around and flying back to HEL after a five hour layover. This caused her some anguish, so she contacted her manager. At the end of the conversation, she told me that they would not permit me to fly to SVO and were cancelling both segments, but were keeping my HEL-SFO inbound. They were concerned that somehow they could be fined for the quick turnaround @ SVO, by whom I'm not sure. I didn't protest very hard since I could have cared less about flying to Moscow and preferred to stay in Helsinki any way. But, as I think about, I paid for those segments and probably should get a small refund. Also wasted a couple hours @ HEL, though the brand new Platinum Wing lounge was pretty great. OTOH, I'm not sure it's worth the bother. Thoughts? Anybody else run into this? Others, you are forewarned.

Many thanks. Really enjoyed Helsinki. Currently across the gulf in Tallinn which is sort of a cruise ship tourist hell hole, but not that bad, though I'm out of things to do after a day and a half.

ubiest

MaxVO

Any undiscovered problems with the idea from post 19 (refundable tix to a 3d country, canceled while while in transit at SVO)?

mczlaw

Interesting. What is the source of authority for this? I know it is true for China, but saw nothing preventing this itinerary for Russia. Thx.

Flying Yazata

It's pretty simple: you can't enter Russian territory for transit without a visa. Any airport transit to a third country must be conducted airside, unless one has a transit visa (or some other suitable visa) or is eligible for visa free entry (well, taken you most likely aren't e.g. Cuban, it doesn't apply to you). This is nothing new. As for a source (besides I know this stuff for a fact), I could quote the IATA TIMATIC database: "Passengers with a confirmed onward ticket for a flight to a third country within 24 hours. They must stay in the international transit area of the airport and have documents required for the next destination."

I'm always pretty amazed how people just book these types of itineraries without any proper research. It applies to travel documents/permits, vaccinations etc.

ubiest

MaxVO

What document would be required to support the intent to transit to a 3d country (printed itinerary, boarding pass, payment receipt)?
Also, I recall that SVO has several terminals connected airside with check points between them. It's conceivable that passage between terminals could be denied if you're not going to the terminal with a valid reason.

ubiest

mczlaw

Appreciate the thoughtful responses here. I've not before had occasion to look at "transit" as a term of art specifically requiring that the onward destination be to a third country. My plain meaning sense was that a visa-exempt "transit" simply referred to any connection less than 24 hours, while remaining airside, without regard to destination. I understand the IATA TIMATIC is authoritative in the industry, however, and I probably should have checked it before booking this ticket (NB: website is iatatravelcentre.com). Cutting myself a little slack (and it's not like I'm a novice traveller), there were no red flags in the booking process, none during the checkin process (both with AY and SU, which issued online boarding passes) and I did note before booking that at least one fellow FTer suggested the back-to-back would be OK. I won't make that mistake again. As a sidenote, when I related this story to my 87-year-old father--his parents escaped Russia back around the time of Bolshevik Revolution--he was relieved I didn't end up in a gulag somewhere . Bottom line: I'll probably hold off asking AY for a refund on my cancelled segments.