bertles86

Damn, LH seems a bit steep at around 20,000 PLN return for two in PE!
And LX doesn't seem to offer PE in long haul, doesn't show up in searches at least.

bbriscoe34

Just purchased 2 award tix in J on LO ORD-WAW-AMS using UA miles. How do I pick seats? When I go to the Lot website and enter the flight res under "favorite seat" it just brings up my reservation with no seat option. I shouldn't have to pay extra to pick a seat in J should I?

megaloman

use flysas.com to select/change your seats.

bbriscoe34

We are booking award flights on UA/Lot Polish to AMS for thanksgiving to see family. So far we've booked P2 and P3 J tickets. Trouble is, they only seem to release 2 J award tickets per flight so for now I'm shut out of J and I booked a separate flight on AA for myself (Web saver in F, which is nice), but would like to fly with the fam in J if possible.
Lot does offer paid and bid upgrades, and the Y tix are cheap at 33K+$6, but I don't think I will know until much closer if that's available. Is there any risk/downside to booking myself a 2nd ticket now on the UA/Lot flight in Y and trying for the upgrade at 6 weeks out or whenever its released, knowing I will have to cancel and redeposit either my UA/Lot ticket or my AA ticket?

MichalB

what is the effect on either option on award and status miles?

LOT paid upgrades are bringing Z class award/status miles, automatic entry to business lounges (like Polonez/Mazurek), business class luggage allowance and priority check-in and boarding. Does it answer your question?

bertles86

Oh brilliant, so regardless whether I bid and pay, or change a reservation, I'll have Z?

bertles86

Folks domestic LO flights like WAW-GDN, are economy only right? The mileage calculator thinks a GDN return from WAW would give 2500 award miles. Is that accurate?

theKrafty1tar

Yes, all domestic flights are economy only on LOT. Full-fare economy (Y) with executive bonus would net 2500 miles roundtrip (with the status mile promotion, it would net 3750 status miles roundtrip but only until the end of the year).

MichalB

I was not precise. Z is for bid/paid upgrades, not sure of the other scenario.

fiddleleaf

While you're changing the reservation, the booking class and fare basis are both shown when you mouse over the Select or Selected buttons. You can have Z, but it will cost you more than F.

iLied

Change of reservation is the available fare class. This is the case as you essentially sell back your seat to LOT first.

TPJ

Just got a questionnaire about the post-arrival experience: specifically if we had jetty or were transferred to the terminal by bus. There was a question, if it is fine with me to share a bus with Y passengers (I flew in C and we had jetty). Maybe it is an indication LOT is pondering weather to re-introduce a dedicated C-class bus? Then maybe they will also re-introduce proper C-class/*A priority boarding on short-haul, as for not it is mostly ignored by Gate Agents.

AlicorporateUK

It was good to fly LOT again after their recent expansion in the Balkans and thought to list a few data points and indeed an informal —or so to speak— comparison with Austrian, which is “standard choice” for my regular “hops” (I tend to avoid Lufthansa these days, especially after the Munich—Frankfurt service switch from Sarajevo).

On-Time Performance/Connection Experience
Austrian: I must have been lucky so far but I have yet to experience a delay of more than 30 minutes (I do roughly 8 segments per month), I even managed to make connections of 35 minutes with over 20 minutes’ delay (mostly out of Heathrow) and remote stand on arrival. No major disruption with LOT either but I would be somewhat reluctant to go for a short layover at Warsaw, mostly given their poor operational record (especially in the summer).

Hub Lounges
Mazurek can get very busy at times and possibly luck again however, those (very few) times I managed to pop in to the G lounge at Vienna, I was always able to get a seat.

Priority Boarding
LOT: not enforced at SJJ/PRN.
Austrian: enforced at SJJ, no one could care less at PRN.

On-Board Experience
1D on LOT’s E90 all the way. That said, great crews on both fronts, even though I’ve noticed that LOT pursers tend to “disappear” as soon as the service is done-and-dusted (which I don’t really mind as I love being left alone with my book) whereas you would get a number of “pampering rounds” (i.e. kind refilling offers) on Austrian. Food-wise: standard service is cold meal from both Sarajevo & Pristina (LOT), hot meal from Pristina on Austrian (despite the slightly shorter flight), choice of sandwiches on Sarajevo-Vienna services.

A few examples below:

LO578 SJJ—WAW (Decent quality, no complaints whatsoever):



OS758 SJJ—VIE:



OS768 PRN—VIE (By all means the only highlight is the ever-changing and delicious pudding by Do&Co):



Whilst I’m here, I’m also posting an example of LX’s (ghastly) standard meal from Sarajevo:



Needless to say, competition always welcome indeed and I therefore hope that LOT will maintain even a somewhat reduced schedule out of Sarajevo over the forthcoming winter season.

G

hugolover

Nice to see you back G after a few years away!

You said you flew in 1D, that's interesting, because I haven't flown on the newly leased E90s, that's LME/F (G/H don't have 1CD but 1AB). I didn't expect they'd have a bulkhead in front, I expected them to be like the crappy 95's from Azur and Russia that have 1CD into the galley and you sit looking out of the door and also no legroom?

Seems LME with 1CD flew LO577/8 on 18JUN but LMB flew 14JUN LO577/8 which has 2CD and loads of legroom. From your pic looked to me like 2CD but then you wrote 1CD. Hence my question.

Something unique to LOT is how they stop service as soon as the captain pings the seatbelt which happens as soon as they commence descent so around 35 mins before landing. No 10 mins to landing like on BA or KL.

AlicorporateUK

Thanks, D.

Attention to details (as usual) there and I can't remember exactly on which aircraft/seat that picture was taken (I could create my own sad airline meals blog with all the pictures I've got stored...) but it could have well been 2D (by the way, spot-on, I did fly LO577 on 14JUN). Row 1 (as you obviously know) is normally blocked when you attempt to choose seats (i.e. after booking) however I made sure to check-in at 24h on the dot this past Friday and 1D was still available (it eventually turned out that the trainee Agnieszka only had 1 passenger to deal with so there was no need to rush at check-in). For the records, the aircraft was SP-LNA (Podkarpackie livery) and 1D had indeed plenty of legroom (I don't normally pay attention to the aircraft but I definitely had quite a few flights sitting on 1D and with the same legroom as SP-LNA, not necessarily on those SJJ/PRN services). The other thing I've noticed (which, again, you will already be aware of) is that there are quite a few trainees (cabin crew) flying these days: a senior cabin crew was sitting on 2A yesterday, she basically just observed and seemed to be filling in a form during take-off and later during landing as well. Again, for the records, 76 passengers yesterday, I assume many of them were in transit; ditto with the Sarajevo flights – always packed, especially LO578 WAW-SJJ, whereas I did a couple of LO577 SJJ-WAW with less than 20 passengers, but I assume it's pretty normal given that most of the diaspora traffic is outbound during June/July (incidentally, I flew to Vienna from Pristina towards the end of June with roughly 30 passengers on a 321...).

Overall, wise move from LOT to expand in such markets this year (especially Kosovo with its huge diaspora and not only in Europe but pretty much everywhere in the US): whilst (as we all know) packed flights won't necessarily translate to healthy finances or so to speak, with the fares I'm seeing since April/May this year (at least on those flights I am normally booked on i.e. LHR/AMS/PRN/BEG via VIE/WAW/ZRH/FRA), I would attempt to make a guess and say that they must be definitely making some $$$.

P.S.: you prompted me to go and look back at the boarding pass from yesterday (which I used as bookmark) just to ensure I wasn't going mad:



G