RUSSIA & NEW YORK 2015: 5 Murmansk, Russia to New York City & home

Wednesday, January 21, 2015

We were up at 2 AM, at 2:45 two ladies were at the door to pick up luggage and a car was there to pick us up at 3 AM. Marilynn arranged the luggage pickup the night before. When we got to the airport the driver didn't know what the voucher for an airport transfer was about, so we are suspicious that the hotel called another company for a taxi rather than the driver arranged by Kola Travel. At any rate, after discussion the driver accepted the voucher.

Kola Travel did a great job, particularly considering the inexperience of local hotels, drivers and guides in foreign tourism. Should you decide to visit, be flexible - they are working on tourism promotion, but it is still new. An easy solution would be to have Kola arrange a private English speaking guide to travel with you - it would solve all the language difficulties. There are few English speaking drivers.

The Aeroflot flight operated by Rossiya Airlines on the A319-100 was once again comfortable and smooth, with complementary food and drinks. It arrived in St. Petersburg half and hour ahead of schedule. The city now has winter - it was minus 17C. We had a 7 hour wait for our connection to New York via Zurich, Switzerland. Have you ever noticed that flights are never ahead of schedule when you have a tight connection?

We had to wait for 5 hours until check in opened, so set up in a small food stand with tables called "Puro Gusto", where early morning beer was accompanied by potato chips. Due an emergency at home we had United advance our flight back to Costa Rica to tomorrow morning at 7AM, cancelling the New York portion of Marianne's trip. As with most airports outside the US internet was free, easy to connect and fast.

The Swiss Air flight to Zurich was not full and very comfortable, with complementary food and drinks (including alcoholic beverages). The connection in Zurich was only 1 hour, and we had to go through security, but at the gate I enquired about upgrading to business for flat beds on the 9 plus hour flight, however at $1,200 per seat we dropped the idea. The plane was only about 40% full, with few people in business - I really don't understand why they don't cut the price half for a last minute upgrade and pick up a few thousand dollars extra!

We had lots of room on the flight, with Marilynn and Marianne sharing 4 seats, and I had 4 seats I used for a bed. The service was good, with hot meals and all drinks desired at no charge. There was a good selection of complementary movies and lots of blankets and pillows. We arrived in Newark, New Jersey at about 8:45 PM, and took a shuttle to the nearby Ramada Hotel to get a few hours sleep, in spite of having a prepaid, non-refundable hotel booked in New York City for three nights. We used up a couple of hours of sleeping time on internet and the phone dealing with the crisis in Costa Rica, but did get a little sleep.

Thursday, January 22, 2015

We were up at 3:30 and caught the 4:30 AM shuttle to the airport. At the check in counter we were informed only my ticket had been changed, that Marilynn and Marianne were still booked for Jan 24, and the flight this morning was overbooked by 5 seats. Eventually it was decided I would take the flight at 7 AM I was booked on, as I was in the best position to deal with the problem at home, and the very helpful agent booked Marianne and Marilynn on a flight to Houston where they were on standby for a very tight connection that would get them to San Jose at 2 PM, and confirmed on a flight to arrive at 9:20 PM. She also checked all our suitcases on my flight so Marilynn didn't have to deal with them.

We found a restaurant for a good breakfast, realizing we wouldn't be fed on the flights. All airports we travel through in Canada, Europe, Russia, India, Bangladesh, China and on and on have free internet, but not the good old USA, where it is necessary to locate a "for pay" hot spot, something we didn't have time to do. Other country's airports have free luggage carts as well, but to use one in Newark costs $6. I'd hoped to get a message about our new travel arrangements to the people meeting us, but there was no way.

My flight was on time, and one thing the agent making the flight changes got right was a bulkhead seat behind business class with lots of leg room On board the 5 hour flight I did get a complementary glass of water and one of orange juice!

It turned out Marilynn and Marianne had to take the later flight to Costa Rica, and it was over half an hour late, to arrive at 10:10 PM.