Flight Review Aeroflot Business Class (A321)

Back at Aeroflot's Sheremetyevo home - to keep up with the stereotypes, and despite being late April, it was snowing lightly when boarding

Spent a sleepless night just to discover that my 5.55am flight from Moscow to Heathrow was overbooked. However, a reward of sorts materialized in the form of a business class upgrade for the next available flight.

Luckily, quite a lot of people travel between Moscow and London in the early hours of the day and Aeroflot has quite a few morning flights. The next available one turned out to be just one hour later, the right amount of time to make a short visit to the lounge before testing Aeroflot's short/medium-haul business class. All without altering much my original schedule.

What follows is my Aeroflot business class flight report:

Flight #: SU2580

From: Moscow Sheremetyevo (SVO)

To: London Heathrow (LHR)

Flight time: 4h approx.

Aircraft: Airbus A321

First a few words about the lounge. The impromptu nature of the upgrade left me with really little time to experience it. But I had been there before, in fact, there are two "twin" lounges, named "Jazz" and "Blues", for Aeroflot's business class passengers at Sheremetyevo. 

They are quite correct, not uber luxurious, but they do their job. There are some newspapers (the majority in Russian), internet works fine (it's pretty much the same as in the rest of the airport, though) and the number of reclinable armchairs is a bit limited but, in all the times I have been there, I have never seen it too crowded. Food and drink is ok but nothing exuberant.

But let's get onboard the airplane...!

I found Aeroflot's seat to be quite generous in terms of space and, compared to other airlines that in short and medium haul offer just a lightly upgraded version of their economy product (what we could call the "European business class" type of product). Aeroflot European business class is a truly differentiated product.

Another nice detail I did not expect, a rather cool (and quite complete) amenity kit and a pair of slippers

Aeroflot has also a differentiated in-flight magazine for business class, called (what else?) "Premium". As you can guess, its content is thick with high end brand ads

Such an early flight and the comfy wide seat was always like an open invitation to sleep - guess what I did something like two minutes after take off...! But the other highlight of any business class worth its name is the food, and here Aeroflot really delivered.

Nevermind, it was early morning, so we are talking breakfast here (which means perhaps the chances to impress with the food are rather more limited), but, nevertheless, Aeroflot's in-flight food did not disappoint.

The in-flight menu cover

Aeroflot business class breakfast, the first part - continental breakfast

The wine list - pitty that early morning is not the best time to go through it...

A close-up of the breakfast - that's a slice of papaya (one of my favourite fruits) under the pineapple. The cold appetizers were qutie tasty and portions adequate.

This was the best of the breakfast though: a Russian "Blinyi", a sort of "Crepe" or pancake with a cheese and mushroom filling. Perfect airline food for red-eye flight passengers!

Yet another detail: we got a bag of premium tea. Product placement I guess, otherwise I do not see the logic or what it adds to the trip experience, but nice anyway!

Didn't use it myself, but a nice extra to have!

In terms of service, it was faultless throughout the flight -  as an anecdote I asked for an additional glass of water and they brought me a whole unopened bottle (which was very convenient to keep later during the day when moving around London)

Overall Impression: pretty good. 4h is already quite a long flight, but still within the realm of narrow body aircraft, a segment of the market where many airlines have been diluting their premium product. Here is where Aeroflot's business class stands out, primarily because of its large, very spacious seats,