How to survive Aeroflot
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Aeroflot, the Russian airline, is infamous for many reasons ranging from customer service to flight safety. Here are some of my thoughts about it.
Screenshot from Aeroflot’s Website
One of the triggers for going to Russia last year was the cheap Toronto-Moscow-Mumbai flight. I’m glad I chose Aeroflot, the semi-privatised, profitable, one of the oldest and largest in the world, Russian national airline. The cultural acclimatization started soon after I bought the ticket. I had to call Aeroflot’s Customer service to request a one-day rescheduling. Usually airlines will do it as a courtesy although they are not required to. But I was asked to pay €250 even though the flight was half-empty.
Moscow’s Sheremetyevo-2 (SVO 2) airportAeroflot’s reputation
Aeroflot is known to be one of the most unfriendly airlines in the world. Although I didn’t have any problems personally, I could easily see why it has such a reputation.
- People have also told me that the flight attendants are rude. While that might be true when viewing from an external perspective, I think its simply cultural. The Russian flight crew doesn’t have the fake ear-to-ear smiling ladies on board, and that might be seen as being rude.
- People are still stuck in Soviet era of customer service. If you ask something they don’t have, you’ll simply be told ‘Nyet’ (No) without a smile or a hint of apology. If you are going to Russia, better get used to this! Again, I think this is simply cultural.
- I’ve heard from lots of Indians that Aeroflot refuses to serve them water. The thing is, Russians (from my experience) seldom drink normal water, definitely not on the scale as Indians do. They drink juices, teas, colas etc. Refusing someone a glass of water is blasphemous in Indian context.
- Another caveat is that Aeroflot’s flights are always delayed. After studying Aeroflot’s schedule for a month or so on the Toronto-Moscow-Mumbai routes, I couldn’t agree more. My flight was delayed by 5 hours twice, and what’s worse, the online system kept showing ‘on time’ until departure.
- Aeroflot’s flight safety record has significantly improved, but is still worse than many international airlines. Some friends teased me, ‘I hope the pilot finds the runway!’
- Other factors such as crappy airline food, unhelpful service desk, etc. are not unique to Aeroflot.
What pissed me off
Beef served in a Hindu Meal
You might know that I am pretty new to meat eating. The last thing I wanted was to have meat in the flight food. Aerofloat not only dishonored my preference for a ‘Hindu Vegetarian Meal’ but made it worse by adding beef to it.
Serving Beef to Hindus would be as ‘unholy’ as serving pork to Muslims or Jews. I innocently ate some of it and immediately felt a sharp taste that I had never tasted before (until then I had tried only Chicken, Pork, Alpaca and Llama).
Me: Извините, вы знаете, что это? (Excuse me, do you know what this is?)
Stewardess: Да, Это говядина. (Yes, its beef.)
Me: Но я хотел Hindu meal. (But I wanted Hindu Meal.) You serve beef in a Hindu meal?
Stewardess: [shrugging] не знаете. (I don’t know.) [and she left]
The matter ended there. I sent an email and a postal letter to Aeroflot’s office in Moscow. I haven’t heard from them except an email auto reply.
Survival tips
Problems exist everywhere but perhaps the following tips might help you survive Aeroflot.
- Aeroflot is one of the oldest airlines in the world and among the largest today. Thousands of people fly everyday. Keeping the bigger picture in mind will reduce your hesitation.
- Russians are NOT Americans. They are neither Western Europeans, nor Indians, nor Chinese,… etc. It’s a different culture, and it comes with different cultural norms. Embrace this experience as a new discovery, and if you’d rather not have it, simply choose an airline that you are comfortable with.
- Russians don’t speak English (generally) and even if they do, they’ll be shy using it. This is fairly common in most non-English speaking countries. Having a dictionary or a list of, say, 50 frequent airline words, will be useful.
- Russians, for a long time, have lived under imposed Soviet values where individualism, rights, customer service, etc. are alien and unheard. While this is rapidly changing, a little awareness of the history of the people will help.
- Plan in advance for delays and lack of information so that it doesn’t frustrate you when you actually face it.
Would I fly Aeroflot again?
Yes!
- I can practise my Russian further.
- The prices are cheap. At this point, that’s the most important thing for me!
- Their online-booking system is cool. Only a few airlines will allow you to book a multiple-stop flight (without going to a travel agent).
- They are as bad or as good as any other comparable airline.
- Having traveled once, the element of ’surprise’ is lower.
Coffee, bread and a sugar stick
Finally, if you are wondering about the significance of the picture above, lemme tell you that it’s simply to highlight one of the many words that are common in Russian and Marathi. Word of the day is сахар-साखर (sugar). 
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Great review of this airline – with all of the good things I’ve read about east Asian airlines this week your post was refreshing.
‘I hope the pilot finds the runway!’ << LOL!
…and delays, that seems to be the problem all of the airlines have.
↵Thanks Anil! I’ve heard plenty of good things about East Asian airlines too but I haven’t flown any. Maybe I’ll find a cheaper ticket some day!
↵So, how much did you get paid to do this infomercial?
Kidding aside, sometimes, the fun of traveling is the part where what we expect does not happen. In fact, I rarely expect anything when I am out of my common surroundings, so I suppose I see everything as new and interesting. Of course, that does not mean I do not educate myself beforehand on what to expect so as to lessen the culture shock. But I suppose what I am saying is that if people who travel have more expectations that do not deviate from what they are used to, then there would be a lot more things that would potentially shock them. Being a fish out of water can be an eye-opening experience, and a good one at that.
↵Thanks Jeruen, nicely put.
↵Learning about new cultures is part of the reason why we travel, isn’t it?
Didn’t get the sugar part. How is CAXAP similar to Sakhar in Marathi?
↵Hi Mahendra,
↵I think its confusing because in this word, the Cyrillic characters look similar to the Latin alphabet, but pronounced different.
In RU : EN : MR terms:
c : s : स्,
a : a : अ/अा,
x : kh : ख्,
p : r : र
Well, you almost scared me.
↵An Air-hostess who don’t smile…hmm…that is something unheard of. But then as you said, its a different culture. Although I have tasted Beef several times, I would have been surprised too if they would have served Beef in Hindu food to me. I wonder whether it was because they ‘don’t know’ or ‘don’t care’?
I don’t think they care to know or understand. Hindus are always taken for granted because we never make noise. Anyways. I eat beef sometimes too, but what ticked me off was this careless behavior. Its like you go to a restaurant, they give you the menu, you order, but you are given something that you don’t like at all…. what’s the whole point of choosing food then?
↵Very cool and informative post, not that I will ever travel Aeroflot, but it makes me feel a lot safer on my Air Canada flights coming up when I leave for China,lol.
↵Ah yes, Air Canada… no surprises or shocks there!
↵Priyank you seem to have really hated this airline but you still are willing to travel by it! I don’t know but my mind usually does allow me to dislike something so much if I need it!
↵Hi Nita!
↵Yeah, money is my sole objective right now, so I’ll do what I get. Even standing is an option!
Other than for the beef, sounds pretty familiar (if one has travelled Air India). BTW, smiles have disappeared in most US flights too.
↵hehehe, I bet! I have never flown Air India!
↵my parents once traveled by Aeroflot and to put it mildly, that was their worst experience ever lol anyway last I heard, Aeroflot has stopped flying…
↵LOL. I can imagine why. I was given lots of warnings and heard many awful experiences too….
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↵Hey Priyank,
I completely agree with Shantanu. Air India is equally bad and with them you can’t use the culture/language excuses. We flew them to Paris last month and had no problems on the onward journey.
Then we had the flight from hell on the way back. The flight was supposed to go to Mumbai with a stop in Delhi, but they canceled the Del-Mum leg and booked us on a local flight. They served dinner 3 hrs into the flight by which time I was too hungry and drunk. Then, when we were deep in sleep, they switched on the lights and served breakfast 3 hours before we landed!! Flight landed on time, but the doors were not opened for 45 mins and no announcements about the delay. Flight attendants were chatting and laughing among themselves.
Immigration was a breeze, but luggage came a whole hour later ( u would think they unloaded during that 45 mins of sitting…but no). Air India officials kept passing the buck abt who to speak abt the local flight. Time was running out.By the time we and 20 others got to the domestic airport, our flight left and we had to wait 3 more hours…a total of 6 hrs delay.
Long story short……every single person we spoke to was rude and indifferent. Foreigners were stunned at how bad the service was. It was embarrassing for us.
We had a similar experience on Jet Airways where our Brussels-Chennai flight was rerouted through Mumbai. The minute we landed, Jet agents had our boarding passes for the local flights and personally escorted us to the domestic airport. We not only made our flight, but got there faster than my original flight.
But to get to your point of “Will I take Air India again?” I tend to agree with you – If the price is much lower then I will definitely fly them. If the price is not too different, then I will NOT fly them.
Sorry for the long rant…but you started the discussion.
↵Oh, that was a bad experience indeed… I think it is the result of public service attitude – the guys know they’ll get paid and regardless of what they do, their jobs are secure. Maybe the same problems plague Aeroflot too? I don’t know.
I agree, price is my most important (if not the only) decision factor for now. But I have consciously avoided Air India so far!
↵I’m sorry but I actually laughed at the “beef in an Hindu meal”. No offense but I find it funny… They really didn’t get it! Reminds me of “vegetarian” meals in China that have beef, pork AND chicken in them (and the meaning of vegetarian is…???
).
About the rude attendant… I flew Finnair (Finland) and I found the staff really rude, but it might have been a cultural difference as you mentioned it.
↵Haha, I know what you mean… even in Russia, when I mentioned that I was vegetarian for 25 years, people looked at me with completely confused glances, but interestingly, I met a number of vegetarians in Moscow!
↵Thanks for sharing your experiences сахар.;)
↵hehehe!
Which is your favorite airline?
↵No favorites Priyank…I generally travel on budget airlines…hehehehe! That’s because for every bit of air travel I do, I pay from my own pocket.
I completed my Sahyadri series in a hurry today and am setting of on another mini-holiday…again! Cya in a few days.;)
↵Exactly my point, for the money I pay, I don’t care as long as minimum standards are met. So I’ll fly Aeroflot again.
↵Happy travels!
I travelled on a number of flights on Aeroflot in the early 1980s, when it was still the Soviet Union’s flag carrier:
IL-62 from Singapore to Moscow via Bombay, Tu-154 Moscow-Leningrade return and IL-62 Moscow-London.
The service was actually pretty good although some East Germans sitting next to me on the Bombay-Moscow leg thought the stewardess must have liked me because she was so attentive … they asked if I’d flown Aeroflot before and if not, I’d understand what they meant. She kept bringing me small cans of Heineken beer, and when the little they had ran out, she offered me wine!
However, be that as it may – and it wouldn’t happen to me these days, I’m certain – Aeroflot DID make an effort on its international flights to and from the West and back in the late ’50s, ’60s and early ’70s, one of its aircraft, the long-range Tu-114, was regarded as one of the safest and most reliable passnger aircraft ever built and flown. It had lots of passenger room and even dining areas on board.
Certainly, the internal flights were more of a shuttle service and everyone just rushed on and sat wherever there was a seat. It was a one-hour flight and they served us coffee and cake, which was fine. What I did not know was that at the time, there were problems with that kind of aircaft that had not all been ironed out, although I’m told most were.
But the Moscow-London leg was an excellent flight and the IL-62 aircraft (a VC-10 lookalike) was near new. It felt no different to a British Airways or Qantas flight of the period, and the cabin crew were very polite, happy looking and as attentive as any.
I have heard that recently, given that private industry safety and maintenence standards in Russia are much higher than they were in the Soviet era, Aeroflot’s safety record is actually as good or better than that of many other reputable major airlines … so would I fly them?
Yes, and it’s a resounding yes.
I also don’t believe anyone has anything to fear flying on Russian-built aircraft. Russian aircraft engineers are among the best in the world, and adept at building very rugged aircraft. As I mentioned, most of the real problems were with human error – poor maintenence, lax safety standards, sub-standard avionics – during the Soviet era, rather than serious technical problems.
↵Hello STM! Welcome to my blog and thank you very much for sharing your experiences! I loved reading what you described and it sounds like you have lots more to share! I’ll send you an email.
↵