Aeroflot Debut

FLYING TO RUSSIA
I'll be updating Russia's Far East for Lonely Planet over the next two months. Typically the fun started before getting there...

I've flown all across Russia, but had never taken an Aeroflot flight until Tuesday. My debut in the orange-and-blue, as their design on the inside of the jets goes, went smooth to Moscow, an eight-hour flight, but then went haywire. After busing to a nearby terminal, I waited in the middle of three lines to check in for the next leg (Moscow to Vladivostok, seven time zones east). A family butted in front of me just as it became my turn, then the luggage ticket machine broke as I stepped up. The clerk didn't say a word. Text messaging on her phone. After a couple minutes I asked, 'not work?' in Russian, and she frowned and pointed to the long lines to the left and right. Nothing more. I'd wait anyway. Within a couple minutes, a gray-haired guy, though, was playing with the machine, opening up the inside and pulling out a spool that looked something like a device you'd see in shop class in 1980s Oklahoma public schools. After five or so minutes, she started printing out the luggage tickets on her neighbors machine. On we went.

The flight was delayed, at first, for four hours. 'We are fixing plane.' I was impressed in how they handled it though. Within 10 minutes, we had 540 ruble vouchers, which I and a fellow stranded passenger from Vladivostok, mistakenly took it to a potato bar, which didn't accept them. Eventually we spent the 540 rubles -- over $21 -- on chocolate, beer and hot tea, paying for the potato. Sat next to the smoking area of the airport. An simple stand where a cluster of men and women blew smoke into the open waiting hall.

The flight was delayed another five hours. 'Flight will leave at 4am. Still trying to fix plane.' Still, Aeroflot came through. Within 15 minutes, we were all put onto a bus and taken to a nearby hotel for four hours' of sleep. Classic communist-era hotel but redone (ie Michael Scott-sized flat-screen TV on wall). They bunked two per room, regardless if you knew them. Two twin beds uneasily side by side. I got a Russian guy who came in later; 'a-lo?' he said, waking me up. At 4am the hotel called everyone -- my Russian bunkmate didn't notice, and I had to practically yell. 'Give me minute.' I did.

When the wheels hit the Vladivostok runway nine hours later, everyone clapped. On the way back I think I'll get the Aeroflot t-shirt they offer. Twenty-five euro. Anyone need one?