In & Out of Moscow

[Margeaux]

Can anyone tell me the best airlines - best biz class - for travelling in and out of Moscow? Going mainly to London but also other Euro destinations and South Africa. BA is a real let down.

[Don Coyote]

bmi fly a 2 class cabin from Heathrow to Moscow http://flybmi.wordtravels.com/Cities/Russia/Moscow
Not flown with them so don't know what the service is like.

[MrSoft]

Yes BMI has business class but equipment is A320 so can't see the point personally. I am with BMI in a couple of weeks LHR-DME and incidentally some legs with BMI code share with Transaero.

BA runs a 767 at least part of the schedule ex-LHR so my bet is you'd get a better experience in business with them, though I note your preference against them.

Either way, both BMI and BA route into Domodedovo which is much preferable to SVO. Fares on this route strike me as very high, even in economy.

[barry lloyd]

You might want to try KLM or Lufthansa, both of whom have several flights a day to Moscow, and good connections through AMS/FRA without changing terminals.
The only downside is that they fly into Sheremetyevo, but it may be worth it if you live north of the river in Moscow.

[SXB]

These days you have to take an airline which uses DME. It has good public transport links, you can take a train which gets you into the city in 45 mins.

SVO can be a nightmare, I recently took an airport car pick up from SVO and it took nearly 2.5 hours to deposit me at my central moscow hotel.

[WHBM]

Yes BMI has business class but equipment is A320 so can't see the point personally...... BA runs a 767 at least part of the schedule ex-LHR so my bet is you'd get a better experience in business with them
Not so as the BA business cabin is done with the adjustable seats which just convert from 2-3-2 in Economy to 2-2-2 by squishing in the centre seat a bit and expanding the others by only an inch or so. Legroom is untouched. The BA European 767s are one of the poorest seat configurations around.

BMI in contrast have proper 2-2 business seats in their A320 with proper permanent business class legroom.

The BA C class Moscow operation has been universally panned by its many regulars in the financial and other industries. See here for their comments over the last couple of years :

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/showthread.php?t=423438

[MrSoft]

Thanks WHBM I stand corrected. I thought those Euro 767s were history now but obviously not. I flew Club World seat on 767 in Europe late last year which I can only presume was a late (lucky) replacement.

[flyin_phil]

try KD Avia from lgw via Kaliningrad, i just came back with them today, very pleasent flights using boeing 737-300. very basic on-board and u gotta speak russian to chat up (oops) the stewaresses, but they are very pleasent people and helpful.. also the flights are half empty most of time so plenty of seats to choose from although u are pre-seated, i found at check-in they never listen to what u ask.. i asked for window seat behind wing.. i got 10A ans 05F :ugh:

u get food on board and sweets for take-off and landing.. apart from the check-in problems, i would use them again.. and theyre cheaper than most.