LOT Polish Airlines

LHR-WAW-LHR 23/24 October on 787 Dreamliner. It was a trek to the gate in the new Terminal 2 but had priority boarding so went straight on. Boarding took some time to complete but I suspect that was due to passengers turning up late. Took off about 40 minutes delayed but made it up on the way and arrive about 10 minutes late. Outbound sat in 6G premium class cabin. Very comfortable seating and sufficient legroom. Although this was a short haul flight I would quite happily endure a long haul flight in this seat. The service was excellent. Very efficient and friendly cabin crew. IFE was good if a little limited; would like to have had more choice of music and movies. Choice of hot meal and snacks as well as drinks - all very tasty. Inbound in business class cabin seat 1D. Extremely comfortable seat which reclines flat. Controls simple to use but a bit of a pain taking the IFE monitor out of the center console (other seats in rows 2 & 3 have their monitors in the back of the seat in front. Cabin crew excellent the kind of efficient service you'd expect flying first class. Choice of meal snacks & drinks also excellent. Took off around 30 minutes delay but landed before scheduled time.

Chicago to Warsaw was delayed for more than 1hour however this delay is nothing compared to what happened next on my flight from Poznan to Krakow connecting at Warsaw. First they held us at the Poznan airport for more than 2 hours without a clear explanation. Flight was then cancelled and there were no more flights to Warsaw at that day. Very close to midnight and the airline representative told us that we could take a 4-hour bus ride to Warsaw otherwise there is not much they can do. The bus is fully packed and they did not provide any food or drinks during the entire 4-hour journey. After we arrived at Warsaw airport at about 4.30 am we asked about our connecting flight to Krakow and they told us there is no flight available today for us. So that means they basically dumped us at Warsaw airport without any further arrangement. I had to take a taxi going to train station and took another 4 hour train ride to finally get to Krakow. All in all my first experience with LOT is absolutely horrible and I will avoid flying with them in the future at all cost. LOT appears to stand for "lots of trouble". They treat their customers as third-class and the words "customer service" are definitely not in their vocabulary. Stay away from them if you can!

WAW-LHR LO 279 October 16th in C-Class LOT is using its 787 Dreamliners on this route at the moment which was a nice surprise. C-Class seating is flat-bed and very comfortable and spacious. As a nice treat LOT offers its long-haul meal service scheme in business class on this short-haul flight. Very decent Do&Co Catering dishes served individually at each seat no tray-service. In any case a nice idea how to promote the long-haul product to potetial clients. Crew service exceptionally friendly and polite as usually on LOT. Excellent value for money and in terms of the overall product impression for sure on par with LH LX and OS.

12 - 21 Sep. LO0046 LO0537 LO0536 LO0045. 1) Online check in and manage your reservation: More and more people like to do online check in or just avoid the long wait at the airport and check in at the airport at the automated kiosks. With LOT you do not have the option to check in and print your boarding pass and luggage tags at the airport kiosk. I did check in online but the wait at the airport to drop your luggage was unusually long. 2) Seats: The New Dreamliner's seats are tight and I'm not a big guy. It was uncomfortable to travel 8 hours half hanging out of my seat. 3) Meals: When they served the meals all 3 of us asked for chicken but all 3 of us got beef. 4) Drinks: I don't really drink but when I saw that the gentleman beside me handing over money to the stewardess I asked him for what and he advised me that they charge for alcohol. I have not traveled with an airline long haul where you have to pay for your drinks. 5) Customer Service: Returning back from Poland we got into a bad weather one of the stewardesses was passing by and I asked her for a drink. Her answer rudely was that I had to go to the back of the plane and get it myself and she just walked away. I went to the back where there was 4 stewardesses chatting away. If the service had been better I would recommend this airline.

17 September Bucharest - Krakow with a stop in Warsaw. The plane left 40 minutes late from Bucharest causing us to miss the connection to Krakow. In Chopin airport LOT personnel had no idea what to do. We had to wait 3-hours until to the next flight - the service on the planes are similar to a low cost airline. They offer a glass of water and chocolate. The plane to Krakow had a delay of 35 minutes so we reached Krakow around 1am instead of 9pm. Return 26 September 2014 the same scenario repeated. The plane from Krakow to Warsaw had 35 minutes delay announced at the time of the boarding. We had only 40 minutes stop in Warsaw. Luckily for us we weren't the only passengers missing that flight since they had other passengers coming from Gdansk and other cities with LOT with delays. LOT connection to Bucharest waited for all these passengers. I will never fly with this company again and I would never recommend to anyone. Better fly with low cost and at least you know what to expect: bad services no food delays noisy and old airplanes. And do not expect to understand what the crew is speaking to you in English.

Flew LHR-WAW and WAW-AMS on LOT got mixed feelings about the airline. The flight from LHR to WAW was an outdated B734 with a real tight seat-pitch and narrow seats I was glad that the middle seat was free. What really concerned me was the fact that there is practically nothing complimentary anymore. A glass of water and a chocolate bar that's it! Crew seemed outdated but were friendly and always correct. The way back from initially WAW-LHR-AMS had been rebooked to the non-stop flight on ER195 better seat-pitch and seats and far more comfortable aircraft but same no frills service scheme as on the London flight.

AMS-WAW in Business. I used the LOT Upgrade option to jump from Economy to Business for USD100 and it was well worth it. The Lounge LOT uses in Amsterdam is the KLM Lounge which is good as it is better than the other options. Flight was on time on an Embraer190 priority boarding respected. Very polite and helpful service on board (no objections to change seat to first row). As this is a short haul flight Business is the same configuration as Economy with adjacent seat blocked. Food really tasty hot cold drinks and alcohol served throughout flight. For this price a perfect solution.

Flight Beirut-Warsaw - very pleasant the time passed quickly. Staff were very flexible and professional. No free food though.

Flew LHR to WAW on an old 737-400. Flight was over 3hrs late due to "operational problems". LOT provided a£10 refreshment voucher but that was it. Minimal apologies and when the cabin crew did apologise it didn't seem genuine. Landed after midnight by which time I had missed my connecting flight to Bydgoszcz with Eurolot. Please be warned that Eurolot is now separate to LOT and neither airline cared that I had missed the flight. I was stranded in Warsaw (even missed the last bus and train). Had to fork out for a hotel myself. No help whatsoever from LOT even after speaking to the LOT representative on the ground. Avoid this airline at all costs! They behave like a low-cost airline. You even have to pay for food on board. All you get is a glass of lukewarm water and a small chocolate bar.

I flown two flights with LOT first from DUS to WAW on August 16th and second from WAW to LWO on August 21st. Both flights operated by their Embraer fleet were on time clean cabin comfortable seat attentive crew. I do recommend them.