Warsaw Chopin Airport

We flew with LOT from London Heathrow to Yerevan Armenia with an 8.5 hr wait at Frederick Chopin Airport Warsaw. Having read so many negative reviews I was not looking forward to such a long wait there. However I have to say I was pleasantly surprised. There were plenty of seats in the waiting area which is spacious and has a small play area for children all of which was new and clean. The toilet facilities were also clean and well maintained. I was particularly impressed that there are electric wall sockets that you can use. We plugged in our portable DVD player for the kids and several people were plugging their laptop's in. There are a few duty free shops and a shop selling sandwiches bottles of drink chocolate crisps newspapers and so on. There are also a couple of cafe's which were pleasant. The service in all of these outlets was helpful and friendly - most of them spoke English which was useful. We were able to use Euros although the change given was in Polish currency which was pretty useless to us once we had left the airport. We had no problems with the baggage security check in fact the security people were friendly and helpful. The only real down side for me was that as with other airports there is nowhere to buy a substantial meal. The cafe's only offered food such as sandwiches pastries and cakes - it would have been nice to have been able to buy a cooked lunch in a restaurant.

Today Sunday check in for a LH flight to FRA. You need to be at the Airport 3 hrs before departure. First there is a wait at the check in counter than there is long wait through security checks at least 1.5 hrs. Nice looking Airport but best is to avoid even being in Transit. Better travel by train to Poland it could be the same travel time. Inside the transit waiting area it all seems to be fine.

I am really fed up with their security rues there - the necessity for security screening on the transit flights in WAW is simply ridiculous. For example in connection HEL-WAW-POZ operated by LOT Polish Airlines all the passengers are screened in HEL but also in WAW which is idiotic. Also on the return way (POZ-WAW-HEL) everybody is checked in WAW again. So doesn't matter from where and to where you go in WAW you have another screening anyway. And the rules are these same for example no liquids even thought they were bought in HEL or in POZ in secure area. So no shopping before WAW transit. WAW airport seems to be over-ambitious in their security. It is problematic if one uses it as a transfer. The new terminal looks good but there is no internet connection and toilets stink of cigarettes.

I just walked off an International flight from ORD to WAW and immediately we are sent through security screening. We have not even mixed with the normal populace and are already being screened. Before the screening we have the chance to pick up tickets to any connections. My tickets was of course misplaced and since there is a line forming behind me instead of printing me another one they send me on a quest to find the next ticket center (which is unmanned even though someone is supposed to be there according to the sign). Finally I am able to return to the original ticket center and get my ticket reissued after 30 minutes of walking in circles. However even before my ticket quest like I said we had to go through security before we entered the airport (again just stepped off the plane). My friend had his Duty free alcohol confiscated because it was over 100ml. Even though it was sealed and had Duty free all over it. He even had the Duty fre receipt for it. What added salt into the wound was 1) he bought this on the plane coming to WAW and 2) There was a Duty fre shop right around the corner from the security checkpoint selling bottles of liquer over 100ml!

No C class check-in for SWISS Airlines although according to SWISS there should have been. Check-in staff extremely rude and unhelpful. Security checks : 5 people for one belt/machine. I inadvertently had two litre bottles of water in my hand-luggage together with two toilet bags full of liquids that I forgot to take out. All these went absolutely unnoticed which confirms the comments from a security agent on a previous trip not to bother putting my hand- luggage on the belt as the x-ray machine didn't work. Warsaw is not for the faint-hearted.

Return flight from T2 to LHR. Inward flight 15 minutes late due to delays at LHR but straight through security with no queues bags on the belt quickly and on the bus into town just 15 minutes after landing. Returning to LHR was a different matter altogether. Check-in quick and friendly but over an hour to pass through passport control and security. Huge queues everywhere with inadequate staff throughout especially at passport control. Several rude groups of pax who seemed to think it was acceptable to push in to the front of the queue despite them clearly having plenty of time to get to their gate. Flight was called well before time but due to ongoing problems at passport control take-off was delayed by 25 minutes waiting for the last passengers so we were stuck in the plane for almost an hour before finally taking-off. Facilities at the airport remain excellent however the authorities still don't seem to want to do much about the Mafia taxi drivers who continue to harass many arriving passengers.

In response to A Wroblewska's comments there is a cash machine near the cafe/shop which is located to the right of the check-in desks of T2 Departures. Additionally the cash machines located at the lower-ground floor level of T1 (down the escalator) and at T1 departures are still operational.

We flew Amsterdam to Warsaw Fryderyk Chopin and back. The new terminal in Warsaw Fryderyk Chopin looks poor especially if you compare it with Schiphol. There are not enough toilet cabins (only 3!) for the number of visitors. There were always many people waiting in the line to the toilet. The second problem were restaurants - prices very high and quality of the food was bad. There was also no cashpoint available at the airport which was very annoying. The only positive thing was that the terminal was clean and new.

I've flown to Warsaw Fryderyk Chopin many times in the past but this was my first time use of WAW T2 for both arrival and departure. The difference is incredible at least on departure. The new terminal is light well-ventilated and feels a little like a smaller version of LHR T5. The orange décor used throughout risks making the terminal feel like it's run by Easyjet but one gets used to it. Passing through passport control couldn't be quicker helped by the fact that the terminal has been divided into Schengen and non-Schengen areas by glass screens (passport control for the non-Schengen flights is about halfway along the terminal). Security clearance was quick efficient and friendly. T1 and T2 are linked together both landside and airside but one has to check-in at the appropriate terminal. Several airlines including LOT and BA now have long-overdue self check-in machines. T1 now looks increasingly tired and neglected with reduced facilities airside but retaining all its previous facilities landside. T2 however has few facilities landside but excellent facilities airside all the way from just after security to the far end of the terminal. Clearly this airport is finally making significant steps towards providing a quality service for passengers with improvements in customer service and politeness throughout. However it's not quite there yet. On arrival my and another passenger's bags were placed on the wrong belt without any warning which quickly stopped and hid our bags from view meaning that we waited for almost half an hour for our bags. On both arrival and departure there seemed to be plenty of free airbridges yet we were bussed both to and from the terminal as always seems to be the case at this airport. Why this is still the case is beyond me and clearly needs to be addressed.

Most of the negative coments about Warsaw Fryderyk Chopin are about the low-cost Etiduda terminal. The majority of scheduled airlines now depart the large and very modern Terminal 2. It's clean and very efficient. The duty-free shops are good though not too much variety. Most of the aircraft now board using walkways/gates. Some scheduled airlines do still operate from the smaller Terminal 1 though if do find yourself departing from there you can still walk through to Terminal 2 (once through security) just to sample it for yourself.