To those about to fly to R/U/B

[LvivLovers 39]

My wife travelled back to Ukraine to visit family on Saturday. She flew from Atlanta to NY/JFK to Kyiv. Her flight from NY was delayed about 4 hours due to the Icelandic volcanic ash forcing her to miss a connecting flight from Kyiv to Lviv. This forced other flights to fill up and she didn't get out of Kyiv for another 6 hours!

So my advice would be to leave a little more room between flights or have back up plans if your SO is going to be travelling over that way!

[SMR 368]

Good advice.

Also, if anyone is connecting through Sheremetyevo *ever*, leave at least 4 hours between connections, and 6 if you can manage it.

Why do you say this? Are you talking about the transfer between airports or just general bureaucracy and airport size? Or have you had bad experiences with flight delays?

I have left less time and connected with time to spare. Of course, if you have to switch airports and then are traveling non-stop to the US, you will need some time since they search all bags individually.

[payxibka 10,048]

My wife travelled back to Ukraine to visit family on Saturday. She flew from Atlanta to NY/JFK to Kyiv. Her flight from NY was delayed about 4 hours due to the Icelandic volcanic ash forcing her to miss a connecting flight from Kyiv to Lviv. This forced other flights to fill up and she didn't get out of Kyiv for another 6 hours!

So my advice would be to leave a little more room between flights or have back up plans if your SO is going to be travelling over that way!

My family departs in two weeks and we are watching this very carefully....

[visaveteran 0]

Why do you say this? Are you talking about the transfer between airports or just general bureaucracy and airport size? Or have you had bad experiences with flight delays?

I have left less time and connected with time to spare. Of course, if you have to switch airports and then are traveling non-stop to the US, you will need some time since they search all bags individually.

If I were traveling to or through SVO, I'd talk with Aeroflot or the airport itself about the brand new SVO "Terminal 17." My wife used it when she returned home and could book her luggage all the way through rather than having to get her bags at SVO 1 (domestic) I believe. If I remember right, I think she skipped altogether the old hassle of getting from SVO 1 terminal to the international one many miles and a long bus ride apart. That used to be the big deal with connections...getting your bags and getting transportation between terminals.

Anyway, I'd do some research. Things have apparently changed.

[shikarnov 7]

I agree with Mox. Getting through SVO's passport control center is a crapshoot. Once I got through it in 15 minutes. Once I got through in 4 hours. My average time is about 90 minutes, but there's no way to predict what will happen from time to time. Baggage claim is usually an unpredictable mess too.

If you're connecting through this airport, then give yourself plenty of time.

[Cixelsyd 1]

Come to think of it, if you can avoid SVO by going through Domodedovo, that's probably a much better alternative.

I haven't had the misfortune of going through SVO, but I've yet to hear a good story come out of there.

DMV is great though. I've done both international and domestic out of there. Not to mention they have an express directly from the airport to the train station.

[visaveteran 0]

If I were traveling to or through SVO, I'd talk with Aeroflot or the airport itself about the brand new SVO "Terminal 17." My wife used it when she returned home and could book her luggage all the way through rather than having to get her bags at SVO 1 (domestic) I believe. If I remember right, I think she skipped altogether the old hassle of getting from SVO 1 terminal to the international one many miles and a long bus ride apart. That used to be the big deal with connections...getting your bags and getting transportation between terminals.

Anyway, I'd do some research. Things have apparently changed.

Since posting the above, I spoke with my wife and my comments were in error. However, there is a new terminal but it was not fully operational when she traveled. I do remember reading about it somewhere but not clear on how it fits in with the other terminals. It is apparently a large and nice facility. It is up and running now so probably worth looking in to for those soon to travel. Sorry for bad info.

Anyone else know anything?

[shikarnov 7]

My most...er..."interesting" trip through SVO is documented here:

http://www.visajourney.com/forums/topic/177801-russian-customer-service/page__view__findpost__p__2699558

http://www.visajourney.com/forums/topic/177801-russian-customer-service/page__view__findpost__p__2700290

Wow. Those stories are insane. I consider myself fortunate that I never had to worry about connecting flights in Russia. SVO was always my final (or initial) destination.

As for how you might have disrupted the system, who knows. But I'm sure getting one Russian bureaucrat to get off his or her a** and do something constitutes a major disruption, the likes of which President Medvedev might have needed to be informed about. The plane was probably late because they had to mill around and complain for two hours about the "stupid, selfish American" who demands service for his money. Heaven forbid.

Это Россия, indeed.

Edited May 10, 2010 by shikarnov

[shikarnov 7]

It's crazy isn't it? My trips since then have all been tame by comparison, although I think everyone here knows that a trip to Russia (and probably other FSU countries) *always* has some element of bizarro-world to it.

Indeed. The beautiful thing is that my wife is seeing her native country in a new light. She traveled by herself recently (and, while I love her dearly, she's a bit of a country bumpkin), and gets lost easily. In JFK she asked for help, and somebody happily brought her where she needed to be. Upon arrival in Moscow, she was asked for help, and was asked she was unable to read the signs. Sometimes you can only recognize quality (or lack thereof) by juxtaposition. I'm looking forward to her return. I imagine she'll understand more of my perspectives now...

Edited May 10, 2010 by shikarnov

[AKguy 1]

I think it's a requirement to have at least one "interesting" experience over there. Gives ya character!

[Cixelsyd 1]

The last time I went to Russia I had a crazy experience, but it wasn't anything to do with Russia (even though it started in DME).

I think I already mentioned the story, but the long and short is United airlines canceled the flight, my visa expired that day, so they flew a couple of us to Germany where we had to stay the nigh in the airport there.

So this one was actually the fault of Americans even though it happened in Russia.

[slim 1,533]

in Moscow, she was asked for help, and was asked she was unable to read the signs.

Sounds about right for Russian "customer service" and/or general cordiality.

[Gary and Alla 3,696]

Alla is going Saturday...Burlington to JFK to Kiev to Donetsk. But we have 7 hours between flights in NY and 8 or 9 hours between flights in Kiev, so she should be OK. I think the ash situation is on again/off again right now. from what hear.

[LvivLovers 39]

Mox...those stories are pretty crazy! And as crazy as they are, I totally believe you. Because I left out some of the details in my wife's story and they are pretty darn similar. So basically here's a bit more detail...

My wife's plane from NY to Kyiv was 4 hours late, but some of the official Delta people assured my wife several times that Aerosvit knew they were coming late and would ensure that she got on the next flight. She arrived at around 1 PM local time several hours after her original flight was scheduled, and went to the Aerosvit desk and explained her situation. Apparently, there's only 4 Aerosvit flights per day going from Kyiv to Lviv, one in early morning, one around 3 PM, and one late at night, so she was trying to get on the 3 PM flight which was going to leave in a couple hours. They told her there would be a "big fine" to change her tickets. When my wife explained to them Delta told her everything would be handled, they just looked at her like she was crazy. So much for that idea. Finally, they indicated that there was no room on the flight and she would have to wait until the complete registration was done and see if anyone cancelled.

So about an hour and a half later, when registration was finally completed, they finally informed her that there was an opening and told her to go to the cashier, pay the fine, and have her ticket changed. So she goes to the cashier's desk and despite going straight there, the cashier informs her..."Sorry. Registration is closed." This person then calls down to the registration desk and starts bitching at them for sending her in the first place. No amount of pleading with the woman by my wife worked. After finally giving up, my wife was resigned to just getting on the next flight which was at about 9 PM instead.

She said although she was the only person in line, the person changing the tickets still took more than 40 minutes to do it and just kept saying "10 more minutes, 10 more minutes". Another thing my wife said was that they kept the service window closed most of the day and only opened it for a very short window late in the evening. The rest of the time, there was no sign indicating when they would be open, nothing indicating they had gone anywhere, etc. It just opened when it opened, so she had to basically wait and keep checking.

She definately understands the difference between service there and service here. Needless to say, our new nickname for the airline is Aero$hit!

[LvivLovers 39]

Alla is going Saturday...Burlington to JFK to Kiev to Donetsk. But we have 7 hours between flights in NY and 8 or 9 hours between flights in Kiev, so she should be OK. I think the ash situation is on again/off again right now. from what hear.

That's correct. You just have to keep monitoring things, but it's basically a box of chocolates any way (as Forrest Gump would say) and you won't know what you're gonna get until it happens. Even a few hours before Oleksandra's flight, they continued to show everything as On Time. Only once she was on the plane (after being late for an hour or more) did they finally tell her there would be several hours delay in the best case. Crazy part is this volcano could go on for several years and there's fears it may trigger an even bigger volcano located nearby that dwarfs this one.