How To Book Hotels & Flights In Russia As An American (With Credit Card)
- Konrad Tillman
- Sep 24
- 3 min read
Intro
This is not a sponsored post, just something that genuinely helped me. Heck, I am not even adding links...
Going to Russia in 2025 as an American comes with quite a few challenges. One being the fact that if you run out of money in the country, it can be extremely difficult to get more. Why? Well, sanctions. US and most EU cards don't work in Russia, and this means that what cash you come with is all that you have for the entirety of your stay.
However, I found a loophole for booking flights and hotels, and I hope this helps you out...
WEGO
Before going to Russia, I had only ever used websites such as Hotels, Agoda, and Booking when it came to purchasing hotels and flights. What I hadn't heard of was this website called Wego. Little did I know that it would save my life...
Browsing my phone in Bangkok, I came across Wego and saw that I could use Apple Pay to book hotels in Russia. I thought, "maybe this only works when I am outside of Russia", but boy was I wrong.
Using Wego, I was able to book all of my hotels and hostels throughout every part I visited in Russia. Even the Ibis in Krasnojarsk, I was able to use Wego...
Additionally, I also checked out the flights part of the app, thinking, "There is no way that I can book Aeroflot on Wego, right"?
How wrong was I? Not only could I book Aeroflot, but I could do it within a matter of seconds since I could just pay with Apple Pay. The morning I decided to fly to Kazan, I booked my flight 4 hours before departure, and it was confirmed within minutes...
Talk about efficiency, Wego has gained my trust going forward for flights in remote destinations, where the airlines' websites don't work (always book directly through an airline if you can).
The One Caveat
Now, if you know anything about me, it should be that I am honest and don't try and push an agenda on you. So, while Wego was truly sublime and saved me countless times, there was one time when I was left stranded at Sheremetyevo.
The morning I was due to fly to Saint Petersburg, I had booked a ticket 3 hours before departure on Rossiya. While the payment went through, the booking didn't confirm as the flight had just sold out. I kept checking, and it kept saying processing, but ultimately, there was nothing that could be done...
I ended up booking a ticket for about the same price at the Aeroflot ticketing counter at SVO, and hopped online to message Wego through their support channel. Since the flight had already departed at this point, the agent let me know that the amount would be refunded in 3-5 business days, and that was that.
Once again, extremely efficient all around.
Last thing: there is a 3% charge for transactions using Apple Pay, while the credit card fees are less than 1%. I had lost all of my physical credit cards (absolute melon I am), so this left me with only Apple Pay.
Final Thoughts
If you are planning to visit Russia from the US or most parts of the EU, and are worried about paying for your hotels or flights, look no further than Wego. I believe there are a couple of other sites that work as well, but this saved my life in Russia, and with great online support, easy-to-use bookings, and overall efficiency, I have to recommend it. Perhaps Wego should sponsor me 😂.
Russia Series
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