This is the story of a traveler from Moscow (SVO) to Bogota (BOG). On January 21, Nick boarded a flight from Moscow to Barcelona and began his 3-leg journey with stops in Barcelona and Madrid. The first flight was supposed to take off at 8:10 a.m.
In Moscow, Nick checked in his baggage to be retrieved in Bogota.
The problem began when the Aeroflot flight from Moscow was delayed for about an hour. The reason provided by the pilot for the delay was, “the water in the coffee machine is frozen.”
After the flight finally took off, Nick realized that he will miss his connection flight in Barcelona and asked the crew members what will happen upon landing, given his situation. The flight attendants said that he can go to the transit counter and his tickets will be rebooked.
When he landed in Barcelona, one hour later than scheduled, Nick rushed to the transit counter. He scanned the boarding pass for the next flight, which was given to him in Moscow, and passed to go to the gate. Unfortunately, the flight had already taken off. He explained the situation to someone at the transit counter but there was no representative from Aeroflot.
It was 12:20 p.m., January 21. Nick was told he had to pass through passport control and wait. Meanwhile, he went on the Aeroflot website and found the support number. He called Aeroflot support, explained the situation, and was given a support number for the local office of Aeroflot in Barcelona’s airport. Nick called the number a few times but nobody answered.
As Nick found out from the customs officer, he was not allowed to enter Spain. He then asked to speak with an Aeroflot representative, however, this was not provided.
Since he couldn’t enter the country, Nick stayed in the police office for 3 hours while they were trying to get a hold of Aeroflot. They wanted to understand how he got in this situation and what to do next.
Nick called Aeroflot’s support number from the airline’s website again. He told them that the first number of the local Aeroflot office did not reply, and he was given another number. It was already 3:00 p.m. on a Thursday.
Nick called the second number and there was no reply from that one either.
The police could not get Aeroflot to provide an answer either and it was decided that they will send Nick back to Moscow after 2 days, on January 23 at 6 p.m. with the next Aeroflot flight.
During the next 2 days, Nick spent his time in a room that resembles a prison, 2*2 meters with a bed and a pillow. There was no blanket, no towel, and he wasn’t allowed to have any medication in the room. The room had an exit to a corridor where there was a TV. Neither the corridor nor the room had any windows.
The facility was inside the airport police isolator, where the metal door opened 3 times a day to provide sandwiches and water.
Nick called Aeroflot support a total of 8 times during the 2 days and even spent 1 hour and 30 minutes on one of the calls. The support agents didn’t provide a comprehensive explanation of the problem and no reasonable solutions.
One agent even promised to book Nick a direct flight with another company from Barcelona to Bogota. The ticket was added to his booking number inside the Aeroflot’s ticket managing system. The call-center agent said the next day, Nick will be called by a manager who will confirm the flight.
He was asked for his phone number and email address. Sadly, nobody called or emailed to confirm the flight the next day.
At the end of the day, Nick decided to call to find out why his flight wasn’t confirmed. While on the call with the support agent from Aeroflot, he was given a ticket back to Moscow instead.
Ironically, the flight was canceled 10 minutes later. Thus, the ticket was more of a brush off than a real solution to Nick’s problem.
On the third day, after 2 nights in isolation, Nick was supposed to be sent to Moscow by the Spanish police. Unfortunately, he was told by the police that there was no flight and he will have to wait.
On day 4, January 24, at 1 p.m., Nick was given a flight back to Moscow and was escorted by the police to his seat in the plane. The flight arrived with a delay again in Moscow (SVO) at approximately 8:50 p.m.
Nick hired a lawyer and wrote a claim to Aeroflot and is waiting for the reply.
During his flight from Barcelona back to Moscow, Nick sat next to a woman in her 50s who shared another bad experience with Aeroflot. She was traveling from Florida, USA to Moscow, Russia. She had a flight over the Atlantic to Barcelona and her Aeroflot flight was canceled.
She said nobody from Aeroflot came to tell her what to do next or when the next flight will be, and she spent the night on the chair with little food. On the next day, after 19 hours of waiting, she boarded the next flight.
The Russian news website TourDom.ru wrote about Nick’s story and identified it as being similar to the plot in the 2004 movie “The Terminal.”
The Moldovan news website zdg.md wrote about Nick’s story while he was still in the airport with the police, hoping to use media coverage to get Nick out of there, since Aeroflot was not offering any help.
10 days after submitting a refund request as advised by Aeroflot’s Instagram page, Nick received a reply from Aeroflot saying that he will not be given a refund because the delay was caused by the airport and not the airline.
Aeroflot provided no comments on their awful phone support and the fact that there’s no assistance in the BCN airport.
Aeroflot’s policies are shameful. They need to be changed and you need to share this article to support all those who are now stuck in airports without support from companies like Aeroflot.
Be very careful when traveling with Aeroflot, check reviews on Trust Pilot. At the moment of writing, February 10th, 2021, they have 433 reviews with a 1.3 out of 5 overall rating. On other sites, it seems they have found a way to control the reviews since they have over 3 out of 5 there. The gap doesn’t make sense.
Analyzing the experiences of other travelers, you can conclude that traveling with Aeroflot is not safe. In case of delay, they claim it’s not their fault, and if you miss your connection you’re doomed.
They do not comply with IATA regulations or European laws and have their agents trained to dismiss any refund request.
Passengers traveling with Aeroflot are losing money, time, and health as they are left without support in international airports.
Imagine if instead of Nick, it was a mother with kids? A sick person? A senior individual? Someone who doesn’t speak English or even someone without the capacity to call while abroad? Despite the unfortunate and unexpected circumstances, Nick was able to navigate this high-risk situation. Fortunately, he was able to tolerate a series of events that others might’ve found overwhelming.
Ask Aeroflot on Twitter “How and why did this happen and what are they going to do to fix it?”
Share this story so that those traveling with Aeroflot might reconsider
