Originally Posted by
hugolover
Slightly rose-tinted specs view of departures at WAW. If you fly non-Schengen the queues to leave the Polish border can be awful. Way past the steps to the LOT lounge is not uncommon and there’s no priority queue, unless you’re travelling as CD or Crew.
When Shareeza May or Mutti Merkel get the cheque book out and buy the Poles automated border controls then I’ll agree it’s as easy as MUC. Until then, it’s just not.
Agreed. WAW looks great until you fly NS (non-Schengen) and then it gets much much worse. I know that the NS side of WAW is capacity saturated in general but the queues seem to be much worse than they were before the changes to passport control, and LO in the last year or so has been very fond of adding more NS routes just to add to the squeeze.
A couple of years ago, I used to be able to breeze through the old passport control and it barely took a second but now I will give myself an extra 20-30 mins to allow for a worst case scenario. For long hauls I don't mind this but it's a lot of padding to add to a short-haul flight - this is why I now find it much nicer to get to the UK via somewhere like CPH. Last year I had a flight to CLJ and was dumb enough to forget that Romania was NS and so waited till after boarding began to exit the lounge. When I saw the queues I realised there was no way I would make the flight without some judicious use of 'przepraszam' and showing my BP to edge my way towards the front of the queue. I noticed a woman doing exactly the same and it turns out she was on the same flight.
And everyone knows that Bolero turns into an absolute zoo at certain times of the day, but can go from totally heaving to completely deserted in the space of 10 minutes.
The Schengen side is an oasis of calm and relaxation in comparison. I almost fall into a trance when I go there. Until we get automated passport control, the expansion of the NS area and the opening of the new lounge, the difference will remain like night and day.