Good afternoon!
So ended our short — just a week! — travel to Kaliningrad, to the extreme west of the country. The journey is short, but quite far — more than 4000 km.
Initially, a trip “around Europe” was planned: to Germany, the Czech Republic, Austria … And the tickets were bought already in November 2019 … Everyone knows about the subsequent events and the closure of borders …
The S7 company canceled the flights and returned our funds to us, plus another 10% (since it was not our decision to turn out of the trip, and the airline itself canceled the flights), for a certificate.
Initially, 61,000 kopecks were spent on tickets (tickets were bought for three adults), returned — 10% more
Since both my husband and I had a vacation for October, I did not want to refuse the trip. And we reasoned like this: we wanted to go to Germany, so we will go to Germany, but — to Russian Germany — to the Kaliningrad region. The son-student decided not to go, not to be distracted from his studies. Instead of the youngest son, they decided to take their eldest grandson with them. The guy is already 11 years old, he needs to educate a person, start showing the country …
Of course, it was scary in terms of the «crown» … But somehow you have to continue to live. You just need to follow all the safety measures. We both at the airport and on the plane were constantly wearing masks, about every 2 hours we put on new masks. You know, somehow we already got used to it … But at first it was terribly uncomfortable, my nose constantly itched and there was nothing to breathe …
The history of obtaining a certificate — not everything was smooth …
The letter about the cancellation of October flights came to e-mail at the end of August. The letter offered to follow the link to the corresponding page of the S7 airline’s official website and receive a certificate. To do this, I just had to click on the button confirming that I want the money to be credited to the certificate.
Unfortunately it didn’t work. When you click on the button, an inscription appears: “Something went wrong. Please try again later or contact support.» I «retried» for several days — with no result. I had to call … They promised me to issue a certificate in the order of priority and send it to the post office.
Over the next 10 days, I checked my mailbox, but the certificate still did not come …
Called again. It turned out that my certificate had been issued for several days, just not sent. Within minutes I received it in the mail. I breathed a sigh of relief: after all, the prospect of losing more than 60,000 rubles is bleak …
Buying tickets for funds from a certificate — everything is clear and without deception
Having chosen tickets, I simply chose a certificate among the offered payment options (with a card, miles or a certificate). Almost the entire cost of the ticket was deducted from the certificate, but a small amount — only 1200 rubles — had to be paid from the card. I think it’s some kind of collection.
Tickets to Kaliningrad turned out to be somewhat cheaper than those that were bought earlier, and I still had some amount on the certificate. I will be able to use it until October 23, 2023 to buy tickets for new trips. If I don’t use it, this money will be returned to my plastic card, and will be indexed for inflation.
As you can see, everything is fairly fair and transparent. But such unpleasant moments as a website not working properly, a certificate not sent in a timely manner, significantly spoil the impression of the airline’s work and make you nervous.
And again annoying little things
Having returned from the trip (by the way, it went perfectly, I will definitely write about it and show wonderful autumn photos), I checked the miles accrued for the trip. I recently enrolled my husband, son, grandson in the program and created a family account for accumulating miles. So, miles were accrued for my flights and flights of my husband, but not for the flights of my grandson. I called the support service — they said, write a letter to the support service, they will definitely restore it. And, most likely, indeed, they will restore it. But why not do it right away? These annoying little things still strain and spoil the overall impression of the work of the airline, which I, in general, love very much and make most of my trips with it.
By the way, at the beginning of next year, the company will again “throw out” a significant number of cheap tickets for young people and pensioners for free sale. Prices are simply amazingly low, discounts up to 80%. So, at the beginning of this year, I bought tickets from Novosibirsk to Simferopol and back for my son and his student friends for only … 4,000 rubles. Yes, yes, both ways! And — on a direct flight, and even with luggage! So, a ticket for a scholarship or a pension is quite real.
Tickets will go on sale, most likely in the second half of January, so don’t miss them.
Tell us how the «corona» changed your travel plans, how were the tickets?
