Hello everyone!

I've had the misfortune of flying with Ural Airlines four times this year: in May on the routes St. Petersburg - Sochi and back, in July on the route St. Petersburg - Kaliningrad, and in August on the route Kaliningrad - St. Petersburg. I'll share my impressions from these flights and tell you why I wouldn't recommend flying with this airline if I had a choice.

When planning our summer vacation in Kaliningrad from St. Petersburg, we bought our return tickets on the airline's website six months in advance. We chose Ural Airlines because they had the cheapest return tickets with checked baggage for our route, and we weren't familiar with the airline, so we wouldn't have chosen them otherwise. And then, on a whim, we decided to fly from St. Petersburg to Sochi for the May holidays, and again, the cheapest tickets were with Ural Airlines. So, we bought tickets from them again. And that's what happened.

It all started like this. Within a day, I received an email saying I could check in online for my flight, and they offered to pay around 1300 rubles for each seat in the economy class. There was no free check-in option. We decided not to use this service and just arrive at the airport early to get decent seats on the plane. However, Ural Airlines didn't make it easy for us.

First, we had to stand in an enormous queue at the airport. To make matters worse, passengers from several flights were invited to one registration desk at a time. Then, the airline's staff member deliberately seated our family in different parts of the plane. They always sat my mom far away from the kids. But since the kids are small, they can't be seated far away from their parents, so they sat the kids with my dad. This happened four times, and each time, they (the airline staff) seated me (my mom) in the front of the plane (rows 8-10), and the kids with my dad in the very back (rows 30-33). We were never seated together. If it's a couple (a guy and a girl, a husband and a wife), they were also seated in different parts of the plane. You want to sit together? Pay extra. That's the first trick of Ural Airlines.

Next, checked baggage. To avoid a situation like with Smartavia (so they wouldn't charge us extra), we studied the allowed dimensions of hand luggage in advance, so we didn't have any issues with checked baggage. We also weighed our bags carefully, as we had 30 kg of checked baggage per person.

The dimensions of hand luggage on Ural Airlines are: 55 cm x 40 cm x 20 cm.

You can even bring a small suitcase in your hand luggage, I've seen people doing it.

One thing we did have to think about when flying was bringing our little kid's bike, a Puky, on board. And let me tell you, you gotta put it in a box, or they'll charge you extra for oversized luggage. We actually called the airline ahead of time to make sure it was okay, and it was.

But then, when you've got your boarding pass and you're trying to find the right gate, you'd think it'd be smooth sailing. But twice out of four flights, they changed the gate without telling us. Like, we'd show up at gate 9, and then they'd announce that we're actually boarding at gate 8. No big deal, since it was just a short walk, but still pretty annoying.

We got bussed to the plane, and let me tell you, it was always super crowded. People were pushing and shoving to get on the bus.

The plane was huge. You could only get in through one side, near the front.

First class was at the front, and then it was economy.

The seat layout in economy was three seats on the right, a aisle, and then three seats on the left. The seats were leather, and they had those little headrest things. Some of them were disposable, and some of them weren't there at all (on the Kalingrad-St. Petersburg flight).

Another major downside is that the seats in the plane are ridiculously close together, and your knees will be jammed into the seat in front of you. I had a guy sit down next to me on a flight from St. Petersburg to Kaliningrad, and he was this huge, chunky guy who had to squeeze into the middle seat. He ended up putting his legs out to the sides so they wouldn't bump into the seat in front of him, and he even had trouble getting into his seat. His leg was basically taking up half of my legroom. And to make matters worse, the armrests are shared between two people, so he ended up putting his massive arm on the shared armrest. It was super uncomfortable for me to sit there.

I also want to talk about the seatbelts in Ural Airlines planes. They're ridiculously long – I'm pretty sure they're designed for elephants, not humans. I could wrap the belt around myself five times and still have some left over. I've never seen seatbelts this long in any other plane.

Even on a 4.5-hour flight from St. Petersburg to Sochi, there were no TVs on the seats or above the seats. That's just sad.

All of the flight attendants were super friendly, and I didn't encounter any rude staff.

The only thing they offered for free was water, and you had to pay extra for food.

The bathrooms on the plane are tiny, and the sinks are basically just little mini-sinks. It's hard to fit in there with a kid, let alone two. My older daughter and I couldn't even fit in there together.

There were no disposable toilet seats, which is just basic hygiene. They did have toothbrushes, toothpaste, and slippers, but it was a night flight, so I'm not sure why they needed those. I know some people might think I'm being picky, but we paid a pretty penny for this flight – around 50,000 rubles for our family from St. Petersburg to Sochi and back, and the same from Kaliningrad to Sochi and back. That's a lot of money for a domestic flight in Russia.

I've got to tell you about the flights themselves. Not only was it uncomfortable sitting in those chairs, but the Ural Airlines flights consistently landed with a delay of about an hour. I even heard someone say that this airline's flights are delayed 80% of the time, and it's a rare occasion when they actually arrive on schedule. We were lucky enough to arrive on time only once out of our four flights.

And to make matters worse, when we were flying out of Sochi, the plane was delayed for takeoff. They kept pushing back the departure time by 15 minutes, then another 15 minutes, and another 15 minutes, and in the end, they delayed us for an hour... But for some reason, our flight from Sochi to Moscow with Ural Airlines left on time, and we were invited to board an hour later. Luckily, we did make it home that day, as it just so happened that the president was visiting on May 9th, and some flights were delayed until the next morning.

I've also got to tell you about our flight from St. Petersburg to Kaliningrad. During that flight, our plane hit a deep air pocket. We were plummeting downwards like a stone. Everyone on the plane was white-knuckled, and I was clinging to my armrest for dear life, with my eyes closed. Luckily, the plane leveled out and continued flying. Everyone was in a state of panic, with one woman praying and crossing herself, and even the men were rushing to the bathroom. One guy's phone flew out of his hand, and he was frantically searching for it under the seats. Another passenger found it six rows down and handed it back to him. I've been in air pockets before, but never one as deep as this with Ural Airlines.

And to make matters worse, the Ural Airlines plane looked to me like it was held together with duct tape, so I wouldn't be surprised if it falls apart mid-flight. I mean, just recently, they had to make an emergency landing in a field near Novosibisk because the plane's hydraulic system failed. We were lucky enough to make it home a few times on this plane, but I wouldn't want to be on it again.

When we arrived at the airport, passengers were taken to the airport on a bus, or we had to make our way to the plane on the telescoping ramp.

I'll never forget the baggage claim chaos after our flight landed in Kaliningrad. The airport's tiny, with only three belts for baggage pickup, and we just so happened to be on the one with four planes' worth of luggage. It was absolute madness, with people pushing and shoving to get their bags. I mean, I've seen some crowded places in my time, but this was something else. Meanwhile, the other belts were relatively empty, with only one or two planes' worth of luggage. And to make matters worse, two of the belts had signs saying they were for flights from St. Petersburg to Kaliningrad, which made it hard to figure out which one we were supposed to use. We had to remember our flight number just to get our bags!

THE VERDICT on flying with Ural Airlines

1) The flight attendants were super friendly and welcoming.

2) The plane got us from point A to point B, even if it was often late and with some drama.

3) Three out of four flights were pretty comfortable, except for the one from St. Petersburg to Kaliningrad. That one was a whole different story – the air pocket was so deep, it felt like we were plummeting to the ground. And to make matters worse, my seatmate was a bit of a handful.

1) Delays and flight changes were a regular occurrence. We had one flight delayed by an hour, and another one changed by an hour. Not fun.

2) You have to pay extra for seat selection. Don't even get me started on how they seat families – they'll deliberately split you up and charge you for the privilege of sitting together.

3) The seatbelts are ridiculously long – I swear, I could wrap myself up five times over.

4) The economy seats are cramped, with your knees bumping into the seat in front of you.

5) They changed the exit without warning, and didn't even bother to announce it over the intercom.

6) That St. Petersburg to Kaliningrad flight was a real white-knuckle experience. We hit a deep air pocket, and it was terrifying.

7) And to top it all off, the baggage claim in Kaliningrad was a nightmare. We were on the belt with four planes' worth of luggage, and it was absolute chaos. Meanwhile, the other belts were almost empty. Not exactly the most welcoming experience.

My Verdict. To be honest, I wouldn't recommend flying with Ural Airlines if I had a choice. I've had some pretty bad experiences with them. I've flown with Aeroflot, Russia, Smartavia, Ruslain, and a few others, and while they've all had their issues, Ural Airlines was definitely one of the worst in terms of delays and flight cancellations. It was pretty nerve-wracking flying with them.