S7 Budget Airline Review.
This review deals only with the actual ground staff of S7 Airline as we never made it into the air. My husband and I missed our flight yesterday because we were told so. We were astounded because in fact we were in time. It was tight but we were in time. As a frequent flyer I have never experienced anything like this. The service of the staff was the worse I have ever seen. I know that Russian officials are not known for their friendliness but this was something else.
Flying with S7 Airline from Moscow Domodedovo to Kaliningrad.
We had a flight from Domodedovo Airport to Kaliningrad. We had e-tickets and first went to the check-in counter where we were told to register at the Self-Service ticket boxes. It didn`t work and a man came to help us. He battled for a while and then sent us back to counter number 1. The lady asked for our passports and after a while she told us we missed our flights. Period. End of the story. Just like that. The flight was not leaving for another 30 minutes.
We were sent to another counter to get information on how to proceed. The women at this counter was just as unfriendly and sent us back to the first counter where my husband got into an argument with the staff. He came back telling me that they are not listening to him and he doesn`t know what to do. My husband is Russian and I watched the drama unfold from a distance. He was told to pay 3000 Rub per person and then we can take the next flight.
He was sent to another counter and after almost 2 hours he came back telling me that they cannot help us. Even if you pay the penalty no flights are leaving until the next day. We paid 4025 Rub for 1 ticket so the penalty in itself was ridiculous.
We were stranded at the airport without accommodation and decided to buy tickets through another airline. We were told to come back to see a man (they handed us a piece of paper) and we could get discount on our next flight.
We stayed at the airport for the night and the next morning we headed back to the S7 Airline counter only to be told that this man is the CEO. Why do they give you a piece of paper like that? We explained again and another rude man who just didn`t care. Eventually we asked him for the complaints book and we lodged a formal complaint. I am not sure if anything will come from it and they will probably find some small print or terms and conditions.
We were looking to use this Airline when Russia hosts the World Cup Soccer in 2018 (bringing tourists over from Argentina) but after this horrible experience we have decided to look for something else. All doors were slammed in our faces and we were left with no rights. I find this totally unacceptable.
If I do get a response from S7 I will post the comment here.
Where: Domododevo Airport in Moscow
Date: 22 May 2012
It`s been 7 months since S7 had acknowledged my email and still no formal response from them.
Sounds pretty awful. Read somewhere recently that they’re the largest Russian domestic carrier. Is that true? Just out of curiosity, have you had better customer service from Aeroflot (assuming you’ve flown with them)?
Hi Bob, our battle with S7 continues! I am not sure if they are the largest but we have seen so many S7 planes at Moscow and Kaliningrad Aiport that I believe they are quite big players in the domestic market. I haven`t flown with Aeroflot (A previous time with SkyExpress) but a German friend of mine believe Aeroflot is one of the safest airlines and he only flies with them.
budget Airline S7 Airlines where I once held captive on the plane 50 metres from the terminal because the plane had a fault for 9 hours in 32C temperatures and only given 1 glass of water… . When the engineers put the stairs back on to check the fault after 7 hours and Russian passengers wanted to get off including a girl sat next to me who was diabetic and needed medication they brought on armed guards and threatened to shoot anyone attempting to get off. Nice ! How ever this was in 2007 so they might have caught the customer service bug by now
Hi Chris, thank you for your comment. What a terrible experience! Why did they keep you on the plane in the first place? They should have let all the passengers go and tend to the fault on the aeroplane, unless the doors couldn`t open. We had terrible service and they didn`t care. I think they still have a long way to go before they will put their customer first!
Thank you for the review. I will fly with Aeroflot instead.
Thank you for the visit Sonja! I haven’t flown with Aeroflot but I have only heard good things about them.