It’s an exciting time for LOT Polish Airlines. Not only has the airline revealed plans to refresh its Boeing 787 cabins and grow its fleet by nearly 50%, but the airline also intends to open its first lounge outside of Poland.
In this post:
LOT Lounge coming to Chicago O’Hare Terminal 5
LOT Polish Airlines has announced plans to open a lounge at Chicago O’Hare Airport (ORD) in the second half of 2024. The lounge will be located in Terminal 5, which is the airport’s primary international terminal. The lounge is expected to be 617 square meters (6,642 square feet) and should feature modern design, as well as floor-to-ceiling windows.
Exact details of the lounge’s features aren’t yet known beyond that, though you can expect the lounge will offer a variety of seating options, a buffet, and a bar.
It’s not entirely clear to me where in Terminal 5 this lounge will be. I know the terminal is in the process of being expanded, so I imagine this lounge will be somewhere in that extension? This almost looks similar to the Delta Sky Club in Terminal 5, which also features lots of natural light.
This will be LOT’s first lounge outside of Poland. Chicago is a logical airport for such a lounge, since it’s the carrier’s largest outstation — LOT has service to both Krakow (KRK) and Warsaw (WAW) out of Chicago, with the latter route typically having two daily frequencies.
Below are some of the renderings of the LOT Polish Airlines Lounge Chicago, though it’s my understanding that this hasn’t yet been finalized.
This lounge addition is really exciting
In terms of lounge options, Chicago’s Terminal 5 is probably the worst international terminal in the United States. While the new Delta Sky Club is great, non-SkyTeam flyers have really bad options. The two other lounges are the Scandinavian Airlines Lounge, which is tiny and doesn’t have bathrooms, and the Swissport Lounge, which I consider to be the worst lounge in the United States.
Additional lounge options in the terminal are long overdue — not only should the LOT Lounge be nicer than the existing options, but most importantly, it will add additional capacity, reducing crowding in the other (tiny) lounges.
In line with Star Alliance lounge access policies, I imagine the LOT Lounge will also accommodate premium passengers on other Star Alliance airlines, like Austrian Airlines, EVA Air, SWISS, TAP Air Portugal, Turkish Airlines, and more. Historically many of these passengers have been sent to the Scandinavian Airlines Lounge, but the airline is leaving Star Alliance and joining SkyTeam.
While there’s an excellent United Polaris Lounge in Chicago, that’s located in Terminal 1, so it’s not practical for those who are originating their travels in Chicago.
Bottom line
LOT Polish Airlines will be opening its first lounge outside of Poland in 2024, as the airline plans to open a location at Chicago O’Hare Terminal 5. The renderings of the lounge so far look great, and most importantly, this will add much needed capacity to the terminal.
What do you make of plans for the LOT Lounge Chicago?
My question is where id the Swiss lounge? The plans for T5 always included expanded lounge space, I know Swiss is expected to move to the new global terminal but we are talking about 7-10 years from now.
Swiss had an excellent small lounge in T5 before, I would assume they along with BA would want a new lounge. Will be interesting to see what happens.
LOT pictures look great.
There is no Swiss lounge at O'Hare, and no plans for Swiss to have a lounge in the future, as far as I know.
The lounge looks impressive in terms of decor and furnishing but I'm not sure the value of an airline like LOT having it's own lounges in outposts given their product isn't particularly distinct nor have much of a national flavor/character. It's a fairly generic airline and product. Lounges like this make sense for airlines with strong product, quality and national character, sometimes some of these or all of these - think British Airways, Lufthansa, Singapore...
The lounge looks impressive in terms of decor and furnishing but I'm not sure the value of an airline like LOT having it's own lounges in outposts given their product isn't particularly distinct nor have much of a national flavor/character. It's a fairly generic airline and product. Lounges like this make sense for airlines with strong product, quality and national character, sometimes some of these or all of these - think British Airways, Lufthansa, Singapore Airlines and Qatar Airways but not for airlines like LOT. It feels a waste of money to me and adds little value for the money spent by them form a business point of view especially as I doubt they will be able or willing to maintain any kind of standards or quality.
There is also a BA Galleries lounge which has no windows in T5… The T5 expansion has for the most part been built and significantly increased the size of the terminal so there is plenty of space for new lounges. Makes sense since LOT will likely not join in the new global terminal with United even when it’s finished.
I was actually wondering why they’d build a new lounge with the new global terminal going in (although that’s a ways away). Why is LOT not joining United there? I thought the expectation was the star/oneworld partners would be adjacent to the United/American hubs.
There isn’t enough room in the new terminal and only Lufthansa group (Lufthansa, Swiss, Austrian), ANA, New Zealand, Copa and Air Canada will be able to fit. (Source airliners.net and flyertalk). Most of the new terminal/satelites is upgrading gates and there isn’t as much of a net gain as one would think.
Got it thanks for the info. Do you know the expected oneworld carriers by any chance? It’d be nice to have BA join….
I too am curious where this lounge will be installed in T5. Looks beautiful, too beautiful imho for the T5 space/layout as is.
The entrance is across from Frontera (it's blocked off currently) it's on the far east east area of the newly built headhouse. LO will have access to board from the lounge like Delta has. This area will also house the AF/KL lounge.
Why in the HECK isn't their a Star Alliance lounge in ORD T5 - considering their is AI, NZ, NH (some at times), OS, BR and of course LO
I get that NOT all of them can get into T1 - but it seems pretty poor to make ONE carrier where this is an outstation push for the lounge
grammar police - sorry "there" not "their"
And LOT will be paid handsomely by the other airlines for their use of it!
@ Gregg - I suspect that's a big reason why this is happening...
Never understood why United doesn't put it's Star Alliance partner in their terminal.
Not all departures can utilized the airside bus.
Because there isn’t enough room at terminal 1. United already does the ground work for Lufthansa, ANA, and Air Canada in T1. They just simply can’t fit all of their internationals and then 4 other carriers in their terminal, it’s not feasible
LOT did have a lounge in Budapest but I believe it has closed.
Agree T5 is a mess in its current state. I typically fly Delta so the Sky Club is a god send. When I fly other international airlines out of T5 (Qatar as an example) I will go through security in the other terminals to use the Polaris or AA Flagship lounges before taking the airside bus to T5. Great tarmac views too!
That is what I do as well. However, this isn't convenient when you have luggage to check in, which I normally do when I travel long haul.
We are typically carry on only but our last Qatar flight out of ORD we checked in at T5, took the tram to T3 to go through TSA. Took maybe an extra 5 minutes. We also arrived 2.5 hours early just so we could go to the other terminal. Understandably not everyone will have that much time.
I would prioritize Pre-Check over a lounge to get me to book with LOT.
United (and the United Polaris lounge) is in Terminal 1, not Terminal 2.
Most United and several Star Alliance international flights take off from terminal 2, so those passengers can already use the lounges located there.
That is not correct. United, Lufthansa, and ANA depart from terminal 1 at ORD. United and Air Canada in terminal 2. All others depart from terminal 5.
If SAS is moving to Skyteam, it'd make sense if this lounge were to take the place of the existing SAS lounge and then SAS passengers start using the Delta Skyclub. Unless they plan on having this lounge in a newly constructed portion of the terminal...
Polaris is in Terminal 1 Concourse C
Why though? I wouldn't have thought the quality of outstation lounges would be a top priority for LOT.
Chicago has the largest Polish population of any city outside of Poland.
Opening a lounge at ORD makes perfect sense. In fact, one wonders why it took LOT so long.
You know which place has more Poles than Chicago? Warsaw. LOT should focus on improving their lounge offering there, CPK is still a long way away. Not to mention other focus cities, e.g. KRK and GDN, where they only offer third party lounges (and the one at KRK is truly abysmal).