Hello everyone and welcome to this FR on AEROFLOT, which was part of my return trip from Japan to Paris, which I am reporting on in French (outbound) and English (inbound).
CDG - SVO AEROFLOT SU2451 A321 on the 28.12.2016 in FRENCH Click Here
SVO - NRT AEROFLOT SU264 A330-300 on the 28.12.2016 in FRENCH Click Here
KIX - NRT PEACH AVIATION MM319 A320 on the 15.01.2017 Click Here
NRT - SVO AEROFLOT SU262 A330-300 on the 16.01.2017 –> you are here.
SVO - CDG AEROFLOT SU 2460 A320 on the 16.01.2017 Click Here
This FR starts with a night in one of Japan's legendary capsule hotels. This one is in Narita, terminal 2, and convenient if you have an early morning flight. My flight was at 13:10, but I still wanted to try out on the experience and came in with peach from Osaka the night before.
it is convenient and the shower facilities are good. But you need earplugs to sleep well, which I did not have, because you can hear other people getting up starting from 04.30…
As I woke up, I checked my email and saw that Aeroflot notified me of a 1 hour delay, new scheduled departure time being 14:10. A little annoying as I had 2h45 for my connection in Moscow, but not "enough" to actually endanger that connection. It just meant I had more time to kill in Narita.
I headed back to Terminal 1 by the little yellow shuttle bus and went up the stairs to the departure level. I was there around 09h30, but was told SU would not open check-in until 10o'clock. Fair enough, that's still 3h before scheduled departure time.
I had a coffee and went to check-in at 10. Not very busy…
The agent was very friendly and reassured me about my connection and also gave me a lounge card for the Delta Sky Club.
Heading to security passing this FIDS. Security was busy, but not the SkyPriority lane, I was through in 2minutes and immigration was not busy at all. Very smooth.
I had not had breakfast yet, so I headed to the lounge straight away.
It's a nice circular space where I was warmly greeted by two Delta employees.
Time for Breakfast! Japanese porridge available, as well as onion soup, cantonese rice and some bakery.
The lounge is ideal for spotting… Pardon me if this is a little long, just remember I had 3h30 to kill… Some rare sights such as Air Calin's A340 bound for Nouméa and two AZ flights, one for Milan (A330, old livery) and one for Rome (777, new livery) and many others…
Delta is the only airline to fly direct to Portland from Tokyo so it's not surprising it features in their japanese magazine.
Having had breakfast I wanted to go for a walk, as I would soon sit for a very long time… So I left the lounge.
I also passe my gate, which was still dead. Interestingly this flight number goes through to London although evryone has to get off in Moscow and change planes.
More spotting, but not from the terminal. The Queen of Skies is bound for Seoul.
Speaking of Seoul, it came to my mind that T1 is also heavily used by Korean Air… and their SkyTeam Lounge is also open to SU fliers, so I decided to check it out.
It is much busier and smaller than the Delta lounge at the same time, so I understand why SU directs its pax to the Delta one. However, this lounge had O'Nigiris on offer, something to be considered for those craving for Japanese rice!
I quickly left as I felt it wasn't necessary to take up space in this busy lounge if one can go to a quieter one… I passed by the numerous duty frees and purchased some japanese delicacies before returning to the Delta lounge where lunch was now being served.
It was now 1pm and my plane had arrived, hooray!
I left the lounge on my own at the indicated boarding time without waiting for the announcement in the lounge. Boarding was already ongoing when I arrived, but SkyPriority was not busy at all. I was onboard the plane within a minute.
This time both doors were open so I did not walk through the biz cabin like on my way to Japan. I found myself in Economy and headed towards 37A. The plane was not busy, and as I was told at check-in, nobody would sit next to me, hooray!
Like on the outbound flight, FAs were helpful, friendly and spoke decent English, though sometimes with a thick accent. The promotion videos on the screens are very glamourous but a little sexist… focusing very much on the beautiful legs of their model like FAs and smiling pilots walking right behind them. Oh well…
Unlike on the outbound flight, there was no special welcome for Elite + members nor a personal greeting… I guess I had been spoiled.
Push-back with some final spotting
Lining up for take off while letting ANA 777 land…
Take off! Bye bye Japan!
Quickly, menus were given out after take-off. Two full hot meals served on this 09h45 flight. Not bad.
I knew these were the meals prepared in Japan, so I wanted to have them all to try out Japanse catering. It really is above average I find.
As usual with SU, they first serve drinks, tidy up the cups and then bring the meals, tidy up the meal and then bring out tea and coffee. As this flight wasn't busy, it was still a swift service, but on the outbound flight, it made the service painfully slow.
Here is the first meal, chicken in miso sauce. Starters (pickles in maki, salmon) were also very nice.
I then asked to try out the second option of this first meal (fish). It was very good as well, though not as well spiced. But there was a decent amount of fish, which is generous for economy.
As we flew west, we would chase the sunset for quite a while, a beautiful sight.
Siberian landscapes were marvelous.
Could an expert tell me what the white stripes of air are, that blow out from the engines? Water Vapour from the engines? They were there for most of the time.
As it got dark I watched Café Society. The sound of the headsets given out were very bad. I recommend bringing your own, you can plug them in, as well as your phone to charge it via usb ports.
Ice cream was given out in the middle of the flight. As it was a daytime flight, that made more sense than on the outbound flight where they did this in the middle of the night waking everyone up.
Day time flight is of course to relativised over Siberia…
I then slept for a decent two hours, before waking up and reading. It was now completely dark outside and dinner time in Tokyo.
Time for the second meal service. Again, I just wanted to try both dishes, so here they are:
Pasta was slightly soggy as is usually the case on planes, but the sauces were actually really good!
Time to descend
Can you see the very thin stripe coming out of the edge of the wing. Is this fuel?
Approaching Moscow - take.off and landing can be followed on scree
Moscow Sheremetyevo, where we landed at 18:11
Time to say bye bye to this plane
We parked away from the terminal, which I had never done for long haul… It was snowing and the ground was icy. The captain actually fell as he left the plane after us…
On the bus… spotting the old Soviet terminal F. We were bound for the very modern terminal D.
The transit experience was a little weird, as security was crowded. We went through quickly but it didn't feel as if they checked everything properly…
This is it for this leg, the final Moscow-Paris one will follow in the next report. Thanks for reading me!
Good report and nice photos from your flight! It looks like Aeroflot offers a good Economy Class product - the food looks tasty~
Thank you for sharing.
Thank you, yes the food was good, especially as it came out of Japan :P
The white stripe is called contrail, which is condensed from the engine. The thin stripe from the winglet is also a kind of contrail, but it's condensed from the decrease of pressure, and the wingtip vortex is one of its formation ways.
Thank you :-)
Ah, the NRT Delta Sky Club...it brings back memories of my SkyTeam days. It is, or at least was at the time, one of the best Sky Clubs in the system and the staff are always super friendly. And the best part is great views of the tarmac. I am pleasantly surprised by the quality of service SU offer in Economy. Especially the quality of the two hot meals. I'm not sure if this is standard for SU, or if they offer a more premium service for Japan flight. Thanks for sharing!
Thanks! :-)
The menu looked like a standard menu for long flights, it was not specifically branded for flights to Japan, so I think if it is a Long Haul Daytime Flight, then yes, they serve two hot meals. Not sure though.