Language Progress..

Kristie ordered e-tickets online from Aeroflot (the Russian airlines) for our trip from Saint Petersburg to Moscow. She was very impressed with how easy it was and how up-to-date Aeroflot has become. We went to the airport to check-in and discovered that the Aeroflot agent was not willing to accept our e-tickets and to be able to get on our flight that was now leaving in less than 30 minutes, required us to purchase new tickets. To say the least, Kristie was "a little disappointed" with the agent and Aeroflot and frustrated that it took almost 25 minutes for the agent to issue new tickets! We were all thankful, however, that we made it through all of the check points with all of our luggage and kids without standing in line. One of the agents "escorted" us through the crowds, yelling several time "Why are you just standing there, go!"

A few days later, Kristie went to the Aeroflot Office to request a refund for the e-tickets. Her original explanations were meet with "I am sorry, but there is nothing we can do."; "This is really not my problem."; and "I am busy, please go." She asked to see the supervisor and was able to tell the situation to three extremely nice ladies, who actually did want to help and were shocked that this had all happened! It took several tries and some charades to get them to understand the complete story. Then it took about 25 phone calls, but she got the e-tickets refunded. The best part of this story is that Kristie managed all of this in Russian, because the one English speaker in the Aeroflot office spoke worse English than Kristie did Russian! Way to go Kristie and thanks Aeroflot!