to Moscow from Manchester - Finnair or Alitalia

[Jinkster]

Just wondered about peoples views flying to Moscow from Manchester.

I'm considering either Finnair via Helsinki or Alitalia via Milan Malpensa.

What does anyone recommend? Will be flying cattle class of course! :)

[tom de luxe]

Finnair wins hands down.

[Jinkster]

why? and is it worth paying another £100 for the privalage?

[Farrell]

Jinkster..........


Let me add weight to the other poster's comments by telling you that IMHO, Finnair are streets ahead of Alitalia with respect to service and overall courtesy.

Maybe a few CC from Alitalia might get their goat up on this, but as a seasoned air traveller - I have flown with Alitalia five times in the past. Once by choice and four times reluctantly - all five times I was treated like sh*t - and all five times was Business Class, so....I can only cringe at what Economy passengers are treated like.

On the other hand, I have flown to Helsinki from three European and two Asian destinations with Finnair, and found their service to be impeccable.

Maybe I just five consecutive runs of bad luck with Alitalia.....but I doubt it.

Choose wisely! :ok:

[manintheback]

Alitalia is possibly THE worst legacy airliner in Europe. Strike ridden and non existant service. It really is that bad.

[angels]

My in-laws chose Alitalia to come out and see us in Hong Kong some 10 years ago because it was cheap. When they transited in Rome it was raining and they saw some uncovered baggage trollies standing on the apron in the rain.

They hoped it wasn't their luggage.

They were wrong. All their clothes were soaked when we unpacked the cases in Honkers. Charming.

They also said the (economy) class service was very poor.

[WHBM]

Helsinki is very well organised for transit. However the daily Finnair flight from Manchester arrives in the mid-afternoon but the daily Finnair Moscow flight leaves in the morning (offering connections from the transatlantic flights). Do you plan to overnight ?

[Avman]

The MAN flight arrives HEL at 1515.

Finnair offer an 1845 flight to Moscow. However, this is a codeshare flight and is actually operated by Aeroflot.

On Sundays only there's a Finnair flight departing HEL at 1600, which gives you a short 45 minute connection.

[WHBM]

Sorry. My brain just filters out codeshares !

If connecting things are nicely organised. All the non-Schengen flights (ie both MAN and SVO) operate from gates 30-35 which are all together, only takes a minute from one to another, so the 45-minute one should be no problem. They're good at quick baggage transfers too (if you're not a Russian speaker dealing with misrouted baggage after arrival in Russia is a nightmare).

If the 3 hour connect you can go through the passport control into the main part of the terminal (following the transit signs). There's a nice choice of shops and restaurants, and a good view out over the field, to pass the time.

The Aeroflot flight is on an Airbus, the same as Finnair.

[amanoffewwords]

My last company (a well know credit card Co.) once introduced a system by which business trips where to be flown with the carrier of the country visited (apparently as a courtesy to the people we were visiting but actually for other reasons not pertinent to this thread).

In my team we complied in as much, to give you some examples:

To Germany, we took Lufthansa no problem
To Switzerland, Swissair (At the time), no problem
To Israel, El AL, no problem
To Italy, err..., British Airways! Somehow the Alitalia flight times were never convenient to us :)

I've flown once with them, never again.

[Pax Vobiscum]

I always wondered why the pope kisses the ground everywhere he lands - then I flew Alitalia ... (the old ones are the best!)

Finnair airbuses also have in-flight video showing the view from a nose camera, if that's of any interest to you.

[pax britanica]

Growing up in one of the airport dormitory towns near LHR I learned from a young age that ALITALIA stood for Always Late In Taking-off Always Late In Arriving.

I have flown them and Finnair a few times in rcent years and I actually found AZ OK but Italian colleagues of mine say they are invariably late. So I would go with the others and suggest FInnair is much better bet-if for no other reason than any travel via Italy faces the possibility of disruption due to a strike and is best avoided if possible
PB

[OZcabincrew]

I would definately fly with Finnair, as the rumours i've heard from friends about Alitalia are terrible. The service is pretty much non-existent and the bad attitudes of all the crew was just shocking. I have an Australian friend that flew on a contract with Alitalia based in Rome for a year and they said they had fun, but it is just a bad airline, the crew were horrible to the pax, not to mention the crew smoking in the back galley, but also to work with, because she wasn't Italian, they didn't want to know her. She was already flying for a well known Australian airline, but because that airline trained Alitalia crew in Australia using their own facilities, Alitalia called upon the Aussie airline to supply crew to Alitalia during one of their many many strikes!

Definately, fly Finnair!

Oz

[VHF FLYER]

Hi
Fly from Manch to Moscow quite often myself and have found the following to be acceptable:
1. Finnair via HEL. Nice airport to change planes at - no stress. Downside is that the connections or flights don't always suit.
2. BA via LHR. Upside is that BA arrive into DME instead of SVO which is a nice modern airport by Russian standards. Downside of course is LHR - 'nuf said.
3. CSA via PRG. A very convenient airport to change planes in and I have to say CSA impress me more every time I use them. fares also very competitive.
4. Lufthansa via FRA. As slick as ever always reliable.
5. Used KLM to RETURN from SVO in May. I can tell you that was excellent but I don't know if the outbound would have worked in connection terms.

All things considered I would recommend Finnair or CSA.
The trouble with flying to Moscow via anywhere is that it takes 'all day' if you count the time difference.
Roll on a non stop service some day!!!!!!!!!!!

[WHBM]

The trouble with flying to Moscow via anywhere is that it takes 'all day' if you count the time difference.
Roll on a non stop service some day
Trouble is with a 3.5 hour flight time, a 3 hour clock change, and a good hour for the Russian arrival formalities, it will still take all day.

The upside is coming home it's 3.5 hours MINUS 3 hours on the clock, so the direct flight can seem to occupy little time at all !

[Jorge Newberry]

I´ve had a number of pleasant, normal, unexceptional flights with Alitalia over the years... both within Europe and back and forth to Buenos Aires... don´t know why everyone hates them so much :)

[Bus429]

I've flown Alitalia London to Rome - crew were quite nice but I was in Business.

Have flown Finnair quite a few times in cattle and Business. Finnair crews are efficient, polite and like pushing the bar trolley up and down. I've travelled on what must have been old MD-80s or 82s and they looked immaculate; having had the opportunity to use Hangar 7 in HEL for AOG work I can see why - the place was spotless.

[Gouabafla]

Flown Alitalia once (four sectors) and wouldn't do it again. In addition to the reasons given above, they are the only 'major' airline I've flown on which didn't have assigned seating on an Intercontinental flight. Yup - we had to fight for seats for a six hour flight (Accra-Milan).

[Jinkster]

decided to ignore everyones comments :O and go with KLM from Manchester to Moscow via Amsterdam! Coach class for £213 leaving in 2nd jan and returning on 6th jan.

any good? :p

[Final 3 Greens]

KLM offer similar levels of service to Alitalia, without the Italian charm ;)

You should have gone CSA, they're simply excellent.

[WHBM]

Would agree about CSA being a good substitute for direct flights to Russia. They have a good network into both East and West, and the connections at Prague are well timed and the baggage transfer is done efficiently. Have used them when direct fares are way too high (eg New Year) and found them very good. Proper hot food in Y on all sectors.

Was surprised to find only about 40 passengers on the 737-500 from Prague to St Petersburg, not even a daily route, as even in Soviet days 25 years ago that was an Il-62 flight for CSA. Wonder how few were aboard then !