AlicorporateUK

Is LOT about to announce Manchester as rumours would suggest? That would be a nice comeback!

G

yurtripper

hugolover

AlicorporateUK

Billiken

Sorry for a basic question, but I have reservation on LO 11 WAW-EWR on Monday, 3-SEP-18.

Expert Flyer showing the flight no longer operates on Mondays.
EF does not show day of the week that flight operates.
(Triggered a schedule change with my UA reservations.)

Is this route seasonal for LO?
Wondering if it will revert back to daily next Spring/Summer.

THANKS

yurtripper

That's for S18. It's currently the winter season so a different timetable is in operation.

The current WAW-EWR service is LO 15: https://www.flightradar24.com/data/flights/lo15

The summer schedule for LO 11 ended on Oct 31.

TPJ

On Mondays the flight will operate RZE-EWR flight iso WAW-RZE.

It will be a scissor route WAW-EWR-RZE-EWR-WAW on some days of the week.

klausa

I still can't believe that RZE is getting a longhaul wide-body operations.

marcoos

The local government sponsors the route, LOT flies it. Waste of taxpayers' money in my opinion (they'd better pay for local trains and buses, that's what the region actually needs), but still a better approach to longhaul flights from RZE and KRK than the previous "local politicians want a route, LOT flies it and suffers losses".

LO 044

What's old is new again. Pure communism. LO was on it's way to becoming a good airline again until the government pretty much switched management. This is no different than what they did with Polish broadcasting. The flight may be full in economy with the lowest paying passengers but the business class will have no one in it. But as others have said, the government will subsidize it and the flights will go on. For other examples see LO starting flights from BUD or Polish InterCity trains having scheduled stops at hay bale size towns of (now former) prime ministers.

hugolover

Personally, I think its all lovely. One of the advantages of spending a lot of time in Polska is that I can get the benefit of Mrs. May's "EU" cash. I don't think I ever benefitted from state aid as I much as I have in Poland, it just so happens to not be from Polish taxpayers and I am not Polish, but, that is the EU dream. The trains I use here are far better than in the UK, the regional airports are much better-Fast Track works so well. (The little lounge in RZE has a Nespresso making coffee much better than the LO machine in WAW .)

The flight might be full of the cheapest fares but theres a hairs width between LO fares and those of LH group on PL-US (and you more substantial free catering). Only on the non-stops is it more expensive. And 2000zl is far more than you would pay from a more wealthy country like the UK for an advance purchase NYC fare. PL is not a particularly cheap country to fly from to the US, I know a number of Poles who take further ground or air transportation to take advantage of cheaper fares for long journeys. Cheapest fare on direct RZE-EWR seems to be 2180 PLN, its 2012 PLN if you fly via WAW. I'd say many would still fly from KRK with LH because the schedules are much better for the same price and enhanced frequency.

PL Premium fares are not cheap. 8910 PLN, RZE-NYC with LO, 8600 with LH. I understand pricing behind the non-stops but it's cheaper to fly via one of LH group hubs, FRA, MUC, VIE, ZRH and sit in a C cabin than "Dash" it to WAW. I am sure LO have some very good corporate deals because otherwise its just patriotism to fly with LO.

Imagine you can fly from GOT-SFO for a shy over 1200 PLN with LH in Y. There's nothing like that out of Poland.

By the way, PS are starting KRK-KBP with a Barbie Jet. They have very good fares on NYC in C (4500 PLN), I know its crap on the 767 but it seems to be much improved on the 777?

AlicorporateUK

yurtripper

Have you visited SZZ yet? That might curtail your fondness for the regional airports.

Don't underestimate the implacable desire of people who aren't frequent flyers to get that all-important non-stop routing, especially in Poland. While Brits are often used to connecting or positioning, to get to LHR or avoid it altogether, as well as going via the usual ME3 hubs for Asia/Australia, I find that in Poland people would sometimes rather lose a limb than take any extra flight, even when they're getting terrible value. I've gone blue in the face explaining the exact same things as you, but it almost never makes any impact on people who just want to get from A to B and back to A with as little fuss as possible. The fact that LO is now giving people far more options for non-stops makes them even less likely to change that mindset. LO understands this mindset very well, which is why it trumpets the new direct routes so loudly, even though the normally price-sensitive consumers could find better options elsewhere.

Again, most people in PL aren't aware of things like how Scandinavian routings can price much cheaper, especially for Premium cabins. I recently told a friend who was looking for a good deal on PE flights to Asia to start by looking at options from ARN. He looked at me like I was crazy. It was like telling someone who is hoping to find a cut-price vacation that they should consider spending a week in downtown Zurich. Another friend just booked WAW-LAX, paying over 3K for a junk economy ticket and was put out when I told him the price he could have got for flying LH instead. What's worse is that he intends to credit it to UA but the LO flight will only give him 25% on that.

PS and its routes are already well-known and appreciated among the Polish FF community (see https://www.fly4free.pl/forum/viewto...=191&p=1012755) but I'm not sure how much that translates to the average consumer.

LO 044

Brzeszcze, Poland. The following story is in Polish only but maybe Google translator will work OK.
Wyborcza.pl

From my experience it is completely opposite. A Polish person will fly to Germany and rent a car to drive to Poland. At that point they will overpay for the rental vehicle in general and more so for the few that don't know how to drive a vehicle with a manual transmission.

Just look at Air Canada Rouge. They are increasing YYZ-WAW flights to daily in summer 2018. It's not that AC Rouge is cheaper but LO is stupidly expensive but in the end AC Rouge costs less than LO therefore more are flying AC Rouge with less comfort overall.

AlicorporateUK