Review of Aeroflot flight from Kazan to Moscow in Economy

Intro

Following a lovely 36 hours exploring Kazan, visiting the famous mosque inside the Kazan Kremlin, and enjoying some great steak, it was time to head off on my final adventure in Russia to Krasnojarsk. While there are 3x weekly flights from Kazan to Krasnojarsk, the second biggest town in Siberia, there were no flights on the day I had to be there. Hence, I had to fly back to Moscow, all to make it on time for my A350 flight the next day from Krasnojarsk to Moscow. Ahh, the things we do for aviation…

Quick snapshot of Kazan through pics first. Wow. I visited the Kazan Kremlin, which included so much walking my legs almost fell off 😅

And of course, the famous mosque… One thing that surpised me about visiting Russia was the amount of Muslims in Russia. I had no idea previously, and call me undecuated that's fine, but muslims make up about 16% of the population. Absolutely fascinating. 

Of course, the more famous Kazan Kremlin…

I also managed to end up receiving 7 free shots of this local liquor. Blame the kindness of the Russian hospitality. Another thing I learned was that I never thought Russian hospitality was that great. Wow I was wrong.

Finally, I spent the night at some local hotel with a spooky attic, and did my therapy session with some wifi that was as a good as Aden, Yemen 😅

I think this is the old US embassy, but I could be wrong…

Back to it. But how was Aeroflot? Once again, an extremely nice flight. With a punctual performance, more friendly cabin crew, and a small snack offered, I was more than happy for this hour and 20-minute run…

Routing

How I Booked

Getting from Kazan to Krasnojarsk can either be straightforward or a bit of a pain in the arse. Nordwind operates 2x weekly direct flights, while Nordstar offers the occasional 1x weekly flight. However, considering I had to be there for a very specific flight (the Aeroflot A350), I decided not to chance it and play it safe by flying there the day before, in case of any delays. 

Booking 3 days prior to departure, I conjured up an economy fare from Kazan to Moscow, and over to Krasnojarsk, all for 431 USD. Just like with all of my other flights in Russia, I booked through Wego, and within a matter of minutes, my tickets were issued.

Kazan Airport/Check-In

Waking up bright and early at 3:30 am local time, we had a rather long day ahead. Quickly ordered up a Yandex Go for about 20 USD. It wasn't long before the driver had picked me up and we were off on the 35-minute drive to Kazan airport.

By the time I had arrived around 5 am, the sun was almost fully out, and there was a crisp breeze in the air. Considering how hot Russia is during the summer, it's one of the main reasons I love my morning walks here. 

Kazan airport is relatively small, which meant it was extremely easy to find check-in, where I was greeted by this lovely agent. Due to how last-minute I booked this ticket, I was supposed to be stuck in a middle seat for the 5-hour hop to KJA, but with a gracious smile, she informed me that a window seat was available. Oh, the feeling of that ❤️. Landing in Siberia for the first time with a window seat. Just one issue, for this flight I would be stuck in economy. 

It was extremely easy to find security this morning, and with virtually no domestic flights at this hour, I had plenty of time to kill before boarding.

Now, usually, I like to relax a little bit before a flight, perhaps scroll some Instagram, or just listen to some music. However, I had a 3,500-word paper to write for my last class in school, which happened to be due later that day. Grabbing a cup of coffee (about 4 USD) and a pack of Pringles (2 USD), it was time to get cracking. 

NEED COFFEE

As much as I wasn't in a writing mood, I was always doing a report on the Sukhoi that day when I needed a break from my paper

Boarding

While working on my report, boarding was called right on the dot at 6:10 am, with business class passengers offered to board first (and Skyteam elites). However, in a good writing groove, I waited another 10 minutes before heading down to the gate area, where we would be boarding a bus on this brisk morning.

Expert tip: Unless you are in business class at Kazan, there is no need to be the first onboard, as most of these gates are remote for narrowbodies.

20 minutes prior to scheduled departure, the bus doors were closed, and we made our way on the 9-second drive to our A320 for the morning, passing by a Turkish A330-200 and a Nordwind 737. The A330 is fascinating, as I wouldn't expect Kazan to get it…

Welcome on board this beauty of a bird. Wow. 11 years old, and delivered from Airbus right to Aeroflot under the name: "П. Попович / P. Popovich". 

Still with that SkyTeam stuff, at least they honor it…

By the time I had finished snapping up all the pictures, I managed to be the second last person on board. The last person happened to be sitting next to me in 7B 😅. 

The Seat/Cabin

Yesterday, I touched on the review of the Aeroflot A321, and while most of the details remain the same to the 321, there are a few different aspects to the 320. For starters, the business class cabin was notoriously smaller with only 2 rows (compared to 5) on this jet. With business being half empty on a morning flight, I have to imagine this isn't as premium a route compared to SPB. 

Moving on back to economy, seats were laid out in a 3-3 configuration across 25 rows for a total of 150 economy seats. Rows 13 and 14 offer additional legroom due to them being an emergency exit, and come at a premium cost.

I found the legroom to be about the same, but the seats seemed more sterile compared to the A321. Perhaps that was due to being in the aisle, since I had the opportunity to stretch my legs, but overall, not horrible. 

IFE+Wifi

Once airborne out of Kazan (no departure shots), I decided to briefly check out the IFE on today's flight. Scratch that, I will rephrase. "I decided to attempt to check out the non-existent IFE on today's flight". See, unlike the A321, the A320 does not feature any sort of IFE or wifi for the time being, but there was an interesting book in the seatback literature. 

I was so excited for the Aeroflot A350!

It didn't honestly bother me much at all, since I could write my essay offline (thanks to pre-downloading articles for my sources), but if I were stuck on a 5-hour flight, it might get irritating…

Snack Service

Working away slowly but surely, the snack service for the flight began roughly 20 minutes after wheels up. Passengers were offered a little chocolate bar thing, with a choice of beverage such as soda, coffee, water, or juice. However, I was more interested in gazing at the Aeroflot logo on the side of the drinks cart, as how many times do you get to see that up close? 

Switching every 20 minutes back to writing the Sukhoi report from earlier that week!

Lavatories

While having a respectable cup of water and working away, the flight seemed to fly by. Just prior to landing, I decided to visit one of the two bathrooms in the back that were dedicated to economy class passengers (there was 1 at the front for business, and monitored).

Nothing too fancy was on offer, but the lavatories were kept in pretty good shape, considering I visited toward the end of the flight. 

Close by the lavatories lay a drink station where you could request a refill of coffee or water. Interestingly, on all of my domestic flights, no booze seemed to be offered (not that I was going to have any at 7 am)

Arrival/Transit In Moscow

With the lack of a window seat and trying not to disturb my seat neighbours, I didn't get any shots of the arrival into Moscow SVO. However, we ended up pulling into our gate 15 minutes early on this fine morning, and lucked out with an actual jetbridge instead of a remote stand! That's 2/2 on early arrivals for SU!

Most of the passengers from the flight seemed to be terminating their journey in Moscow. However, I was transiting, and unlike some countries in the world, this actually requires another security check. I was surprised to see this, but quickly learnt that this was the norm in Russia, and these transit facilities were never too busy. 

Now time to publish the Sukhoi Review with photos, thanks to the free wifi at SVO!