Moscow Travel Forum

I am travelling to Russia for the first time. I will be arriving at SVO and making a connection to St Petersburg. The connection time is relatively short and I have concerns about making the connection, going through customs, etc.

I presume that upon arrival at SVO I get my bag and go through customs and immigration, than recheck my bag for the domestic portion of the flight to St Petersburg. (This is the procedure in the US). Is this correct?

If this is the procedure, is there any special queue for those passengers who have connections vs those who are terminating their flight in Moscow.

Yes, go through immigration, pick up your bags, go through customs. Then you have to check-in again for your domestic flight. No drop-off like in the US.
Which airline(s)? What is "relatively short"? Contacting your airline(s) is maybe a good idea?
No special lines for connecting pax.
Experience 3 years ago.

www.sheremetyevo-airport.ru

Keep in mind that most probably you will have to change terminals as well (from SVO-2 to SVO-1). They are located on opposite sides of the airfield.

I am afraid, Robert booked the flights separately with different airlines. Most people use different sort of transport between Moscow and St. Pete. I rarely would consider going Moscow-St. Pete by airplane.

Once again, you have to check the airport of departure in your ticket. Moscow-Spb is domestic flight (terminal Sheremetyevo-1 or Domodedovo) and despite they are (Svo-1 and Svo-2) situated in fact in one field, the way from Svo-2 to Svo-1 will take at least 30-40 min at all. (To take bus, which makes few stops on the way). In addition too the check in in Svo-1 is not so fast deal, unfortunately, so add another 30 minutes, check -in is finished 40 min. before anding off . of course - it's pessimistic scenario, but anyway keep in mind to have at least 2 hours between flights. As to connection between Svo-1 and SVO-2, please read very detailed explanations of Lev Nikolayevich - few pages of forum before:-)

You are right, and if it will be a Domodedovo, than it's just the opposite side of the city.

Thanks for all the responses.. They are of great help...
I am flying Aeroflot from JFK into SVO and than Aeroflot from SVO to LED. The transfer time is 1:40.. When I booked the flight I booked it as one ticket rather than 2 seperate tickets so I am presuming the airline is aware that I should be able to make the connection. Nevertheless best for me to plan ahead.
I am going to call Aereoflot when the office opens on Monday.
I do not know if I have to go to the other side of the airport. If I do, this may be a problem. I presume that I would have to check in on the other side as well.
Plan B is that there is a later flight to LED..

yes, SVO 1 is a bit other airport and you must have a bus there. as far as i know it is free for the Aeroflot passengers who come to Russia by Aeroflot and then have the inner flight by Aeroflot. I hope you'll be in time for the flight to StP

Yes, 1h40m is tight, despite could be no problem, but as I've told already in the previous post domestic terminal SVO-1 is not well organized, no any trouble indeed, but it could make you nervous a bit, especially you never flew through Russian domestic airports:-))))) that's why I'd recommend again to check availability of flight through Domodedovo, but as I can see they have no direct flights from USA:-/
But anyway if it's only option they offered you, I guess you can get the plane to Spb in time, just be in hurry a bit)))

It's good that you have an on-line connection ticket (as opposed to an off-line, as 2 separate tickets). Because of this, the airline (SU in this case) will see to it that you will get to LED as agreed by contract (the ticket).
Maybe, but really maybe, you will get your boarding pass for the SVO-LED flight already in the US and "only" have to "drop-off" the luggage at a desk in SVO-1. (You will arrive in SVO-2). I don't know if SU has a transfer service for their connecting pax in SVO-2. But it seems plausible, as mentioned, that they will provide the transfer (bus) service free of charge for their pax. In any case you will have to transfer from SVO-2 to -1. And also it may be possible they have a transfer desk, after passing customs in SVO-2, to accomodate such pax as you are.
SU is now a full member of the SkyTeam alliance so maybe they have all this service available also already.

Again, more info on SVO's website and check SU's website
www.aeroflot.ru/eng

Last year it was impossible service for the transfer luggage from SVO2 to SVO1. that was the reason why my friend chose Lufthansa to get one of the Russian cities last year (well, she travelled with the baby and instead of transfer in Moscow she chose Frankfurt because then she needn't to get her luggage in SVO2 and to move it by herslef to SVO1).
Make it clear with Aeroflot agency, maybe the situation turned to good

Definitely check with the airline whether you will have enough time. We needed about two hours to make a similar connection with a different airline last time we flew through Moscow. We did St. Petersburg to Moscow to New York.

Here is an explanation:

http://www.aeroflot.ru/eng/info.asp?ob_no=5128

if they really do this (transfer Svo-1 to Svo2 and v.v. for transit passengers) not just declare, like the same information about transit visas in this site, it's very good news. May be after such service for international flights they will start to do this in domestic airlines too? Po krainei mere budet ne tak obidno platit' tak mnogo za takoi plohoi servis:-/

LOL, indeed. I actually sometimes had extreme luck in Russia with "kassirsha" ladies - often I was sent (and that was 1983!!!) to "ticket-freak" ladies (that time Intourist office) who did everything to issue a Guangzhou-Marseille tickets for train! But it is rather untypical, probably I had luck - often there is lack of competence.

I actually just posted a deal specially geared for Russians hot to travel "West" with proper Russian ticket scan - many "kassirsha" would deny such tickets do exist. THEY DO EXIST and are the best deal even for travel within Russia. So who can, hope can benefit. :-)

Just to put the dot on the i now: our friend is not "in-transit" but he is a "transfer" passenger. The word "in-transit" is normally used for "International-to-International" passengers.

In this case he is transferring from an international arriving flight to a domestic departing flight.

Just some airline lingo...

My last reply was off topic - just for folks and then I told about transit I meant the transit in domestic lines, we have no definition "transfer passengers" here. Then you hear announce in the airport with Russian word "transit" - it always concern any passenger who need to change the plane. Then I told about transit visa I meant that Aeroflot announces in it's site the service of transit visa for foreign passengers "in-situ" - right upon arrival - at the airport, but we didn't hear any positive reports that this service exists.
.

Please don't be offended-it wasn't meant to be. And if so: I apologise. My last posting was, in that case, also off-topic. Let's forget my posting then. OK? No hard feelings? I hope....

Noel

:-D