LOT Polish Airlines has announced plans to renovate and expand one of its primary lounges at Warsaw Chopin Airport (WAW), which is long overdue (thanks to YHBU for flagging this)…
In this post:
LOT Business Lounge Polonez being updated
The Polonez Lounge is LOT Polish Airlines’ business class lounge in the Schengen area of its Warsaw hub. In terms of design and space, the lounge leaves a bit to be desired, so there’s some good news on that front.
As of July 2024, the lounge is undergoing some major updates, and they should be completed by December 2024. For one, the lounge will be expanded by 153 square meters (~1,650 square feet), and will gain 64 additional seats. When all is said and done, the lounge will be a total of over 860 square meters (~9,250 square feet). The expanded space will offer views of the terminal below (which… isn’t a terribly exciting view).
In addition to an expansion, the lounge will also get new interiors, to align with the carrier’s updated brand identity. The new design is described as combining elegance and functionality, with modern furniture, including comfortable seats and sofas.
The good news is that the lounge will remain open during the renovation… and that’s also the bad news. Not only can you expect some extra noise, but sections of the lounge will also be closed off, so you can expect the lounge will be more crowded than usual.
Here’s how Izabela Leszczyńska, LOT Polish Airlines’ Director of Product Development and Customer Experience, describes the updates:
“We constantly strive to make the experience of LOT Polish Airlines passengers exceptional at every stage of the journey, which is why we are pleased to announce the reconstruction of our LOT Business Lounge Polonez. From satisfaction surveys, we know that passengers rate the lounge very well, especially valuing our food and beverage offer. However, we realize that in the so-called ‘outbound waves’ the lounge is visited by many travelers, therefore, as part of the modernization, we will introduce more space and modern amenities. I believe that the changes will provide even greater comfort, as well as the ability to work and relax freely. LOT Business Lounge Polonez is the largest lounge at the Chopin Airport, which is LOT’s hub. We want all our customers to experience LOT’s famous hospitality right here, even before boarding. We can’t wait to invite them to a completely changed interior.”
It’s nice to see LOT investing in its passenger experience
LOT Polish Airlines has long had a confusing position in the market. The airline belongs to the Star Alliance, but is excluded from the Star Alliance transatlantic joint venture, meaning the carrier has largely operated its network pretty independently. Warsaw isn’t exactly the world’s most premium aviation market, and on top of that, historically LOT hasn’t offered a memorable passenger experience.
I’m happy to see the airline investing heavily in its passenger experience, as this is only one of several initiatives at the airline. LOT is also updating the interiors of its 787 Dreamliners, including introducing a new business class, though sadly that project will only start in late 2026, and will be completed by 2030.
Furthermore, the airline is opening a lounge in Chicago (ORD), and it’s supposed to open in 2024. Any new lounge in Chicago’s Terminal 5 is great news, as I see it.
Both of these are positive developments. I still think that LOT would be better suited for oneworld than Star Alliance, based on the geography of the alliance members, and how LOT is treated within Star Alliance. I don’t think the airline will actually swap alliances, though it would be logical, if the airline were to start from scratch.
Bottom line
LOT Polish Airlines is expanding and renovating its largest lounge in Warsaw, which is long overdue. Not only is the lounge often busy, but it’s not terribly modern. The new lounge should be done in December 2024, so you can expect that in the coming months it’ll be a tight squeeze in the space, as portions of it are closed and updated.
What’s your take on the updated LOT Polish Airlines Lounge Warsaw?
LOT is really messing up their priorities with this. Yes, the toilets in this lounge are probably among the poorest quality for a Star Alliance airline lounge in the world, but they have since (verified in recent months) made the lounge soft product itself an absolute joke. If Izabela wasn't just hired in to fix this mess, they need to fire her and anyone who stands behind the "quality" of the lounges at WAW. These...
LOT is really messing up their priorities with this. Yes, the toilets in this lounge are probably among the poorest quality for a Star Alliance airline lounge in the world, but they have since (verified in recent months) made the lounge soft product itself an absolute joke. If Izabela wasn't just hired in to fix this mess, they need to fire her and anyone who stands behind the "quality" of the lounges at WAW. These "satisfaction surveys" must be old because, as a relatively frequent flyer through WAW (although other airports in Poland have been winning more of my travel dollars) they have made recent changes that are absolute trash compared to the past. They now have a comically bad food and drink selection and got rid of most alcohol (unless you are in elite club, which is a separate sub lounge that you can access if you have star gold, or for example travelers to the US, are flying ONLY NON-STOP from WAW to the US from this airport/ no connections allowed).
When a Polish Lounge run by a Polish airline aims so low that they get rid of Zubrowka, a polish "base" vodka, you know they saw their bathrooms and said "ahh yes, now to make the rest of the lounge the same quality".
To add insult to injury, the other lounges at WAW have also gone from rather decent to toilet quality. The staff who are "say it how it is" poles will effectually tell you candidly that what they have done to the lounges in WAW recently is some sort of sick joke.
Another thing this article completely omits is that there is government conflict about closing this airport as the previous government wanted to open a new mega airport. The airport is already tearing at the seams when busy so expansion or relocation will need to happen, involving significant costs to expand the airport south while they still can will need to be started soon. Investing in renovating a hard product that is actually just fine (save for the bathroom) is a waste of money.
In summary, they should scrap any renovation project and use that money to bring back a great lounge soft product (not just in the elite club) while the government is debating what to do with the future of the airport.
LOT only has 16 787s, and it will take four years to reconfigure those? Sounds like way too long time for the given quantity.
My bad, LOT has 15 not 16.
I didn’t mind Lot’s transatlantic soft product. Although, they are so much in need of 1-2-1 seating aboard their Dreamliners. The delay in refurb work is hard to justify. Anyhow. Flying out to the USA in biz on a Stockholm-WAW-JFK route, the lounge experience wasn’t bad. Coming back, from an overnight flight, the shower situation was dismal and I felt not worthy an airline / airport that is meant to offer good transfers. They had...
I didn’t mind Lot’s transatlantic soft product. Although, they are so much in need of 1-2-1 seating aboard their Dreamliners. The delay in refurb work is hard to justify. Anyhow. Flying out to the USA in biz on a Stockholm-WAW-JFK route, the lounge experience wasn’t bad. Coming back, from an overnight flight, the shower situation was dismal and I felt not worthy an airline / airport that is meant to offer good transfers. They had ONE shower booth. It was so small, that one did not fit with a cabin bag inside. So a new lounge is much welcomed.
WAW is well-suited geographically to serve Eastern Europe. If LOT was hypothetically invited to oneworld, I see Finnair fighting it.
Interestingly, LOT doesn't fly to HEL itself, which I always found very interesting since they otherwise seems to focus on Baltics and Nordics a lot. Not disproving your point of course, just a fun fact.
Fun fact: The elevators in the LOT Polish lounges are known as ski lifts.
On those lines, I wonder why neighbouring Czech Airlines (OK), despite having just TWO aircraft, continues to remain in SkyTeam. It’s way too small to provide any value to the alliance, and TAROM (RO) is only slightly bigger.
I do agree that Oneworld desperately needs more European members, but I don’t agree with the popular notion that LOT should be among them. In Europe, excluding Russia, Star has LH, LX, OS, SN and soon AZ...
On those lines, I wonder why neighbouring Czech Airlines (OK), despite having just TWO aircraft, continues to remain in SkyTeam. It’s way too small to provide any value to the alliance, and TAROM (RO) is only slightly bigger.
I do agree that Oneworld desperately needs more European members, but I don’t agree with the popular notion that LOT should be among them. In Europe, excluding Russia, Star has LH, LX, OS, SN and soon AZ within the LH group, and TP, OU, LO, A3 and TK (with SK leaving soon) outside it. SkyTeam has AF, KL, VS and soon SK within the AFKL group, and UX, OK and RO (with AZ leaving soon) outside it.
Meanwhile Oneworld has just three European airlines, and almost nothing outside IAG, with AY participating in the BA/IB/AA transatlantic venture. At this point it would be best if EI makes it official and (re-)enters Oneworld, and a couple of others also join: probably FI for some Atlantic connectivity and JU to plug a small bit of that gaping hole in Central Europe. But LOT is too well-entrenched in Star, even though it isn’t part of the LH JV.
OK is ceasing operations at the end of October.
JU would be another oneworld airline at the edge of the continent. Not filling the gap at all. Plus it's much smaller than LO and with much smaller ambitions. LO plans massive growth, they even hope to challenge Lufthansa, which probably includes a multihub strategy. It's a completely different kettle of fish.
where do you see OK is shutting down?
From Wikipedia:
„Czech Airlines will end its flight operations in October 2024, handing them over to Smartwings while being repurposed into a holding company for both airlines.”
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Czech_Airlines#:~:text=In%20May%202024%2C%20it%20was,from%20Paris%20in%20the%20evening.
It's been reported in the Czech media. The brand will go on, but flights will be operated by Smartwings. This could potentially open a possibility for the CSA flights remaining in Skyteam in some way but OK is also closing down its FFP so that is a pretty clear indicator that their Skyteam days are over: https://okplus.csa.cz/en/
I think it's a matter of time for LOT to join OW as LH positions itself as the only *A player especially with the acquisition of ITA. Strategically OW is a better fit than ST or *A.
I agree. It would also fill up the gap oneworld has in central Europe since their current hubs are at the edges of the continent, making them very impractical for most trips.
There were some interviews with former managers at LO that suggest that LO is not happy in *A and the topic of switching alliances comes up every now and then. It doesn't mean it's gonna happen but it's far from impossible.