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ameya

This trip report will cover two flights and transit at Moscow airport, along with killing time at Moscow airport.

Still at Munich
As part of the process of killing time at MUC, we went to almost every shop and every restaurant, but ate only at two of them. At one of the Asian ones, they handed me over a very interesting buzzer, which the counter lady said would start ringing when the order is ready and it did ! A different experience all togeather.

While in Delhi, our boarding card mentioned gate 16. Till the evening hours, the flight was not there on FIDS because it was way later at 2135.
Around 2000 hours all the smaller ones, the CRJs started landing and quickly heading to their place behind the satellite terminal under construction.

Countless A319s/320s and 321s took off and landed, flying to all parts of EU. Also saw some other airlines like LOT getting in their ERJs.
We waited patiently near gate 8, which was our new gate and hoped that boarding would start early. The aircraft was already at the gate, and it looked pretty old from the looks of it. The LH staff was at the gate at 2045 yet there were no signs of boarding. Could the flight be delayed ? Is the old looking A320 not feeling well ? I was hoping that there is alternate aircraft available. Also one hope was that if the flight is not full, will they downgrade and give a different EQPT.

Aircraft. . how old can it get ?

While I kept thinking this the crowd kept on building up, still not enough of fill up the flight and not as low to downgrade.
I strained my eyes, to see that the aircraft for the day was D-AIPM. OMG ! A320 MSN 104 ! The oldest A320 I will ever fly.

D-AIPM
Delivered to LH on 29/03/1990
Age: 23.3yrs
Name : Troisdorf

The phone had no range because of the non availability of Wi-Fi and I did its rotation search for the day when I reached SPB.
It had already done MUC-LHR-MUC-HAM-MUC-CGN-MUC and would end up in DME for the night and leave at 0635 hours the next morning, along with sister bird which parks in DME and flies to FRA.

Boarding & flight
Boarding started at 0915 for 0935 departure and we also pushed back at 0930. Boarding was not orderly, since it was late and everybody wanted to rush in. Since our visa was valid form 17th, the LH staff took time and saw it again and then let us in.

Flight was a mix of Russians and Europeans, with more Europeans around. We were on seat 10E,F and the person on 10D found an empty row for himself so we nicely occupied the three seats.

We quickly taxied to runway 08L and took off to Moscow, Russia !!!
The meal service was very quick and no alcoholic beverages were on offer for this 2hr45min flight. The pilot announced that since this is not a peak time for European airspace, he has been given direct routing and we expect to reach early if DME allows landing early. I was surprised to hear what is this DME allows landing early. None the less, I was too sleepy to be bothered about this.

The limited food consisted of Salad / Bread / Chicken or Beef / Cake and yogurt along with tea or coffee and I persisted with hot water with food.
The aircraft was in bad condition. Had the old yellow lighting, the side and top panels were looking old, worn out. But the seats were new recaro seats with magazine holder on the upper side. I slept all the time all the way to Moscow.

We landed on runway 04R at DME and had a long taxi.
Descend started at whatever time and we landed at 2:20AM local time at Moscow. It was a long taxi amidst a mix of S7 A320s, a couple of IL-62s, Transaero birds, a BA T7 before we docked to our gate. Everything was silent around us, no movements and probably this was one of the last flights to come in.

Passport Control & Arrival
A long walk took us to passport control, where there were lines for Russians and Belarussians, all other CIS countries and all other nationals. The Russian line was the longest, followed by all other countries where there were only three officers manning the area. The line progressed very slowly with the officers having some or the other problem with every passport holder.
As our number came, the officer asked me from which transit point I came and how I am going to go back, also saw all pages of my passport, saw the American visa, spoke to another officer and later stamped it.
They also give an immigration slip which has to be carefully kept till the time of exit. As per Russian rules, one also has to register himself with the local post office within 7 working days, which I was told nobody does now and we did not do it either.

As we proceeded towards baggage claim, it was late and our bags were taken off the belt and kept in one corner with LH staff manning the area. We wanted a bottle of water and the counter there refused to accept EUR. All but one money changer was closed and the sole money changing counter was giving a pathetic rate of 36 RUB a EUR, while we got rates of 40.5 at few places later in the trip. None the less, I converted a few, bought water and headed out via the customs green channel.

Transit at Moscow
I had read and was told that once you are out from international, you just have to walk left and continue till you see the big area of check-in counters. There were taxi drivers all around asking us for taxi, hotel and what not.
The first impression of Russia, was total – Another thing which we borrowed from the soviets.

As we moved to the area having counters, multiple FIDS showed us that our flight, SU 4xxx as code share, FV188 Rossiya Airlines is on on time. The check in will be at counter 141. As I glanced down from the FIDS, I saw that the counter next to me was number 1. Tired, bored, thirsty hungry, we walked another patch to go to counter 141, on the other end of the huge hall of what was the Domodedovo Airport at Moscow, one of the three operational ones. There were only 150 counters and thus we were at the extreme end of this long terminal.

The check-in was to open at 4:30, the time showed 3:15 am, again a long time to kill and a realization that there is not a single chair in that entire area. Leave aside not having place, here there is just no place ! We just got a trolley and sat on it along with the luggage. There were huge lines at UTAir, for its flight to Antalya.

Basically, Russians to go three places, Egypt, Turkey and India and later during our stay when we visited one club in SPB, the waitress there was happy to see us, saying she is working extra hours since she is going to Goa in 2 months time.

Around 4:15 a lady appeared out of nowhere to man counter 141 and we hurried to it for checkin. The online check-in had not worked so were at the mercy of Rossiya for check-in. As we approached the counter, the lady had grin looks. My wife asked me if this is Russias Air India and I just nodded ! Couldn’t agree more. The lady each refused to accept two bags on the weighing scale at once and tagged one luggage on our name.
We got our boarding card and headed towards gate “C”, where our passport stamp and immigration chit was checked and then cleared security, which were the scanners I believe. You just stand with your hands up for 10 seconds or so.

We did all this in hope that post security there could be some chairs near the gate and we were not disappointed. There was some place to sit. Also around was a automatic orange juicer which we found at multiple places later, seems to be very famous, and a couple of food joints.

Airlines from all across Russia were being shown, however there were limited flights on the domestic side from DME. Aeroflot operates from SVO.
The boarding card mentioned that we have to board latest by 0635hrs, however boarding only started at 0640. The aircraft was A319, EI-ETO. I would like to know from somebody in the group, does Russia have multiple registration codes or these are wet leased / dry leased which have not changed. Boarding was quick as we settled in on our seats and dozed off. I kept myself awake since I was hoping to see some Russian beauties, on the ramp I mean, there were many around in the plane, which I could see later when we were airborne.

We taxied to runway 14L on schedule seeing some Tu-154s, IL-96s on the way, all lying in the corner and will not fly again, sad ! and took off towards SPB.

Service quickly started and we chose not to have anything. Food was one patty, frooti like drink and tea or coffee along with a slice of cake. We had coffee and cake which was decent.

Flight was quick and we reached LED early, flying parallel to the airport and then over the sea before turning and landing on runway 10L at 0800hrs. We saw Pulkovo 2, as the international terminal is known and just halted on the taxiway, probably for the parking space or for whatever reason.
We then taxied to our parking destination and it had a very weird parking, we came to a halt and then the were pushed back at one end of that lot and that was the final position.

There is a lot of construction work happening around and this could be the reason for this type of weird parking.

Pulkovo is undergoing renovation and a big glass and steel structure which is to be the integrated terminal is coming up. We came out from a very small building into what was arrivals, and our friend was already waiting there, wondering if they do not charge for visitor entry !

Baggage was quick and we headed out to windy, chilly SPB. The booking at the hotel was from 1200hrs and the lady at reception said that we will get the room at 1400hrs, a little dose of Russian from the friend and the room was available at 1200hrs.

Till then we had some beer in the park outside and I declared myself fit for the trip !

EI-ETO
A319
MSN: 1679
Age: 11yrs
Earlier with Zhejiang airlines and Air China

ameya · Posted: Mon Jun 03, 2013 10:53 am Post subject:

Overcast skies at Munich

2013-05-16-813 by ameyajoshi, on Flickr

Food at MUC

2013-05-16-806 by ameyajoshi, on Flickr

Huge mug of coffee, all for 4 EUR, the cheapest on the board

2013-05-16-805 by ameyajoshi, on Flickr

I reach Russia... and a Russian beauty welcomes me..Yak-40

20130517_040601 by ameyajoshi, on Flickr

Beauty in Detail

20130517_040554 by ameyajoshi, on Flickr

ameya · Posted: Mon Jun 03, 2013 10:57 am Post subject:

The flights so far

4 flight by ameyajoshi, on Flickr

I have some more work pending
1. DME-ZRH-DEL - Swiss Miss
2. DEL-PNQ the chaotic AI

I will add a photo essay of Monino before that and some pics of SPB and Moscow.

Spiderguy252 · Posted: Mon Jun 03, 2013 4:55 pm Post subject:

Good stuff, keep them coming. Some of AI's older A320s are perhaps older than 1990? Or have they retired those already?
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Yeah.

sumantra · Member Joined: 28 Oct 2007 Posts: 4685 Location: New Delhi

Sir, I am back after yet another Indore trip, and what a treat I have had, reading this part of the report!

ameya · Posted: Tue Jun 04, 2013 10:16 am Post subject:

Thank you for the correction. I thought I read it as Yak-40.

Yes indeed saw another one of that in one corner at Monino.

I will try and write a short write up about Monino - The god of aviation

As for the beer, all the major brands were available, I think I settled for Carlsburg

sumantra · Member Joined: 28 Oct 2007 Posts: 4685 Location: New Delhi

sumantra · Member Joined: 28 Oct 2007 Posts: 4685 Location: New Delhi

ameya · Posted: Tue Jun 04, 2013 2:12 pm Post subject:

sabya99 · Posted: Tue Jun 04, 2013 6:59 pm Post subject:

sumantra · Member Joined: 28 Oct 2007 Posts: 4685 Location: New Delhi

PAL@YWG · Posted: Wed Jun 05, 2013 6:42 am Post subject:

Impressive TR segments Ameya!
Having spent about a decade in former USSR, I always get excited when someone picks Russia as their travel destination. I don't know whether the language barrier for foreign tourist still plays a role but once you overcome that USSR is a treasure for a discerning tourist.
Few observations:
1. Visa Process: Your TR gave an up-to-date status. Nothing changed much.
2. DME: is a busy airport indeed. It's *A hub and SVO is skyteam. In my time DME was a sleepy old typical Russian airport.
3. Registering at local post office: Hmmm! That's a piece of news. Foreign tourists don't have to register separately if they stay at a hotel. And the registration office is called UVIR (acronym in Russian).
4. Waiting at Passport Control: Situation have improved as I see from your report. In my time, S-E Asian passport holders were held back by the side for at least an additional 30 minutes for more scrutiny.

You must have visited Hermitage in St. Petersburg?
And one more thing, don't forget your TR is under scanner of Sumantra's watchful eyes if you include any info on soviet birds Smile

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sumantra · Member Joined: 28 Oct 2007 Posts: 4685 Location: New Delhi

Nimish · Posted: Wed Jun 05, 2013 8:57 am Post subject:

Ameya - sounds like a really long and painful journey to reach SPB! Luckily it seemed like you're able to sleep on flights, else it can be quite a nightmare.

My parents visited SPB a few years ago, and they raved about how it's the prettiest city they'd ever seen so far (and they've seen their fair share). I wonder it you guys found it as good?
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We miss you Nalini!