Air Belgium Operating LOT Polish Airlines Flight To New York

Finally something about your favourite airline, Ben 🙂 All in all, not a bad addition. Especially with the Wi-Fi on board (which is a first on LO operated flights)

Boring Airline from a boring Country

I flew LOT round trip from New York in November 2019 and Air Belgium operated the return flight. I had bought premium economy in cash round trip, but Air Belgium did not have premium economy so I was upgraded to business class which was a nice treat. LOT was the only mainline air carrier that flew to Kaunas, Lithuania and I needed to fly there instead of Vilnius.

Not the first time Air Belgium has operated for LOT into New York. They did it in 2019 from WAW to JFK in Summer.

What a stupid, misinformed comment. Belgium is a small country, with a rich history and plenty to see and do (and has some great food). Certainly a better corner of the world than most places in America.

For the IFE, can we expect a LOT content or Air Belgium content?

LOT has been operating 2x daily service between JFK and WAW in recent weeks - LOT 7 and 27, one a 788, the other a 789....

Beligum is a non-country. We should stop pretending it is a country and just disband it, handing control of the respective regions back to the rightful owners Germany, Netherlands, Luxembourg. And make Brussels a special administrative district of the EU juist like DC is to the US, city of London is to the UK and Hong Kong is to China.

I'm curious about this as well. If anyone knows the answer to this, please share!

Are those flight times just for the week after Europe turns the clock back but before the US does? They only make sense with a 5-hour time difference (vs. the usual 6), unless there's a technical stop in BRU going westbound.

"regions back to the rightful owners Germany, Netherlands, Luxembourg"

Er, the French too?

Also, why not do the same to Switzerland as well, while we're at it?

"And make Brussels a special administrative district of the EU juist like DC is to the US, city of London is to the UK and Hong Kong is to China."

Um, what now?

I too Air Belgium from New York to WAW a year or two before covid via a A340. Worked out fine. Service was good. IIRC, it was complete wet lease arrangement: AB captain & cabin crew, etc.

Air Belgium also operated the British Airways flight from Heathrow to Chicago last week.

"that’s ordinarily operated by the Boeing 787, which is LOT’s only long haul aircraft"

is this accurate given my prior comment/correction???? This site has poor accuracy and corrections

I disagree with you. I don't think having more seats in premium cabins is good depending on the configuration. It may mean less space and more people in the cabin.

Was always wondering how wifi and inflight entertainment works in wet-lease cases: it is up to operating airline or LOT (in this case) will make an effort to load their selection of media into (likely incompatible) Air Belgium system?
Will LOT see to it that J passengers will get free wifi like it happens on "real" LOT planes?

Great! Another airline livery will be seen in JFK!

I thought that LOT had 2 dreamliners parked in a US airplane parking yard because during the covid aircraft grounding the company decided not to take the 2 planes into service. Now I'm hearing there is an aircraft shortage? Whatever happened to those 2 registries? This article explains some of the questions, but not all of them: https://simpleflying.com/lot-delayed-boeing-787-orders/

The question is, why is LOT doing this. I had heard back in 2019 that LOT's 787s are equipped with Rolls Royce engines, which apparently fail. LOT opted for the cheapest engines and no maintenance contract making their 787s unreliable. Why else would LOT be using Airbuses again? What is the real problem here. Is it secret? Are LOT's 787s not safe to fly?

I flew this a week ago and Business class is much worse at air Belgium vs LOT. Cabin is very narrow because “neo” is basically a repainted early 90’s aircraft and overall space and seat positioning is rather comparable to lot premium economy than business. Complete failure and degradation for business travelers. I hope this will end soon.

Litigation LOT vs. Boeing about B737 MAX groundings 2021-22.
LOT took huge losses. Its’ medium-range fleet is mostly MAX8/9.
The ready B787s parked in the desert are „hostages” of the ongoing litigation.

I enjoyed my AB flight WAW-JFK in Business back in 2020, on A340. Belgian crew service was attentive and pleasant, without the „LOT” attitude of superiority.
Hard Product was dated, but not worse than the antiquated Business on LOT’s B787s. Which LOT still has in 2024.
Overall, a better experience.