Avios redemptions still available on Russian carrier S7

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• Nick says:

  5 Jul5 July 05:04

  Any tips hints on reasonable methods of getting to Moscow from London in August?

  Listings even via Istanbul or Antalya or dubai not coming up on uk travel search engines.

  (Normally also do BA direct flight awards from LHR)

  • Sandgrounder says:

    5 Jul5 July 05:23

    trip.com will show availability, but getting there for a reasonable price by air is not going to be easy. If cost is an issue, a coach (such as ecolines/lux express) from one of the Baltic capitals is probably the cheapest way.

    • Nick says:

      5 Jul5 July 08:19

      I had thought those Baltic border crossing were now closed to regular traffic?

      • Natalia S says:

        5 Jul5 July 10:49

        Open OK as of last week according to a friend

  • John says:

    5 Jul5 July 06:20

    Separate tickets?

  • John says:

    5 Jul5 July 06:30

    Perhaps try the airlines’ websites directly? My other half used Turkish to get to Vnukovo last month, connecting in Istanbul. Worked as smoothly as could be expected given the journey involved. She recommended a multi-hour connection time in Istanbul, due to the size of the airport as well as to accommodate delays in London. Turkish were also offering connections via Antalya – if you check the Vnukovo departure board, there seems like a flight to Antalya almost every hour in the morning.
    The other options were Air Serbia or Emirates – the former seemed to have long connections in Belgrade and frequent delays to Sheremetyevo, whilst the latter obviously involves an out-of-the-way journey to Dubai.
    Have reliable feedback from an acquaintance that Pegasus will also work.

  • Ian M says:

    5 Jul5 July 08:59

    I was in Moscow all of last week. I flew from Minsk. But it’s not so easy to get from London to Minsk currently.

    Best options are via Belgrade (Air Serbia direct flights to Moscow), via Istanbul (Turkish Airlines) or Dubai (Emirates or FlyDubai).

    You’ll need to look at the website of the airlines, websites such as Sky Scanner won’t show any flights going to Moscow. Emirates are operating 2 x A380s per day from DXB to DME and FlyDubai are operating 4-5 x 737s per day from DXB to VKO.

    If you’re looking for the lowest cost option to get to Moscow, you’re best bet will be:

    – London (Luton or Stansted) to Vilnis with Ryanair.

    – Coach from Vilnis to Minsk (4hr journey – about 17 Euro – but you’ll need to apply for a Belarus visa to enter via the land border).

    – Flight from Minsk to Moscow (about £42 with Belavia or Aeroflot)

  • Alex M says:

    5 Jul5 July 09:00

    Looking for the same. I missed opportunity to book pegasus flight when it cost 230£ one way 2-3 weeks ago (mid Aug departure). Now it costs 700. Alternative I m thinking about is flight to Tallinn, then bus to Spb (but I am not sure if foreigners can cross land border).

    • Alex M says:

      5 Jul5 July 09:03

      Ps Google flights will show flights to Russia.

  • Natalia S says:

    5 Jul5 July 10:12

    Aviasales.ru will show Russian destinations, then it’s going to airlines sites and booking directly. As others said above, in Europe your two options for connecting points would be Istanbul (Turkish Airlines or Pegasus) or Belgrade (Air Serbia). If you need regional Russian airports rather than Moscow, Istanbul would have options to fly there directly: Pegasus on one ticket or if you are feeling adventurous, splitting the ticket and flying on Russian airlines which mainly use Sukhoi like Azimuth; someone will need to pay for Russian leg of journey using Russia or Belarus issued credit card in this case.

    I don’t think there’s a way to use BA miles, other than for LHR-IST leg, but then you’d be splitting the tickets. This is what I’m doing for my September trip. If you find a creative way to use BA miles for this trip, please shout 🙂

• John says:

  5 Jul5 July 06:35

  It may appear available but would you actually get a ticket issued? BA may not be able to pay S7

  • Richie says:

    5 Jul5 July 09:02

    Do they actually pay each other for each respective redemption or is there a reconcilliation process at the end of a period? Can S7 frequent flyers currently book BA flights with their points on the S7 website?

    • Nick says:

      5 Jul5 July 09:27

      Airline payments to each other (which are made through the IATA BSP process) are neither subject to sanctions nor suspended. Direct sales in Russia are, of course, just not the interline process.

      • John says:

        5 Jul5 July 11:04

        Thanks for info.

• Chris H says:

  5 Jul5 July 07:03

  Your article says you must book by 12th September. Is there any restrictions on when you can stay? I am looking for a booking on 30th Sep to 3rd Oct.

  • Rob says:

    5 Jul5 July 07:59

    Stay by 12th too.

    • Sarah says:

      5 Jul5 July 09:45

      I booked a hotel this morning for Helsinki in January and it was discounted by 25%.

• Mike says:

  5 Jul5 July 07:56

  What a ridiculous idea highlighting a potential opportunity to contribute profits to a Russian company at the current time.

  • Matarredondaaa says:

    5 Jul5 July 08:13

    Agree

    • Rob says:

      5 Jul5 July 08:47

      I think you’re missing the point here, by a quite stunning margin.

      • yorkieflyer says:

        5 Jul5 July 12:27

        Perhaps explain your point?

        • Rhys says:

          5 Jul5 July 13:49

          The point is, that despite international sanctions, Avios redemptions are bizarrely still bookable on S7 Airlines?

    • Peter says:

      5 Jul5 July 12:05

      Agree, not even mentioning that their planes are not safe/legal now.

      • yorkieflyer says:

        5 Jul5 July 12:25

        Quite the point it’s clearly adding risk flying on a Russian carrier due to likely maintenance issues as a result of sanctions

  • Brian78 says:

    5 Jul5 July 08:19

    Are these “sanctions” having any impact though?

    The main impact seems to be higher costs for hard working taxpayers.

    No sign of the war ending either.

    • Sergei Meerkat says:

      5 Jul5 July 08:34

      Are these the same taxpayers who thought that splitting up Europe and giving Putin the confidence to invade Ukraine were two totally unconnected actions?

      • Charles Martel says:

        5 Jul5 July 09:00

        Is there anything that can’t be linked by some to Brexit? Merkels integration of Europes biggest economy with Russias probably did more to empower Putin to invade than Brexit – the UK didn’t leave the deterrent, but possibly provocative NATO, it left a trading bloc.

        • Paul says:

          5 Jul5 July 14:13

          You may be correct about Merkel, but the answer to your question is No, the UK is a total mess, economically, ethically, and legally. The root cause is Brexit.

          We have left; I see no easy route back, but I will never forget nor forgive the calamity that was wrought on this country by ignorant people too lazy to educate themselves on the benefits of membership and whose narrow minded prejudices robbed my family of our our right to live work retire in the EU

        • Rob says:

          5 Jul5 July 15:16

          You should have married a German 🙂

    • Nick says:

      5 Jul5 July 08:36

      Only “normal” people need this war to end asap

      Russia will end up with more strategic land and survive sanctions

      Ukraine is flooded with cash and political support. They’ll end up in eu/nato

      USA and west are seeing a major rival getting bogged down and want as much pain exerted before it ends.
      Will also see a see positive shift on energy too

      Unlike any other conflict- there is no clamour to end this. Not even from the Ukrainian side
      Their society is now functioning in many parts, their leaders are not being targeted and Russia in probably inflicting at most 20pc of what was feared.

      • Callum says:

        5 Jul5 July 10:53

        What an utterly absurd analysis. To claim that Ukraine isn’t interested in ending the war is a stunning level of ignorance. Short of surrendering and handing over vast swathes of the country to Russia, what exactly do you think they could be doing to end it quicker?

        And while they are indeed receiving a lot of cash, it pales in comparison to the cost they’ve suffered and I think it’s fairly obvious they’re going to emerge from this with much less than they had.

        And Rob, I’m well aware of your intention for making the post so I have no issue with it whatsoever. However, given your site has many people who will indeed happily visit and contribute to Russia ignoring the fact they’ve invaded a close European country, drop bombs on civilians and hospitals and are now getting ready to execute British citizens, I don’t think you need to be so flippant about it…

        • Brian78 says:

          5 Jul5 July 11:42

          I don’t disagree with your general point about what Russia is doing but if “drop bombs on civilians and hospitals” is a taken into account then Rob wouldn’t be doing articles about trips to America or indeed the U.K.

        • Callum says:

          5 Jul5 July 19:28

          Brian78 – If you genuinely believe the US (or UK) invaded a peacefully democratic country and deliberately started bombing civilians, hospitals, shopping centres and executed and tortured countless innocent civilians on the street, I have to agree with you – you’d have to be incredibly scummy to continue associating with those countries.

          As much as I’ve been against the majority of wars the West have involved themselves in/started, you simply cannot claim they are equivalent to what is happening in Ukraine. This false equivalence people keep making is beyond pathetic.

      • Mikeact says:

        5 Jul5 July 18:13

        @Paul. I would call your response totally arrogant and ignorant.

    • Charles Martel says:

      5 Jul5 July 09:07

      They’re a boost for the Indian and Chinese economies as they hoover up commodities sanctioned by the West. It has also exposed the decreasing relevance of the Western economy as Asian counterweights rise. I wonder if the loss of these soft tools over the long term makes the use of hot warfare more likely.

  • MyNameIsJeff says:

    5 Jul5 July 08:24

    Anyone for whom this article is relevant is going to end up contributing to the Russian economy one way or another.

    Russian ex-pats, for instance (and whatever their political views), may have little option.

    • The Savage Squirrel says:

      5 Jul5 July 10:12

      I read the article as highlighting a BA flaw with IT, and given the potential bad publicity this could bring BA, would expect it to trigger this redemption route being closed pretty soon. Quite surprised anyone would read the article differently.

      • Alex Sm says:

        5 Jul5 July 10:28

        same thoughts here… AFAIK, Skyteam was more efficient in closing a similar loophole with Aeroflot but all already issued redemption tickets were honoured in the end

  • Chas says:

    5 Jul5 July 08:32

    I’m not sure that Rob was advocating booking it – I took the article to be that he was pointing out the peculiarity of the situation whereby S7 are prima-facie suspended, but in reality they are not fully suspended.

  • Danyal says:

    5 Jul5 July 08:42

    This is a bit of a stretch…

  • Brian78 says:

    5 Jul5 July 09:06

    Might be someone who needs to go to Russia to see family etc

    Not everyone who is Russian is a Putin supportive warmonger

    • Brian78 says:

      5 Jul5 July 09:06

      *might be useful to someone

    • Alex Sm says:

      5 Jul5 July 10:30

      yes, absolutely – I have been looking at all the options above but still there is not much room for manouevre, especially cost wise – if you need to travel urgently for family reasons…

  • Paul says:

    5 Jul5 July 13:18

    Agreed. Its actually quite sick that anyone would consider paying a single penny that benefits Russia.

    If you have family there, visit by all means – but dont leave when you get there.

    Ukranians dont have such a luxury and therefore Russians should not be permitted it.

    Russia needs to be removed from the World for at least 20 years.

• Jan M says:

  5 Jul5 July 09:34

  Quite a few Russian tourists in Rome this spring. I’m told that they all fly via Istanbul.

  • Brian78 says:

    5 Jul5 July 10:22

    The Russian ruble is at a 5 year high versus eg the pound, euro and dollar so a good time for Russian tourists to be travelling

    • John says:

      5 Jul5 July 11:14

      Err, it’s high because you can’t sell rubles and can only buy them.

      Those tourists will not be doing any of their spending in rubles. Russian bank cards won’t work and bureaux de change, if they buy ruble banknotes at all, will be paying far less than the official rate.

      So they will be spending money which they’ve kept in euros in non-Russian accounts, or perhaps in cash and smuggled it out.

      • Natalia S says:

        5 Jul5 July 11:52

        Russian tourists buy dollars while in Russia at a reasonably good rate and bring cash (like 20 years ago). The cash exchange rate is higher than official rate for USD/rub, but not by too much. It’s inconvenience, but Russian tourists do indeed benefit from ruble at 7 year high.

      • Rio says:

        5 Jul5 July 14:04

        You can buy currency in russia and ruble is strong due to huge net exports

  • TimM says:

    5 Jul5 July 12:45

    Over on the TripAdvisor forum for Antalya, there are reports of a huge influx of Russian tourists and estate agents being inundated by Russians wanting to buy property. Perhaps they are trying to spend their money while they still can or perhaps they are fleeing Putin’s Russia? Either way the airlines still flying between Turkey and Russia must be doing good business.

• Skywalker says:

  5 Jul5 July 11:19

  @ Rob – BA was advertising “Ukraine” as one of it’s holiday destinations when I was looking the other day – people don’t really think to update their websites. I haven’t checked if it’s bookable!

  Re: Moscow:

  Not a warmongerer here – I have a friend in some need over there and I’m looking at this route myself – my only concern (and I don’t know if it’s a legitimate one or an imagined one), but I am off to the US soon – and I don’t want any stress because of a stamp in my passport from Russia, or vice versa if I do the trip after the US trip.

  Do you think I should get a second passport or am I just worrying about nothing much at all?

  • TimM says:

    5 Jul5 July 12:48

    They will just suspect you are a spy and have you followed everywhere, monitor your calls, bug your room etc.. Nothing to worry about.

  • John says:

    5 Jul5 July 13:01

    Do you have a Russian visa?

    • Skywalker says:

      5 Jul5 July 13:28

      @TimM – 🙂 thank you
      @John – to be obtained – just thinking about it all at the moment.

• Mike says:

  5 Jul5 July 14:33

  Paul – logical point, well made. I totally agree. It is morally reprehensible that HFP is highlighting the ability to conduct avios redemptions on a Russian airline at this current time.

  • Rhys says:

    5 Jul5 July 14:36

    We’re highlighting it because it’s odd that it’s still possible!

    • Brian78 says:

      5 Jul5 July 15:14

      It’s bizarre that people think that someone is going to go to Russia in holiday because of this article!

      • RussellH says:

        5 Jul5 July 15:48

        Perhaps Bernie Ecclestone is looking for a way to use up his stash of avios?

    • RussellH says:

      5 Jul5 July 15:46

      Fine. But that is not how I read it. The article does not say that.

      I think that that disclaimer very definitely needs to be in the article itself, in BOLD. For the good of HfP, if nothing else.

      • Rob says:

        5 Jul5 July 17:36

        It says ‘All very odd’ – it literally says the thing that you say the article doesn’t say!

        • Mike says:

          5 Jul5 July 17:55

          My motto is “if I don’t the get the point – the point has not been well made”.

        • Mike says:

          5 Jul5 July 17:59

          If the point of the article was for HFP to highlight that BA were being morally reprehensible in offering redemption opportunities on a Russian airline during the current Russian invasion of Ukraine – the point was not clearly made, just by highlighting the opportunity and then adding “all very odd” afterwards.

        • RussellH says:

          5 Jul5 July 18:15

          It does say ‘All very odd’, yes. I think you need to say more than that. Given that much of HfP’s raison-d’être is to point out good value redemptions that readers may not be aware of – such as the other opportunity described above – I would myself have added a very explicit disclaimer to to that bit of the article. Something along the lines of:- “Of course, in this specific instance we are absolutely not suggesting that any reader should try to take advantage of these offers.”

          I am concerned that some occasional readers of the site may well glance at this page and take the view that HfP is promoting reward travel to a sanctioned country. Very bad for HfP’s reputation.

        • Mikeact says:

          5 Jul5 July 18:24

          @Paul. I would call your response totally arrogant and ignorant.

        • T says:

          5 Jul5 July 20:09

          All very odd… all very daily mail!

    • Mikeact says:

      5 Jul5 July 18:21

      Some amazing comments on here today….totally ridiculous.

    • yorkieflyer says:

      5 Jul5 July 22:43

      Mmm but you don’t write articles on all the dodgy point generating activity

• Callum says:

  5 Jul5 July 19:33

  Yes, yours included…

  You can have whatever views you want, but it’s pretty staggering that you still don’t realise you’re in a pretty small minority – your shock and suprise at that is somewhat concerning!

  • Brian78 says:

    5 Jul5 July 21:09

    “As much as I’ve been against the majority of wars the West have involved themselves in/started, you simply cannot claim they are equivalent to what is happening in Ukraine. This false equivalence people keep making is beyond pathetic.”

    I’m not saying they are the same. “Almost as bad” is probably the best way of putting it.

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