Pobeda Airlines, which calls itself a “low-cost” airline, intends to begin flights from St. Petersburg on at least eight more domestic Russian routes in the fall. Among the planned destinations are Novosibirsk, Perm, Ufa, Chelyabinsk, Samara, Saratov, Nalchik, Astrakhan, reports Travel.ru's own correspondent.
The routes will open on various dates between September 17 and October 29. Interestingly, the schedule of many flights will be almost identical to that of Rossiya Airlines, which is also part of the Aeroflot group. Rossiya flights will remain on the schedule. A significant portion of these routes are now also served by Nordavia (Smartavia).
There will be daily flights to Novosibirsk (from September 30, from St. Petersburg at 23.50, back at 8.50 (here and below the schedule is in the winter schedule from October 27), the minimum price found one way is 4100 rubles), to Ufa (from September 17 at 23.45, back at 5.20, from 2200 rubles) and to Chelyabinsk (from October 1 at 23.35, back at 5.30, from 3100 rubles).
Flights to Perm are expected from October 1, 5 times a week (except Thursday and Sunday) at 0.25, back at 22.35, prices from 2700 rubles. Flights to Samara are scheduled from October 27, 4 times a week (Monday, Wednesday, Friday, Sunday) at 10.15, back at 14.00, from 2200 rubles. Flights to Saratov will open on October 29 and will be operated three times a week (Tuesday, Thursday, Saturday) at 10.15, back at 14.00, from 1499 rubles. Flights to Nalchik are expected from October 29, three times a week (Tuesday, Thursday, Saturday) at 8.30, back at 12.05, from 2200 rubles. Flights to Astrakhan will begin on September 20 twice a week (Tuesday, Saturday) at 16:00, back at 20:40, from 2200 rubles.
All routes will use Boeing 737-800 aircraft in a single-class configuration with 189 seats. Earlier, Pobeda opened flights from St. Petersburg to Moscow, Yekaterinburg, Rostov-on-Don, Sochi, Kaliningrad, Kazan, Nizhnekamsk, Kirov, Krasnodar, Anapa, Vladikavkaz, Makhachkala, Mineralnye Vody, Cheboksary. The company also flew from St. Petersburg to a number of foreign routes, but they were closed due to a conflict with the Pulkovo border detachment.
Passengers intending to use Pobeda services should keep in mind a number of features of this airline, exercise extreme caution and attentiveness, and be prepared for various difficulties and surprises both when booking a ticket and during the flight itself. Let us remind you that Pobeda allows you to carry either miniature carry-on baggage with strange dimensions of 36×30×27 centimeters, or a handbag or briefcase without size restrictions, free of charge.
The price of small checked baggage at Pobeda has recently increased, although it remains relatively affordable — 777 rubles for 10 kilograms of checked baggage when purchased in advance and 1,000 rubles when paid for at the airport. Baggage of 20 kilograms on various routes usually costs 999 or 1,499 rubles (at the airport — 3,000 rubles). Each additional kilogram over the purchased quota costs 500 rubles or 10 euros.
Pobeda closes the boarding gate earlier than other airlines, 25 minutes before the scheduled departure of the flight, and, as a rule, does not wait for passengers who are delayed for any reason. At the same time, Pobeda can herd passengers into the apron bus even before the plane itself appears at the airport. There is no food on board regardless of the duration of the flight, and attempts to take your own food in a separate bag may result in a requirement to check this bag in for 3,000 rubles (if it does not fit together with the rest of the hand luggage in the Pobeda "calibrator"). When buying a ticket on the Pobeda website at the minimum "Standard" fare, the company by default includes paid insurance, to get rid of which you need to independently uncheck the corresponding items at the bottom of the additional services selection page. Any changes to the ticket, including correcting the passenger's first or last name, cost 5,000 rubles (plus the difference in the fare if the flight is changed).
In addition, in recent months there have been many cases where Pobeda arbitrarily changes an existing booking to add additional services not ordered by the passenger. As a rule, this happens if the passenger studies the cost of these services in the "booking management" on the company's website by clicking on various options, but has no intention of buying them and, therefore, does not pay. However, Pobeda pretends that such study is equal to a firm intention to buy these services, arbitrarily changes the booking and sends the passenger a demand for additional payment for these unordered services. Another fantastic way to get extra money from the passenger for nothing is the so-called "cancellation fee", which Pobeda tries to collect in such situations.
There are also problems with returning or changing a ticket in the event of flight disruptions or schedule changes — the toll-free call center for forced changes and refunds is hidden by Pobeda. Seat selection is a paid service, and to encourage the purchase of this service, Pobeda may intentionally seat passengers flying together at opposite ends of the cabin and prohibit changing seats. At one time, this led to a loud scandal: Pobeda turned in a family with a baby to the police for an attempt by the parents to reunite on the plane — after the airline itself intentionally seated them in different rows in an effort to earn an extra 149 rubles from each passenger for changing seats.
Pobeda recently introduced the option of fixing the ticket price for 48 hours. However, this is a paid service - 499 rubles will be added to the final price for each flight segment of each passenger. It is worth using only if there is a high probability of a significant increase in the ticket price in the next two days.
Source: travel.ru
