By Peter
Titze
Recently I booked myself on an “Aeroflot” flight from Bangkok
to Berlin with a change of plane in Moscow. The cost of the ticket was very
similar to what other airlines where offering so my reason to book this flight
was not the airfare but it was the only airline available on short notice and I
found out why;
At first it looked standard with the check in at Bangkok
airport but as soon as I got in the Russian build plane noted a general confusion
passenger trying to find their seats. The problem was that the seat numbers
where stuck behind the seat raising the question among inexperienced Aeroflot
travelers is it the seat where the number was stuck on or does the number refers
to the seat behind from where it was only visible. A number of people naturally
occupied at first the wrong seat. There was no flight attendant visible at this
stage who could have clarified the situation.
The plane was fairly full mostly with returning Russian holiday
makers.
Besides the “In-flight magazine” no English language reading
material was available and there was no entertainment system at all available.
Personally I could not complain about the food served but my
seat neighbor had originally requested ‘Seafood only” but was served with ‘Vegetarian”
The flight attendant shrugged his complain off’ Sorry mistake by caterer” Strangely
on my return flight another passenger also had a complain that his special food
request was not attended to. Incidentally the plan on the return leg was a
Boeing but also no entertainment system installed.
In my opinion a great disappointment was that any alcoholic
drinks had to be purchased at a substantial price. So far I experienced this
only on short haul low cost airlines but never on a long haul like this.
Anyway the flight arrived ‘on time’ in Moscow and after a
short stop and change of plane I continued to Berlin.
day use accommodation . Due to visa regulation I was unable to leave the transit area. My ordeal on this stop is listed here in a separate article.
Arriving in Berlin on time just before midnight. There were
about 30 passengers on this flight. We waited a short time in Berlin for the
luggage to come out and about 15 passenger got their luggage, while about the other half was waiting for at
least 15-20 min but nothing happened. All the owns waiting where passenger also
being prior in transit in Moscow. No Aeroflot ‘ground staff” could be found and
finally I ask the only person “of authority there” a German Immigration officer;
if he has any idea what happen to the luggage. He made a phone call but was
unable to find an answer but suggested to wait for a while because sometimes
some luggage gets directed to a wrong terminal. Anyway nothing happened for another 10 minutes
when someone turned up and said no point waiting any longer since there is no
more luggage. So I made my way to a “lost
luggage counter” in the arrival hall but was redirected to another office ‘upstairs”
who handles Aeroflot missing luggage. Being there the first to arrive the
procedure to fill out the papers was taking at least more than 5 minutes with
only 1 person in attendance. Apparently they have problems with Aeroflot
luggage on a daily basis. I feel sorry for the last person in the queue. Unfortunately due to this long and unexpected
delay I missed the last train and had to take a taxi at a considerable cost. Finally
the luggage turns up at my hotel next day in the afternoon.
To summarize I would only consider to take Aeroflot again in
the future if it is unavoidable.