First impressions
I had spent a little more than an hour in the airport after arriving on a flight from Yerevan, Armenia. I had chosen the St Petersburg Lounge and will publish a separate review of that. This is a review of the A320 flight back to Heathrow….
Boarding
I boarded at 0810 for the 0850 departure for London Heathrow Terminal 4 from Terminal D of Moscow’s Sherementovo airport. I was connecting from an earlier flight from Yerevan in Armenia. To read that review, see
Flight review: Aeroflot A321 business class
This flight duration was three hours and thirty five minute.
On the flight from Heathrow to Moscow a few days earlier I had been on a B737-800 which had a very modern inflight entertainment system and also in-seat power.
Once again this was the older seat, although this time we were on board an A320 as opposed to the A321 which had brought us from Armenia to Moscow. The seats are comfortable, but have no in-seat power or inflight entertainment. I was in 4A, a window seat.
The flight attendants were as professional and friendly as on the other flights I had taken that week with Aeroflot (this was the fourth). There were some pretty demanding passengers on this flight, yet they took it all in their stride, and also effectively did a dine-on-demand system since several passengers fell asleep as soon as we boarded and then ate later when they woke.
At the same time, although they were deferential, when it came to flight security they made sure everyone had their seats in the right position for take off and landing, stowed all bags, and all devices were in flight safe mode before take off.
Best seat
There isn’t much to choose between the seats. I like window seats, but bear in mind that with this being a short haul aircraft (and seating), once the person in the aisle seat has reclined their seat and gone to sleep, you will have to either wait until they wake or actually wake them to gain access to the aisle, so for those who like to stretch their legs during the flight, an aisle seat would probably be best.
The flight
Once at my seat I was offered water, orange juice or champagne.
I had noticed they were already pouring Bollinger when I boarded, so I asked if they were indeed serving this, and since the answer was yes, I had a glass. The flight attendant asked me if I would like some ice in it since it wasn’t cold, and I said yes.
Waiting at the seat was a blue amenity bag with a shoe horn, toothbrush and toothpaste, lip balm and moisturiser in it, along with an eye mask, comb and pen.
Separately there were also some slippers wrapped in plastic, and ear plugs were offered later in the flight. At the seat was a cushion and also a blanket, again wrapped in plastic.
This was a busy flight, with the five rows of business class having only a few seats spare. I was in 4A, a window seat.
After take-off we were offered iPads with pre-loaded entertainment, including a huge range of films and TV programmes, along with noise cancelling headphones. This worked well, and it was fascinating to scroll through all the Russian films, many of which were about World War II. One I had heard of was T34.
Once we had departed Moscow it was time for another breakfast (my third of the morning after the first flight from Yerevan to Moscow and another in the airport).
The choice was a starter of assorted beef, turkey and cheese with walnut and dried apricot served with fresh pineapple (pictured below), and then main course choices of frittata with tomatoes and mushrooms, zucchini, bell pepper, pancakes with turkey, served with cheese sauce and corn porridge with pear.
Having had the millet porridge on the previous flight, I wanted to try the corn porridge which was surprisingly tasty.
The wine list was the same, but with Bollinger, and the addition of Frapin VIP XO.
The white wine choices were Verdejo Sauvignon Blanc from Castilla-La Mancha, Spain and a Vernaccia di San Gimignano, Tuscany, Italy. Red wine choices were Mythique Languedoc, France and Fortius Crianza, Navarra, Spain. There was also Graham’s ten-year old Port, Chivas Regal 12 year old and Frapin VIP XO.
After breakfast I dozed through most of the flight, waking in time to take a picture on our arrival into Heathrow.
Verdict
We arrived on time and were quickly off the aircraft, with my bags arriving only a few minutes after I had got to the carousel, having successfully made their way from Yerevan through Moscow to Heathrow.
This was another very good flight, and what impressed me the most was the level of consistency between all four flights, despite them being on three different short-haul aircraft types, and with very different IFE capabilities. Service was excellent through all of these flights to and from Moscow and on to Yerevan, and the transfer at Moscow was good, though I’d always try and build in at least a 90 minute Minimum Connection Time (MCT) to be safe.
