We had a nice dinner and relaxed with a final glass of wine for a few weeks; then we went to bed with bags packed and checked out Monday Morning at 700am. Lydia and Yuri were dutifully waiting to take us to the airport, and it was the usual cold morning but no real weather issues that we could see.
We arrive at the Ekaterinburg airport and see that no counter is open for our Aeroflot flight to Moscow, so we take our seats at a small table cafe, order some coffee and watch the monitors. 930am departure- delayed to 11am, delayed to 1330, delayed top 1530, delayed to 1730.....the coffee piled on, the tension piled on. Apparently there was an ice storm in Moscow the night before and none of the planes could leave Moscow to get to Ekat in order to pick up the waiting passengers.
Lydia and I made several trips up to the Aeroflot office on the 2nd floor, where the number of concerned and angry passengers grew by the minute.
Still no information, no re booking, nothing. "We have no information" is all they could say. I demanded that I just be placed on another flights in a day or so and the answer was " They are all sold out, I can get you out Jan 2."
Well this was obviously not an option, unless Aeroflot was going to pay for my meals and my hotels for another week. As it stood, they would not pay for anything and they would not even book us on another flight! I was getting angrier and more tired by the minute.
I understand weather happens, but you do not leave people stranded in the airport for 7 hours with no information and no re booking. Other airlines and other planes were coming and going, some of them to Moscow; so what the hell was Aeroflot's problem. (Well, it one word, they are Aeroflot!) or AeroFLOP as I prefer to call them.
We finally decided to go back to the hotel and check back in and try again tomorrow. We had to get another room, but that wasn't so bad- we actually liked the 5th FL. We had a light dinner and headed back to the room. Lydia tried calling the local office for Aeroflot and I did as well. They could not get us out is all they kept saying. Go back to the airport for more information. THE AIRPORT HAS NO INFORMATION !! But they were just passing the buck back and forth.
I called Golden Rule Travel and woke up poor Marvin for the 5th time in the middle of the night. He had been trying to give me info from the USA side and tried to rebook us somewhere. No Luck on AeroFlot.
I finally told him to buy us two tickets on another carrier the next morning to Moscow --We figured at least being in an international airport we stood a better chance of getting on a flight somewhere, sometime.
So we paid $400 for two tickets on TransAero which was to leave at 745am. Again with the packing and unpacking, and Lydia and Yuri came at 500am. This time we were delayed about an hour, but we finally boarded and were on our way to Moscow--the DME (demeodovo airport) though and we still had to get to the SVO airport for our flight to JFK.
We arrive DME without incident (a rather pleasant flight on Transaero) and wait one solid hour for our luggage. Other flights come and go, but still no Ekat luggage. Finally we get it and off to the Taxi stand we go for a ride to SVO airport. A $3200 ruble ride to SVO (which is about $120 or so), 2 hours in the car, not too much traffic and we just relaxed as much as we could. We knew we might make the JFK flight, if it was even taking off.
MOSCOW VIEW FROM TAXII CALL THIS "LIFE IN BLACK AND WHITE"
AEROFLOT TICKETING AND RESERVATIONS..........the line is very long. So Joe lines up against a wall with the bags and I head to the line to wait.
I finally start talking to a nice gentleman in front of me, it was so nice to hear English speaking people. I swear that more people spoke English in Ekat than the ones I have encountered so far in Moscow.
The gentleman was from Serbia and spoke English, Italian and Russian; he was Mike (or Milosevic or Mikael). We chatted , laughed and talked about our jobs, our lives etc. We became the unofficial police of the line as the usual entourage of passengers pushed their way to the front of the lines; the Russians believe their emergency is so much more important than your emergency.
Well Mike and I were not having it.....we pushed back and blocked and told them off. Other passengers cheered, but it seemed only the American and the Serbian had the actual balls to say anything to them. (Funny how that works huh?)
When we finally got to the front of the counter the evil, tired looking, inept communist decided to walk away. No answer, no explanation, just walked away. We wit around 10 minutes and Mike says to the other woman in Russian "Where did she go?" ---the snide, short remark was "She went on break to eat".
YES< I KID YOU NOT......and they wonder why they are slowing becoming less of a world power. The airport ethic of the workers was from the Cold War and that attitude was prevalent everywhere there. No One was helpful and no one cared.
We did not care how tired or how hungry they were, we were more tired and more hungry and there were 20,000 of us stranded by Aeroflot alone in Moscow.
2.5 hours later after waiting in the B's line she came back and looks at my info and says I have to go to another line. I argue with her, but it is useless; they just push you off to another person and make you their problem. They have no clue what to do, how to help or even how to care. So off to the other side of the airport to wait in another plexi glass nightmare for 3 more hours.
Here we meet Matt and Alec, from NY and ATL (ahhh Americans!) We chat, save each other's place in line, watch each other's luggage etc. They had slept in the airport the night before- also trying to get to JFK.
Joe sat at a small table having a beer with Mike and a gentlemen from Turkey, trying to laugh about the situation we were all in and commenting on the ineptitude of the SVO airport and Aeroflot.
3 HOURS....Push, shove, yell, push again....this is the Russian way. Yes, I hated it, they behaved like animals fighting for a morsel of food. We may be called slobs in the USA by the Europeans, but we are civilized slobs that wait our turns and use lines. I had a great time while in Ekaterinburg; the people were nice and everything was fun when we went out....I could NOT say the same for MOSCOW.
Finally we get to the Plexiglas kingdom and I AGAIN explain the situation to the agent. This time I hand him 4 US passports, I threw in Matt and Alec's with ours as well. He tried to tell me that I had to re ticket at the other window (you know, the one I was just in for 2.5 hours and the lady walked away and then told me to come here....) Yeah that one..... WELL, Guess what, THE PHILLY CAME OUT OF ME.....
" I am NOT going to any other window. I was just there for 2.5 hours. She told me to come here. I JUST WANT TO BE RE BOOKED ON A DAMN FLIGHT !! I am tired of waiting, being ignored, being pushed etc... Just PUT ME ON A G DAMN FLIGHT TO THE USA !!!!"
He tells us to wait, goes to one counter, goes to another counter, then back to our counter.....
Then he says OK, you are on the flight to JFK at 1000pm tonight, leaving Terminal D.
I said " I want Seat assignments --(I know this trick too well), his response was you have to get the boarding passes where you check you bags in terminal D.
All four of us are now off to Terminal D (from F) in hopes of getting our boarding passes. I am very skeptical; I knew the flight was overbooked and it was not going to be this easy.
Another hour in Terminal D line to check our bags. We had several nasty words with the Russian B in front of us that thought we were talking too loud for her liking... we told her to mind her own business (among other things). But there were also nice people that spoke Russian as well....A sweet couple from London behind us, a poor old man that I tried to be nice and let in front of me in the line and EVERYONE FREAKED..... OMG - they would step on their own mothers and children to be first for God's Sake !
Finally, 6.5 hours later in the SVO airport and we think we are about to check our bags. WRONG !
We get to the counter and she says "Yes, you are booked on the flights but it is overbooked and there are no seats and I can't take your bags." WELL WHO THE F#%^@) didn't know that !!!!
Another AeroFLOP minion just trying to get rid of us and put us on someone else. She tried to tell me to go to another line where the mob of people was worse than a Christmas Toy Sale at FAO SCHWARTZ.
I screamed, I was pissed, I called them every name in the book. The stupid, worthless guy in blue fatiques (really--blue???!!!) that's wasting away behind the counter on his fat ass gets up as if he is gonna intimidate me. NOT......I yelled at every one. A very nice woman tried to help us, translating for us where she could. She too was frustrated with what this airport was doing and mostly this airline.
I caused a scene and I am DAMN proud of it. I called Moscow and those animalistic people every name in the book. I was stared at and I was glad !! I wanted them to know what this AMERICAN thought of their ineptitude, their lax attitude, their uncivilized behavior, their rude personas, and everything else I could think of !
I grabbed my bags and told Joe to take me to the hotel, I was DONE with this airport. 8 hours at SVO and still nothing is accomplished. We check into the Park Inn Airport and I get right ont he phone with Golden Rule Travel. "GET ME OUT OF HERE...Anyway, ANYHOW.....NOW !"
Searching and searching, Eldo finds a flight on Transaero on Wed. at 1135 am from DME airport to Toronto Canada. FINE !!!! and another $100 cab ride back to DME the next morning.
I need to find an Ombudsman or someone to help with what Aeroflot and SVO did. If anyone has any ideas, please post them. Our agent will get us a refund on the Aeroflot tickets but $600 refund is not gonna cut the $3000 we put out to get home. Who can we sue, who can we call???
Anyway, we liked the DME airport. The flight to Canada was delayed, but that's because so many people were trying to check in so they had to delay it. We thought we would miss it, but luckily we were all delayed. That's OK, at least they took our luggage, gave us boarding passes and had actual counters to go to !! At the gate we saw a handsome distinguished man that was in line with us to check in.
Joe asked him if he was waiting for the same flight, he was, and we asked if he wanted to join us for a drink.
So here we are, 2 Italian Americans-Joe and Sandy and one Soviet Russian (as he calls himself) Dimitry in an Irish Pub in the Moscow Airport. Gotta love it. But it was the first relaxing day we had in 3 days !
We were delayed until 430pm (original take off time 1135am) but we didn't care at that point; we knew we were going and Dimitry reassured us because he flies this route for work all the time; he said "we will take off, even if its late". Finally encouragement and hope ! Transaero to the rescue again !
We boarded and had an entire row to ourselves and funny enough were right behind Dimitry too !
An uneventful 10 hours to Toronto and we enjoyed every minute of knowing we were headed to North America !
Because of the delay in DME we missed our connection to PHL from Toronto; but no big deal, we were ecstatic to be in North America and everyone spoke English ! YEAH !
We checked into the airport Sheraton and had a light dinner and a good night's sleep before heading to our flight on Air Canada to Philly on Thursday Morning.
Again, our flight was supposed to board at 805am, we were delayed until 1130am, but hey - who cares ....we finally took off and were headed to Philly !! Again, we met some great Canadians that we chatted with on our wait for the plane. It was definitely an eye opening experience to different cultures and if you don't appreciate America before- you certainly do after. But I always love my country and I would not trade it for anywhere in the world.
It's nice to travel, but it is always nicer to come home. Americans (and Canadians) are the most helpful people on the planet and in most airports you will see them bond on problems and delays....I cannot say the same for Europe. They become very selfish and self centered. They are first and I watched them actually push children and old people to get to the front of the line. I have to admit I was disgusted and disheartened by this action and it left a very bad taste in my mouth.
Dimitry said it well when he said " There is Russia and there is Moscow; two very different places. Much like there is the USA and there is New York."
You know, he was right. We loved the Urals and Ekat and all the people there.We cannot fault a country for a horrible city, but they have a long way to go before the Cold War mentality is completely behind them.
One more trip, Pick up the boys and get the FLOCK outta there ! This time an American Carrier ! Hopefully, God willing, no delays, no issues, no weather. Please.
