When my dad passed away, he wanted to be buried in his home city - Saint-Petersburg.
After consultation with Aeroflot and Russian Embassy, we understood that in order to travel with a funeral urn, we need to collect, translate and legalize a few documents. After collecting the documents(4 days of hard all day long work and an approximate cost of 150 Euro), we consulted with them once again and they told us, that with these documents we would be able to travel with the urn with Aeroflot without any problems. So, I bought a two-way ticket Sofia- Moscow(576.43 BGN) - Moscow-Saint-Petersburg(5954 RUB).
When I arrived at Sheremetievo airport on 11.12.2019 at around 18:00, I asked once again the representatives of Aeroflot, if I can travel further and is everything all right. They told me that all the documents are correct and I can travel with the urn further. On 12.12.2019 I arrived at Vnukovo airport. At the registration desk, the representative of Aeroflot/Russian airlines told me, that I am not allowed to travel with the urn and that is company policy. I told her, that I collected all the required documents and that I traveled from Sofia to Moscow with Aeroflot and with a funeral urn in my luggage. She looked at me and had nothing to tell. After a few minutes of thinking hard, she told that I should speak with higher-level representatives and I went to their desk. They didn’t know the company policy at all, so they called someone else. After a 10 minute call, they told me, that I can transport the urn with cargo but not on the plane, but if I do so, I will miss the plane, so the best I can do is to buy a ticket for their next flight. "Are you kidding?!"- I said. "Well, this is the only thing, that you can do - to travel with our next flight. Otherwise, you would have to travel with another company". "So, what about the money, that I paid and the fake information, that your colleagues gave me?". "We can’t do anything right now. It’s your problem."
So I had to buy another ticket which cost another 4000 rubs and after waiting 12 hours in the airport, I traveled with Utair company without any further problems but unfortunately, this isn’t the end of the story.
The day before my flight back from Saint Petersburg to Moscow, I received an e-mail, that I can make a registration and choose a seat for the flight. I made the registration and arrived on the registration desk in order to receive my boarding pass. They gave me a pass and I went to the gate. 2 minutes before boarding, a representative of Aeroflot came to me and said that I must come with him to the pay desk because there are issues with my ticket. I was amazed and desperate. The woman on the pay desk said that my ticket is invalid and I should buy a new ticket in order to travel. "What?! I have a two-way ticket!"-I said. "No, your ticket is not valid, because you missed your previous flight, but you can buy a new ticket from us right now". I told them the whole story about the funeral of my dad and all the problems I had. "So, the colleagues in Moscow didn’t tell you that when you missed the first-way flight, we cancel also the return flight? Well, we are not responsible for their mistakes, so it is not our problem. The only thing, that we can offer you, is to buy a ticket for the next flight, which is after one hour." I can’t describe how angry I was at that moment. I told them that I want to speak with a manager, however, they told me that there are no managers at the airport, just the dispatcher. She was very cold and in her eyes, I saw, that she doesn’t care at all. For all these people, I was just someone very annoying and unusual, someone, that troubled their everyday workday and all of Aeroflot representatives, they didn’t even care about being polite and being Humans. I had no choice but to buy another ticket for 5000 RUB with S7 company. I must say that the customer service provided by S7 was completely different and very professional!
Not only I was provided with false information - I was literally in a situation in which I had no way to go home if I don’t pay additionally which wasn’t mentioned anywhere until the very moment of the flight. It almost seems that they made sure that I wouldn’t have time to react, cancel the flights or do anything. Not showing any compassion or at least basic human understanding is a sign of bad manners but taking such advantage from someone who just lost a member of their family is disusing.