One of a company directors has said ones about his Business Class flying experience: “There was a time when I was particularly struck by the level of service in business class, though it is in troubled situations, customers should feel the benefits of any service. At the departure airport, Sheremetyevo, we have never been able to take the advantage of the privileges offered to business class passengers.”
The line of passengers at the so called “privileged” registration table got so long that we, business class passengers, have decided to register at the counter for economy class – luckily it was completely empty. On the board of the plane very little distinction could be seen between the economy class and business class – exactly the same seats and aisles. Economy and business-class was only separated by the orange curtain – it was the only reminder of the “special” status of the passengers who have paid for the flight up to three times more. Food that was served was also the same – except that the choice of alcohol in business class was a bit more. But this is mere details. The real problems began when we flew back to Moscow. Because of the bad weather situation some flights were delayed. It was a small uncomfortable airport of Ekaterinburg were huge lines of passengers were waiting to ask representatives of all airlines to find out where to go or what to do, it was impossible situation. I went to the room of business class, where I was told that I must first register in order to get in. With barely managed to break through to the airline desk, my business class ticket didn’t make much difference to the servants of the airline. It did however made an impression on the other passengers, who were also trying to break through to the representative of the airline, my ticket acted like a red rag to a bull, and I was brutally yet safely pushed out of the line. The most annoying was yet to come. Few hours later the whole mess has settled, it turned out that our flight to Moscow was combined with another flight and it didn’t have business class seats to begin with. At that moment I thought: flight in business class cost me almost 32 thousand rubles, “economy” would cost only 12 thousands. Now I am wondering: why in the world did I overpaid? ”
Unfortunately, it ascertain by many seasonal air travelers: in Russian having bought a business class tickets – is not a guarantee of acceptable service and comfortable flight. By the way, in some cases, you can pay the difference and change the class of service (it may be only a few thousand rubles more), if there is space of course. Such a service exists, for example, in KrasAir, and it is a success.
Knowledgeable people say that on domestic flights to fly business class worth only if no tickets in economy class is available, if your height is more than two meters, or if you do not like when you are surrounded by too many people. That is, choosing a business class can be not only because of the service but from some very subjective considerations.
In general, the service and the tariff of policies – are the weaknesses of the Russian market of passenger air transportation. Here, today there is hardly a reasonable positioning of companies or comparable with the Western tariff schemes – perhaps this is why foreign carriers are not using airports of Russia and our planes for transit flights over Russia.