Stuck in Moscow airport for 24 hours ! HELP ! compensation ?

[mena613]

had a flight from Tlv to Hong Kong with a stop over in Moscow with Aeroflot, due to late arrival of departing aircraft in Tel Aviv and heavy air traffic at arrival in Moscow we missed our connection to Hong Kong.

Some passages with Israeli passports where allowed to leave the airport and put up into a hotel since the next flight is only in 24 hours. us with European passports can't leave the airport since we don't have visa's and our flight which is also in 24 hours the food vouchers we received don't really help as nothing here is kosher.

We have been waiting for 3 hours now for them to put us up in the airport hotel.

Anyone know if there's kosher food here ?
WHAT compensation should we be asking for ?
My return flight with Elal on Wednesday from Hong Kong to TLV, can it be changed with Aeroflot caring the cost ?

Thanks guys

[ExGingi]

I don't know how they could put you in an airport hotel, as you would not be allowed to leave the airside without a visa, and visas are not granted at the airport.

You are in a tough situation. I would say that your best bet is to try and contact someone in Moscow to see if they can get some food to you. (or you might be lucky meeting passengers going through the airport that might have something to share with you.

I can't think of anyone other than Rabbi Lazar himself who might be able to help get you out of the airside of the airport without having a visa in advance.

As for your return flight, is it on the same ticket/PNR? If yes, you should be able to have Aeroflot deal/pay for the change, if not, you might be out of luck, and unless you have good travel insurance, or some mercy from ELAL agent, you might have to pay for this yourself.

[mena613]

Managed to get someone connected from the community to arrange a 24h visa so waiting now to get released from airside...
What kind of compensation can I expect from a Russian airline ?

Any compensation pros on here rather then using a none Jewish company to work on it ?

[shmoe joe]

Sorry to break it to you brother but I can assure you from my own experience, it's a waste of your time to try to get any compensation from Aeroflot!! They're a nice cheap airline on till you run in to any trouble with them, by then there's no one to talk!

[ExGingi]

I guess your best bet is to figure out if Israeli mandatory compensation applies. If it does, that is the route you should go with, if they don't comply voluntarily, you can take them to small claims court or hire an attorney that does these claims for a living.

[shmoe joe]

With which cc did you book your tickets?

[Ehad]

would love to know the end of the story as i am planning myself a trip to MOW/DME in a couple weeks and am not sure which of my passports to use EU or US

[ExGingi]

would love to know the end of the story as i am planning myself a trip to MOW/DME in a couple weeks and am not sure which of my passports to use EU or US

US definitely requires a visa in order to enter Russia. I don't know about EU and whether there's a difference between various EU countries (though I would suspect that with the EU's attitude towards Russia after Ukraine and Crimea, the Russians aren't likely to be friendly to the EU regarding visa requirements).

[sillypainter]

Here, an Israeli passport makes a difference :-)

No EU passport will be allowed in, except maybe Estonia and the likes.

[ExGingi]

Here, an Israeli passport makes a difference :-)

No EU passport will be allowed in, except maybe Estonia and the likes.

Unfortunately the one time I could have benefited from it during a long layover, didn't work out because we took our son along who only had a US passport.

Israeli passport can also help with Brazil IINM.

[MeirS]

Unfortunately the one time I could have benefited from it during a long layover, didn't work out because we took our son along who only had a US passport.

Israeli passport can also help with Brazil IINM.

Brazil, Argentina, Venezuela and other South American countries although for that, most European would also help. Hence they call it a reciprocity fee for citizens of countries who charge their citizens for visas.