SVO Transit
 

I have a 5 hour transit in SVO- arrive in the earning morning from LHR and catching the HKG flight. Just have a single entry visa which I will use on my inbound HKG-SVO-LHR. Fortunately both flights leave from Terminal 2 so I don't need a transit visa.
Even though I have been to SVO a dozen or so times, I have not transited through SVO (I remember seeing big lines outside the transit security while arriving in SVO).
Any advise on transit process will be greatly appreciated (and I still have time to cancel the ticket if the transit process is painfull as I have a refundable C ticket :D )

Its not painful if you arrive and depart from SVO2. You disembark, go to transfer desk, if an agent is there, give her/him your tickets and passport and she/he will take care of the rest, provide you with a borading pass, and off you go to the International transit zone. If there is noone at the desk, you wait there until someone shows up (sometimes a wait can be 30 minutes or so). Please remember you can only access C lounge 2 hours before your departure, so you will just have to hang out at a cafe/bar/shop until you can enter the lounge. Enjoy

Thanks for the reply.
Since I am arriving at 0530, it is highly unlikely that there will be anybody at the transfer desk :D :D
I see that the lounges are open 24 hours and will try to see if LH will let me into their SEN lounge in SU lounge refuse to let me in for more than 2 hours(even though I am flying SkyTeam, not Star)- I have about 4 hours 30 min to kill in the early morning.

There are 3 lounges at SVO2, DATE Lounge, Classic Lounge and Amber Lounge. DATE Lounge is used by SkyTeam members, primarily. Amber is used by Star members, primarily (there are some odd airlines that contract those lounges for their C passengers also). Classic lounge is a mix of airlines. Also remember that not a single lounge will let you in without a written invitation that one can recieve at the check-in or at the transfer desk. Since you will be flying with SU, you will receive invitation to use DATE lounge 2 hours before your departure. There is no way lounge dragons at Amber lounge will let in just with your SEN card without written invitation. There is no SEN/Star exclusive lounge in SVO2, every lounge is a contract space

The LH lounge is not a proper LH lounge as such - they're pretty strict about entry and would seriously doubt they'll let you in travelling on SU. Not a great deal to do in the transit area but am sure you will survive a couple of hours until the SU lounge lets you in.

There's this lounge (I think it's the Classic one) that lets you in with a Citibank Gold card - look for the huge Citi Gold logo at the entry. It may be limited to Citibank Russia cards but you never know - if it's open and you do have a Citi gold card, give it a try.

Nope- I do not have a Citicard. I have a Priority Pass but that again has the same restriction that they won't let you in before 2 hours of departure.
The lounge I usually use in SVO is the LH lounge.
There are no Diners Club lounges either in SVO :mad:

Please let us know how this goes for you. We recently had a lady on a single entry visa leave Moscow to go do a 3 days project for us in Kiev. She was to fly back to SVO, spend 3 hours in transit and then fly to ATL. Upon leaving SVO to head to KBP, she confirmed with the immigration officer that transiting without a visa but with a 3 hour layover and all the paper tickets in hand would be ok. The immigration officer was adament about that not being possible. "You can't come into Russia without a visa" she kept saying over and over. Freaked out my friend so much that she ended up buying a one way ticket from KBP to ATL through JFK. Very disturbing and expensive event. I hope you have a better situation. I really do. Please do report what happens after you get back home.

Good luck!

Actually, both DATE and Amber are Diners Club lounges (see in Russian) Unfortunately, there doesn't seem to be a page in English confirming this, but I suggest you search on the DC forum.

As per Aeroflot website and russian embassy and my travel agent, you don't need a transit visa as long as you don't leave the airport and catch a connecting flight within 24 hours. I will double check with SU at LHR anyway before I board.
I will let you know what happens.

Thanks a lot. The English version of the website says that DATE lounge is not a Diners lounge anymore. DATE used to be a Priority Pass lounge too- not any more.
Would Amber let me in for a couple of hours on the back of my Diners card until I can get into the SU lounge?

I bet the English version is outdated (easily by over a year). IIRC early this year the Russian version said that Amber lounge was temporaly unavailable to DCI cardholders, and then by the end of Spring both became available again.

Unfortunately my knowledge is purely theoretical - I haven't been to either of the lounges. I never transitted through SVO, and whenever I fly out, I'm usually not alone and don't wanna pay the guest fees.

I look forward to hearing back from you. I was told by an immigration officer upon leaving the country in February that I could come back in for a less than 24 hour transit without a new visa. Since it's Russia you're pretty much at the mercy of the person you are dealing with. I wish you the best!

SVO transit both ways
 

I am looking at a ticket JFK-SVO-DEL for late Dec. '06 where JFK-SVO sector is on DL and the connection SVO-DEL is on Aeroflot with a connection time of about 5 hours each way. If I do not leave the airport, do I still need a transit visa? I read thru the threads and some say that I will still need a transit visa. Any recent experiences? Thanks.

May I suggest that you check whether Finnair would have flights to suit your needs? The layover in HEL is pretty long (like 6 hrs) but there is absolutely no hassle whatsoever, no need for visas, and the prices tend to be very attractive on this new route. On a 5 hr transit in SVO, you might not even have time to leave the airport and visit the city, OTOH with 6 hrs in HEL, you will have plenty of time and they'll issue your BP to DEL in JFK, so no need for transfer check-in.

(And no, I don't get commission from AY for advertising their services :D )