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Taken 29 May 2007 from London, England (Heathrow Airport) - LHR to Warszawa (Warsaw) (Okecie) - WAW

Check in was at the BMI desk (it is a BMI codeshare) and it is the lounge of that airline that passengers in business class have access to. Unless you have a gold card (I currently do not) the BMI lounge is not the most inspiring of places. You are sent upstairs to a room with limited drinks and almost no nibbles save some biscuits and crisps; there is usually a reasonable selection of papers and magazines here though. Another plus is that there is at least a window, from which you can often see the LOT plan. It frequently operates from the gate adjacent to the lounge.

On board a relatively cool welcome and the fairly typical delay that one currently experiences at LHR. It was not excessive, but put our arrival 20 minutes behind schedule. In flight service was not the best; food came before drinks and comprised two starters (a salad and some cold cuts) and a choice of meat or fish as the main. There was also a reasonable desert as I recall though I forget what. There was a nice menu given out before the food in both directions. Overall quite average meals. A drink was served after the food arrived followed by a second offering 20 minutes later. The crew then cleared up and vanished behind their curtain. No more drinks were offered other than a single cup of coffee.

The return flight was the last of the day out of Warsaw. Service on this flight did seem better than on the morning flight out though it was not brilliant. I may have been biased as I had come down with food poisoning (this I suspect was from a meal I had in Warsaw, not on the flight out). I took the starter and desert tray, but but only had a couple of mouthfuls. I did however have some quite nice brandy of which there were two choices of decent quality. Other passengers got a choice of two mains and there were 4 or 5 drink rounds plus a tea or coffee with refill. Overall, the crew on this flight were more friendly, but there was a delay of more than an hour. The lounge in Warsaw, whilst better in terms of choices of food and drink than the one BMI have at Terminal 1, was very small and very busy.

Seating on both 737-500 (I think) flights were of no significant difference to economy except that the middle seat is usually left empty.

I got a good deal with a business fixed ticket paying well under £300 but the same type of ticket is a similar price on BA and I would probably be inclined to try them next time (not often I say that, but I suspect the service might shade what LOT offer). However, I would not rule out using LOT again, I have had many far worse flights.