Aeroflot or Lot?

When travelling with an airline for the first time, there is always the question, “What are they like?” This question is really big when that airline is Aeroflot, a name synonymous with the USSR and polyester suits. When I booked my trip, cost was a major factor; so many of my flights are with Aeroflot. (Actually, it turns out only two of them are: Shanghai-Moscow and Moscow-Shanghai. The two internal flights were with two regional airlines, Aeroflot-Nord and Tatarstan Airlines. Both are typical feeder airlines using older planes and trying their hardest to get business off the big boys while having a shoe-string budget. Aeroflot-Nord lost a 737 a fortnight after I arrived. The third Aeroflot flight turned into a code share with Lot, and Lot flew it.) Back to airport check-in.
The queue was quite short when I got to the airport – 4 ½ hours before my flight. I decided better to get there early than fight the shopping hour rush. Unfortunately, the check-in didn’t open until 4 hours before my flight. Once the desks opened, things went smoothly, with the Chinese trying to explain things to the Russians and vice versa – in English. Everything went fine for me, until I got to departure security – the bottle of wine in my carry-on luggage was “unacceptable” and had to go into the hold (either that or drink it then and there, and as I mentally labelled it “gift to host family”). I had to go back through passport control, security, immigration, duty free, food court to the Aeroflot desk. By now the queue stretched halfway back to Shanghai. Actually, it was raining, so they were all crammed into the capacious, new, and stylish terminal. How was I going to get through this lot and back to the guard who held my passport? Queue jump, that’s how. The queue was for cattle class (so was my ticket), but the business/first class desk was open and no queue. I approached it, explained the problem, and 25 Yuan later, my bottle and I were parted. The security guard with my passport recognised me, gave me a free telling off for being an idiot and my passport and I was “out” of China.
Aeroflot, who for this flight made all announcements in three languages- Russian, Mandarin and English - gave me an aisle seat. I could see out the window, but there wasn’t much to see - cloud everywhere. So I watched the film, Cars¸ in Russian. Then lunch, then another film, Mimino, set in the Caucasus and made in 1970. The Georgian was dubbed into Russian, and it was one of those gentle comedies about somebody expanding their horizons only to find they preferred home. Aeroflot gave me good service. The trolley-dollies smiled at my badly-accented Russian, and gave me a coffee better the last one by a league. They spoke English the moment they realised Russian was not my native tongue. The only thing I didn’t have was leg-room. My knees were firmly wedged into the seat ahead. And the various TV screens had different colour saturations. But it wasn’t hell.
We landed at Moscow Sheremetyevo one hour before my next flight. I thought this was cutting it close. I started to worry a bit more when we taxied to stop some distance from the terminal and had to get on a bus. Then the bus had to give way to a plane. Got to the terminal with half an hour to spare for my next flight. Hah! Transit control advised me that I was bumped to a later flight and would have to go to the “Transit” desk to collect my new ticket after processing. And then the waiting began – I had a three hour stop-over to kill. But I got to observe Russian airport security, which would have to be on a par with American. After a week, two pipes and a great discussion with some Poles heading back to Warsaw, our flight was ready.
What a difference: I had a window seat, but as it was 21:00 when we took off, the view was not. (Actually, if I cared to look, I had a great view of the wing, same as every other window seat I’ve had on this flight.) I had legroom, on a 737! Legroom, and I was given a light dinner with wine and coffee. The plane felt clean. All this and I was travelling with the peasants. Imagine what first class was like – gold cutlery? We took off at 21:00, flew two hours, landed at Warsaw, and it was still 21:00. Even the weather seemed better. I passed through Immigration, found my luggage, thanked the Poles, who also recommended an inexpensive hotel, and went in search of Warsaw.
Next thrilling instalment: Cashing Travellers’ Cheques?