LOT Polish: New long haul business class from 2026
Jun 4, 2022, 5:58 am
#1
Original Poster
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LOT Polish: New long haul business class from 2026
Discussion on the Polish forum: W 2024 nowa klasa biznes w LOT
What we know:
- direct aisle access
- wi-fi
- new IFE
2024 is tentative.
So now I expect Skytrax to award LOT 5 stars, following what they did with another airline when new C-class (still not there) announcement was made (I know, I know... but could not resist
).
PS. Mods - I know we have another thread about current C-class, but I propose to have a separate one for new C, so we could update it when additional product info is revealed...
What we know:
- direct aisle access
- wi-fi
- new IFE
2024 is tentative.
So now I expect Skytrax to award LOT 5 stars, following what they did with another airline when new C-class (still not there) announcement was made (I know, I know... but could not resist
).PS. Mods - I know we have another thread about current C-class, but I propose to have a separate one for new C, so we could update it when additional product info is revealed...
Last edited by oliver2002; Jan 2, 2024 at 8:41 am
Jun 4, 2022, 10:02 am
#2
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: Oct 2008
Posts: 11,593
Sounds very good if we speak about a typical commercial airline which has had a great pre-Covid history but LOT’s is terrible. Its absolutely nuts considering the losses they have, paid for by the taxpayer. To me it sounds like those Polak's who open the voddy and tell stories of the old Polish Empire and how important they used to be. Dreaming about cooking a gala dinner, but they can’t even prepare an omelette.
First step would be to get their house in order and have effective management. With tiny premium cabins to match demand they're never gonna be some kind of premium-heavy airline cos they're flying from Poland and CEE.
I'd happily go along with it when I see they can run what is in reality a tiny, tiny airline properly. They've got a gazillion different planes, cabin configs on SH and absolutely terrible on-time ratings and irregularity. When they were so busy in 2019 it was a complete disaster with misconnections, expensive wet leases, a total CF. They made no money when other carriers were creaming it. That tells you everything you need to know. The excuse then was, we need to be bigger, we need to reach a critical mass.
Then during Covid when there were no flights, they had no staff, flights were late. Now flights are ramping up (perhaps a bubble) they don't have staff and what staff they are recruiting are truly bottom of the barrel as no one wants to work for them, flights are late, loads of misconnections. Other carriers are experiencing this too like LH, but not as bad. BA worse, but BA is a benchmark of nothing.
Respect the Law on rebookings and irregularities. Short haul is lost to LCC’s so why launch DUB-WAW and keep an Embraer occupied for 7-8 hours of block time. Who launches CAI during June? Is it high-season in Cairo? Price sensitive Poles pick other carriers and ones with money pick better ones. Money wasted on pointless crap, like streaming Entertainment.
I was looking at some routes, like KRK-TLV and the on-time ratings are so terrible if the numbers were run for how much they need to pay out for EC261 they should called up Michael O'Leary and told him to fly it. Somehow Ryanair manage to be on-time from their Polish bases and have enough ground handling staff.
The same useless, overpaid management pre-Covid are still at the top post-Covid, so what will change? The young ones come up with ideas like taking away tea/coffee on SH Europe, no more spinach buns, like these minuscule savings are gonna make even the slightest bit of difference.
TL/DR: I know its an old fashioned view, but get your house in order, show the Polish public you can fly on-time before you start dreaming big. There just aren’t enough new pax to change this. They need to win back the pax they’ve lost over the years.
First step would be to get their house in order and have effective management. With tiny premium cabins to match demand they're never gonna be some kind of premium-heavy airline cos they're flying from Poland and CEE.
I'd happily go along with it when I see they can run what is in reality a tiny, tiny airline properly. They've got a gazillion different planes, cabin configs on SH and absolutely terrible on-time ratings and irregularity. When they were so busy in 2019 it was a complete disaster with misconnections, expensive wet leases, a total CF. They made no money when other carriers were creaming it. That tells you everything you need to know. The excuse then was, we need to be bigger, we need to reach a critical mass.
Then during Covid when there were no flights, they had no staff, flights were late. Now flights are ramping up (perhaps a bubble) they don't have staff and what staff they are recruiting are truly bottom of the barrel as no one wants to work for them, flights are late, loads of misconnections. Other carriers are experiencing this too like LH, but not as bad. BA worse, but BA is a benchmark of nothing.
Respect the Law on rebookings and irregularities. Short haul is lost to LCC’s so why launch DUB-WAW and keep an Embraer occupied for 7-8 hours of block time. Who launches CAI during June? Is it high-season in Cairo?
Price sensitive Poles pick other carriers and ones with money pick better ones. Money wasted on pointless crap, like streaming Entertainment. I was looking at some routes, like KRK-TLV and the on-time ratings are so terrible if the numbers were run for how much they need to pay out for EC261 they should called up Michael O'Leary and told him to fly it. Somehow Ryanair manage to be on-time from their Polish bases and have enough ground handling staff.
The same useless, overpaid management pre-Covid are still at the top post-Covid, so what will change? The young ones come up with ideas like taking away tea/coffee on SH Europe, no more spinach buns, like these minuscule savings are gonna make even the slightest bit of difference.
TL/DR: I know its an old fashioned view, but get your house in order, show the Polish public you can fly on-time before you start dreaming big. There just aren’t enough new pax to change this. They need to win back the pax they’ve lost over the years.
Jun 5, 2022, 5:41 am
#4
Join Date: Jun 2021
Programs: BAEC Gold
Posts: 554
I only rarely fly with LOT (in fact the last time was very early 2020 and the flight was operated by Avion Express), but I do fly in and out of Warsaw with considerable regularity on BA (hence the username). It strikes me that one of the biggest obstacles for the airline is Chopin Airport itself - particularly when it comes to non-Schengen operations.
Perhaps someone with more knowledge can confirm, but it does seem that some of the gates are "flexible" and can be used either for Schengen or non-Schengen flights as demand dictates. Even so, the dedicated area for the latter can best be described as...pokey. If there are more than 1 or 2 787s boarding simultaneously, it isn't unusual to find yourself stepping over people. Perhaps the much-vaunted Central Polish Airport will change things, or perhaps it's a political pipe dream. Either way, the current situation is not at all "premium".
But perhaps I digress. A new hard product in C is certainly to be welcomed. It's purely speculation on my part, but I wonder if the specification of "direct aisle access" rather than "1-2-1" means they're exploring something like the Gulf Air Falcon Gold seat, which would permit them to maintain a 2-2-2 layout while eliminating the need to climb over a neighbour. Another advantage is that window seats in this configuration are actually window seats - reverse herringbone is a superior setup from a comfort perspective, but it can sometimes be difficult to look outside.
Perhaps someone with more knowledge can confirm, but it does seem that some of the gates are "flexible" and can be used either for Schengen or non-Schengen flights as demand dictates. Even so, the dedicated area for the latter can best be described as...pokey. If there are more than 1 or 2 787s boarding simultaneously, it isn't unusual to find yourself stepping over people. Perhaps the much-vaunted Central Polish Airport will change things, or perhaps it's a political pipe dream. Either way, the current situation is not at all "premium".
But perhaps I digress. A new hard product in C is certainly to be welcomed. It's purely speculation on my part, but I wonder if the specification of "direct aisle access" rather than "1-2-1" means they're exploring something like the Gulf Air Falcon Gold seat, which would permit them to maintain a 2-2-2 layout while eliminating the need to climb over a neighbour. Another advantage is that window seats in this configuration are actually window seats - reverse herringbone is a superior setup from a comfort perspective, but it can sometimes be difficult to look outside.
Jun 6, 2022, 7:19 am
#5
Moderator: Lufthansa Miles & More, India based airlines, India, External Miles & Points Resources
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Why on earth LO is even thinking about spending 10+ million $ per aircraft on refurbishing their B787 fleet? The inflight product (hard & soft) is perfectly fine for the network they operate. The 8 B788s are owned by LO, so the cost of retrofit would have to come out of their pockets. The 7 B789 are leased (two more on order) so maybe they plan to stick the leasing company with the cost.
Mar 22, 2023, 8:21 am
#8
Join Date: Dec 2010
Programs: M&M Senator
Posts: 318
Sounds very good if we speak about a typical commercial airline which has had a great pre-Covid history but LOTs is terrible. Its absolutely nuts considering the losses they have, paid for by the taxpayer. To me it sounds like those Polak's who open the voddy and tell stories of the old Polish Empire and how important they used to be. Dreaming about cooking a gala dinner, but they cant even prepare an omelette.
First step would be to get their house in order and have effective management. With tiny premium cabins to match demand they're never gonna be some kind of premium-heavy airline cos they're flying from Poland and CEE.
I'd happily go along with it when I see they can run what is in reality a tiny, tiny airline properly. They've got a gazillion different planes, cabin configs on SH and absolutely terrible on-time ratings and irregularity. When they were so busy in 2019 it was a complete disaster with misconnections, expensive wet leases, a total CF. They made no money when other carriers were creaming it. That tells you everything you need to know. The excuse then was, we need to be bigger, we need to reach a critical mass.
Then during Covid when there were no flights, they had no staff, flights were late. Now flights are ramping up (perhaps a bubble) they don't have staff and what staff they are recruiting are truly bottom of the barrel as no one wants to work for them, flights are late, loads of misconnections. Other carriers are experiencing this too like LH, but not as bad. BA worse, but BA is a benchmark of nothing.
Respect the Law on rebookings and irregularities. Short haul is lost to LCCs so why launch DUB-WAW and keep an Embraer occupied for 7-8 hours of block time. Who launches CAI during June? Is it high-season in Cairo? Price sensitive Poles pick other carriers and ones with money pick better ones. Money wasted on pointless crap, like streaming Entertainment.
I was looking at some routes, like KRK-TLV and the on-time ratings are so terrible if the numbers were run for how much they need to pay out for EC261 they should called up Michael O'Leary and told him to fly it. Somehow Ryanair manage to be on-time from their Polish bases and have enough ground handling staff.
The same useless, overpaid management pre-Covid are still at the top post-Covid, so what will change? The young ones come up with ideas like taking away tea/coffee on SH Europe, no more spinach buns, like these minuscule savings are gonna make even the slightest bit of difference.
TL/DR: I know its an old fashioned view, but get your house in order, show the Polish public you can fly on-time before you start dreaming big. There just arent enough new pax to change this. They need to win back the pax theyve lost over the years.
First step would be to get their house in order and have effective management. With tiny premium cabins to match demand they're never gonna be some kind of premium-heavy airline cos they're flying from Poland and CEE.
I'd happily go along with it when I see they can run what is in reality a tiny, tiny airline properly. They've got a gazillion different planes, cabin configs on SH and absolutely terrible on-time ratings and irregularity. When they were so busy in 2019 it was a complete disaster with misconnections, expensive wet leases, a total CF. They made no money when other carriers were creaming it. That tells you everything you need to know. The excuse then was, we need to be bigger, we need to reach a critical mass.
Then during Covid when there were no flights, they had no staff, flights were late. Now flights are ramping up (perhaps a bubble) they don't have staff and what staff they are recruiting are truly bottom of the barrel as no one wants to work for them, flights are late, loads of misconnections. Other carriers are experiencing this too like LH, but not as bad. BA worse, but BA is a benchmark of nothing.
Respect the Law on rebookings and irregularities. Short haul is lost to LCCs so why launch DUB-WAW and keep an Embraer occupied for 7-8 hours of block time. Who launches CAI during June? Is it high-season in Cairo?
Price sensitive Poles pick other carriers and ones with money pick better ones. Money wasted on pointless crap, like streaming Entertainment.I was looking at some routes, like KRK-TLV and the on-time ratings are so terrible if the numbers were run for how much they need to pay out for EC261 they should called up Michael O'Leary and told him to fly it. Somehow Ryanair manage to be on-time from their Polish bases and have enough ground handling staff.
The same useless, overpaid management pre-Covid are still at the top post-Covid, so what will change? The young ones come up with ideas like taking away tea/coffee on SH Europe, no more spinach buns, like these minuscule savings are gonna make even the slightest bit of difference.
TL/DR: I know its an old fashioned view, but get your house in order, show the Polish public you can fly on-time before you start dreaming big. There just arent enough new pax to change this. They need to win back the pax theyve lost over the years.
Członek zarządu PLL LOT do spraw operacyjnych, Maciej Wilk, zapowiada dostosowanie flagowych samolotów długodystansowych przewoźnika do najnowszych standardów.
Mar 22, 2023, 9:57 am
#9
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Wait a second - I just looked at that link and they are quoting Wilk - I had read that he had left LOT. What is happening?
Członek zarządu PLL LOT do spraw operacyjnych, Maciej Wilk, zapowiada dostosowanie flagowych samolotów długodystansowych przewoźnika do najnowszych standardów.
Członek zarządu PLL LOT do spraw operacyjnych, Maciej Wilk, zapowiada dostosowanie flagowych samolotów długodystansowych przewoźnika do najnowszych standardów.
Mar 22, 2023, 1:02 pm
#10
Join Date: Dec 2010
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Posts: 318
Jun 26, 2023, 11:05 am
#12
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Apparently this is finally happening
https://www.fly4free.pl/lot-calkowic...ZX6mMXJHRkEXps
https://www.fly4free.pl/lot-calkowic...ZX6mMXJHRkEXps
Jun 26, 2023, 11:23 am
#13
Join Date: Jun 2021
Programs: BAEC Gold
Posts: 554
Apparently this is finally happening
https://www.fly4free.pl/lot-calkowic...ZX6mMXJHRkEXps
https://www.fly4free.pl/lot-calkowic...ZX6mMXJHRkEXps
- 1-2-1 configuration. No details on the seat type or manufacturer, but the article mentions a herringbone (presumably and hopefully reverse herringbone) layout and a potential slight increase in J capacity.
- Rollout 2025-2026
- New Premium Economy and Economy seats too
- New IFE system
- Finally there will be WiFi onboard (some speculation about tariffs, but nothing concrete).
Shame the rollout doesnt start sooner!
Jun 26, 2023, 11:23 am
#14
Join Date: Aug 2005
Location: HPN
Programs: not anymore! I'm FREE!
Posts: 3,466
Apparently this is finally happening
https://www.fly4free.pl/lot-calkowic...ZX6mMXJHRkEXps
https://www.fly4free.pl/lot-calkowic...ZX6mMXJHRkEXps
1-2-1
reverse herringbone
(assuming you trust Google translate)
Jun 26, 2023, 1:15 pm
#15
Join Date: Aug 2019
Posts: 15
I just flew LOT in J(first time flying with them, but they offered a great fare ) BUD-ICN, and I was impressed by the cabin crew, the fact that the bathrooms stayed spotless for the entire flight and the catering. The only drawback was the lack of direct aisle access. I thought they actually offered a pretty competitive product, and it beats transiting in FRA.