Home > LOT Polish Airlines > Review

Taken 13 March 2007 from New York, NY (John F. Kennedy International Airport) - JFK to Dublin - DUB

Before anyone thinks I've made a typo, yes I did fly from JFK to Dublin with a transit in Warsaw. There's methods in the madness of mileage junkees you see. Plus, LOT's one way biz class was significantly cheaper than almost any other carrier, except Aer Lingus, but they're a bit of a joke anyway.

LOT operates from Terminal 4 at Kennedy and check-in was pretty painless. Biz passengers have use of a shared lounge which also hosts other carriers such as Kuwait Airways and Royal Jordanian. You have the option of pre-flight dining if you wish, and there are a couple of computers available too. Boarding was called on time, but we must have waited nearly 30 minutes for the crew to complete their head count and paperwork by which time we were about 5th in line for take-off.

Flight was operated by a 767-300 and fitted with LOT's new Sleeper Seat which I have to admit is quite comfortable. It tilts at an angle rather than being 180 degrees, but allows a good night's sleep all the same. There is no personal TV however the crew distributed a rather cumbersome multimedia player with film and album releases that I wouldn't consider recent. A lavish, but not outstanding 6 course dinner was served efficiently after which the crew dimmed the lights for the remainder of the journey. I didn't wake for breakfast which is a good indication of how comfy the seat was. Arrival in Warsaw was about 20 minutes early despite our late departure.

Transit in Warsaw was also very smooth although LOT could make more of an effort with their lounge since this is their home base; it has a very dated look about it, and is completely dwarfed by the offerings of SQ and CX. Again departure was delayed as we waited in the bus bringing us out the plane for some unannounced reason.

I was the only Business passenger for the WAW-DUB sector meaning that the rather over-enthusiastic cabin attendant could give all her attention to me when all I wanted was to sleep. Never mind, at least her intentions were kind. The scrambled egg with sun-dried tomato served for brunch looked like it that plastic imitation food you see in the windows of Chinese restaurants, and for all intents and purposes tasted like it too. Hugely disappointing!

Overall, I did have some initial concerns about flying LOT since most people rarely think of an Eastern European airline for long haul travel, and they're not exactly leaders in their field. Nonetheless, collecting mileage in a clean and safe plane was a priority and that's what LOT did so yes, a thumbs up from me!