- Vienna to Istanbul via Tokyo: Introduction
- Vienna to Istanbul via Tokyo: Brussels Airlines Check-in New York JFK
- Vienna to Istanbul via Tokyo: Brussels Airlines Business Class New York to Brussels
- Vienna to Istanbul via Tokyo: Brussels Airlines and SAS Business Class Lounges Brussels
- Vienna to Istanbul via Tokyo: Austrian Business Class Brussels to Vienna
- Vienna to Istanbul via Tokyo: Hotel Imperial Vienna
- Vienna to Istanbul via Tokyo: Austrian Senator Lounge Vienna
- Vienna to Istanbul via Tokyo: Austrian Business Class Vienna to Tokyo Narita
- Vienna to Istanbul via Tokyo: ANA Business Class Lounge Tokyo Narita
- Vienna to Istanbul via Tokyo: Turkish Business Class Tokyo Narita to Istanbul
- Review: Park Hyatt Istanbul
- Vienna to Istanbul via Tokyo: Turkish Business Class Lounge Istanbul
- Vienna to Istanbul via Tokyo: LOT Business Class Istanbul to Warsaw
- Vienna to Istanbul via Tokyo: Hotel Bristol Warsaw
- Vienna to Istanbul via Tokyo: LOT Business Class Lounge Warsaw
- Vienna to Istanbul via Tokyo: LOT Business Class Warsaw to Chicago
LOT 1
Warsaw (WAW) – Chicago (ORD)
Sunday, February 3
Depart: 12:15PM
Arrive: 3:15PM
Duration: 10hr
Aircraft: Boeing 767-300
Seat: 1E (Business Class)
Oh man, oh, man. When I first booked the trip this was actually the segment I was most looking forward to. The flight was supposed to be operated by LOT’s brand spanking new 787 featuring their brand spanking new business class product. Here’s a picture:
LOT’s new 787 business class
Of course due to the 787 groundings my flight was swapped to a 767. That’s completely out of LOT’s control and I wasn’t angry at any party (other than Boeing, perhaps), and in a twisted way I was actually looking forward to the flight a bit more for the adventure factor.
I was greeted at the door of the plane by two friendly and fairly junior male flight attendants that directed me to the right aisle, where my seat was located. Business class consists of three rows, each with three sets of two seats, for a total of 18 seats. Two of those are pilot crew rest seats, for a total of 16 “revenue” seats.
My first impression of the cabin? Oy, LOT, 1997 called and they want their airplane back. The plane just felt like it was in really shabby condition.
I was in a bulkhead aisle seat, which at least got me a ton of extra legroom.
My seat, 1E
My seat, 1E
View of row one from my seat
View of row one from my seat
Bulkhead view from my seat
Galley view from my seat
At my seat were a pillow and blanket, neither of which were especially durable or comfortable.
Pillow and blanket
Also at the seat were a pair of (what I assume are) standard coach headphones, given that business class doesn’t have personal televisions built into the seats.
Headphones
To the right of my seat were the seat controls, ranging from upright to vertical torture. 😉
Seat controls
Meanwhile in each center console were bottles of water for business class passenger, which is also where the power ports are located.
Bottled water
Boarding was as much a mess on the plane as it was off, so there wasn’t much pre-departure service as everyone tried to find their seats. I couldn’t help but notice just how shabby the condition of the cabin was, all the way down to the handful of torn security stickers on the side of the aircraft.
Makes me feel real secure!
I also have to assume the onboard signage isn’t designed in Seattle when the airlines take delivery of their Boeing aircraft?
Remain Seates!
As boarding slowed down newspapers and magazines were offered, along with pre-departure beverages. I had a glass of orange juice.
Pre-departure orange juice
That was followed quickly by amenity kits being distributed.
Amenity kit
Amenity kit
As boarding finished up menus were distributed as well. At this point the business class cabin was full. Best I could tell two passengers were American and the rest were Polish.
Menu for flight
As the door closed the captain came on the PA to advise us of our flight time of 10 hours, which would put us into Chicago quite a bit behind schedule since that’s how long our entire block time was scheduled for. Go figure this would be the flight with strong headwinds!
As we taxied the safety video began, though we made it to runway 33 within about 15 minutes, at which point we were airborne. The seatbelt sign was turned off about 30 minutes after takeoff due to some chop on the climb out.
Once we leveled off and the seatbelt sign was turned off the service began.
The lunch (though they claim it’s dinner) menu read as follows:
And the wine list read as follows:
Service began with hot towels and tablecloths being distributed, followed by drinks. I ordered a Diet Coke, which was served with a ramekin of nuts and raisins. In reality there were maybe a handful of nuts and several dozen raisins. Not sure if I just got a really bad “scoop” of the stuff or if LOT has a really different sense than I do of what goes well with pre-meal drinks. 😉
Diet Coke and nuts/raisins
The starter consisted of salmon tartare and beetroot. I’ll be the first to admit I’m no foodie, but something just didn’t “work” about the combination.
Salmon steak tartare on amber surface of beetroot soup, with added goat cheese
The salad accompanying it was perhaps a bit too true to its name — “crunchy seasonal salad.” Yes, I assume that is what’s in “season” in Warsaw in January.
Crunchy seasonal salad
Along with the starter and salad I was also offered some bread, and a choice between butter and olive oil.
Appetizer and salad
For the main course I decided to go with the ratatouille, having seen first hand what “Polish style chicken” looks like on my previous flight from Istanbul to Warsaw. The ratatouille was bland though perfectly edible.
Ratatouille
After that I was offered a cheese course. The cheese tasted a whole lot more like chicken breast than cheese…
“Cheese” selection
To finish off the meal I had the vanilla cream with raspberry jam dessert, as well as tea, which were tasty.
Vanilla cream with raspberry jam
On the whole the service throughout the meal was very good. There were two younger male flight attendants and one senior flight attendant working the cabin, and they all seemed genuinely happy to be doing their jobs. They weren’t overly polished in the sense that I was never addressed by name and service levels weren’t up to those of Singapore, but they were extremely friendly nonetheless.
It’s also worth noting that the meal service was really fast. Once the service started it was completed within about 40 minutes or so. It’s not that it felt rushed or anything, it was just a pretty basic meal service, and the flight attendants were like hawks when it came to clearing courses and bringing out the next one.
As the meal finished personal entertainment systems were distributed. I browsed the selection but quickly realized that the selection was extremely limited and I had seen just about everything on there I was interested in seeing.
Personal entertainment system
Personal entertainment system
So what the hell am I supposed to do for nine hours on a daytime flight with no decent entertainment and a seat I could probably only sleep in if I had been up for 48 hours in a row?
Cabin after lunch
Suddenly the flight attendant emerged from the galley with a tray full of port in shot glasses. I almost forgot just how much fun drinking can be.
Port
So after he served that one I asked what other shots he had that he could recommend. He suggested a Polish vodka, though suggested it with apple juice. So I had that.
Polish vodka with apple juice
I asked for another minus the apple juice, though he accidentally served me another one with apple juice, and then realized I had asked for it without. He insisted on bringing me a new one, and rather than having him take away the current one, I quickly downed it too. After all, I wouldn’t want to be wasteful. And then another one. And another one.
Next thing I knew we were four hours out of Chicago. Woohoo!
At that point I checked out the snack cart set up by the forward left door, which had the same delicious chocolate bars as my previous LOT flight and in the lounge.
Snack bar
I spent a couple of hours getting caught up on my trip report, and before I knew it supper was being served. The menu read as follows:
The supper was a single tray affair, with ham, “seasonal” vegetables, dumplings, and a couple of Lindt truffles. The dumplings were actually really good, while the rest of the food tasted dry and bland.
Supper
To finish off the meal a small bowl of fruit was served.
Fruit salad
As we began our descent into Chicago one of the flight attendants came around distributing packaged cards, each consisting of four “prints.” Definitely a nice touch, though most of the other passengers seemed unimpressed and handed the cards right back to the flight attendant without even looking at them.
“Thank you” gift
We landed in Chicago about 30 minutes behind schedule and after about a 15 minute taxi made it to the international terminal. I cleared immigration in a matter of minutes thanks to Global Entry, and with that my 90,000 mile US Airways award came to an end.
Look, the LOT flight was a bit underwhelming, though at the same time exactly what I would have expected if I had booked one of their 767s. The hard product is horrible and the food wasn’t very good, though the service was friendly. I’d love to give LOT another shot when they have their new 787s with what looks to be a very good fully flat business class product.
How you can use miles/points for LOT Business Class
I suspect not many of you are looking to redeem miles on a LOT 767 anytime soon, though once their 787s are back in service I think they’ll be an attractive option. The two best ways to redeem for LOT business class are through United and US Airways. LOT’s long haul destinations include Beijing, Chicago, New York, and Toronto.
One of the best programs through which to book is United. You can book LOT business class roundtrip between the US and Europe starting at 140,000 United miles, or 154,000 miles if you continue onwards to another LOT destination in Europe. You’re allowed a stopover and an open jaw, so you could stop in Warsaw while en route to any of those destinations if you wanted to. The best way to rack up United miles is through Ultimate Rewards, which is their 1:1 transfer partner.
Still better than my experience on LOT twenty years ago. I was in an aisle seat and after we'd reached cruising altitude, the fellow across the aisle lit an acrid cigarette. I called the flight attendant over and, wi my best puzzled expression, pointed to the "No Smoking" sign on the tray table in front of my seat. She nodded. I pointed to the gentleman. She nodded again.
"Yes," she said. "You are not smoking....
Still better than my experience on LOT twenty years ago. I was in an aisle seat and after we'd reached cruising altitude, the fellow across the aisle lit an acrid cigarette. I called the flight attendant over and, wi my best puzzled expression, pointed to the "No Smoking" sign on the tray table in front of my seat. She nodded. I pointed to the gentleman. She nodded again.
"Yes," she said. "You are not smoking. He is smoking."
It turns out that on Polish Airways back then -- I am not making this up -- the right half of the plane was smoking, and the left was non-smoking. It was like something from a vaudevillian's book of Polish jokes.
It's bad on a star alliance carrier when you say "i'd rather have flown United".
Top off US Airways account with SPG card, really? 5000 dollars of spending for 35,000 US Airways points seems like a total waste but that's just me.
Aside from that I liked the article.
@blueline
I'm well aware Lucky has been essentially running a telethon for the past few weeks now. My question was what caused it.... he never used to heavily pimp CC affiliate links. Now we can't even avoid them in trip reports.
@Rob, since you are dissatisfied, you should ask for your subscription fee back.
Even PBS has telethons....otherwise, what you get is Pay Per View.
Wow, great report. I always liked travel reports because it is better than other experimental reports.Thanks for such a post. I will keep visiting your site once a week. :)
Lucky, are you psyched to fly LOT's 787 for the plane itself, or for the seat? The seat looks like a less stylish, cheaper quality material version of what Turkish offers...
Sadly, LOT may not be around to fly the 787s. A recent WSJ article suggests they are really hemoraghing and were looking for the 787 to be the salvation. If that doesn't occur soon, LOT will loose a LOT and its days maybe numbered.
That's a sweet looking comb you scored!
actually the amenity kit looks better than austrian...
Speaking of typos - three seats of two seats?
you've turned into such a lush since when i first started reading this blog. out goes the d.c.w.l in the straight vodka shots.
i love it.
Wow, even the trip reports now have affiliate links?
This whole "if you don't like them, skip over it" thing is becoming really hard to do.
What happened over the past few weeks that now every single post has affiliate links? Quotas? Reduced commissions? The change in your blog is mightily noticeable.
Wow, those LOT headphones look really, "classic". Why do they give those out given that it looks like the digital player comes with its own headphones?
I kept thinking the plane looks just like the 762s AA runs from SFO to JFK, which are in pretty shabby condition as well. At least on AA they have ice cream sundaes in J, right?
Great trip report as always!
OMG, i guess i'm kind happy I cancelled my trip where I would've been stuck on LO to JFK. Instead i'm doing SQ, UA, SN and LX :)
That old 767 has the original overhead bins. Most of the carriers have replaced these with the new 777 style bins.
@ Justin P -- Totally forgot about that! Adding pictures of the amenity kit to the report now.
So LOT doesn't give out Amenity Kit's?
They have exactly the same seats as TAM on their international fleet.
Very uncomfortable for long haul flights.
I wonder what the "other goodies" are that are stuffed into the chicken? I probably would have ordered it just to find out.
But the best part we're the gift cards at the end of the flight. I would have been very happy to get those.
@ Mark -- Shoot, I should've pocketed one.
@ Food Wine and Miles -- ROFL! I was thinking exactly the same thing.
That's surprisingly not an awful Chablis that they serve. Be pleased a light bulb didn't need changing during the flight.
-JRL
Is it just me, or do the seats look like they're made from recycled blue Dockers?
Did you at least get to keep the shot glass??
I don't speak Polish but them writing dinner instead of lunch is probably just a direct translation. Where I come from the word "dinner" is used for what Americans call "lunch", and "supper" is "dinner".
Another example of this kind is how Americans (and some others) use the word "entree" for the main course, which of course is completely wrong :)
I was so hoping you chose the Ratatouille - "better than in the film"! hee!
I like how you spread out the trip reports a day or so at a time but now I realize why this trip seemed so long. You started describing it on Feb. 18, three snow storms ago for many of us! ;-) Thanks for the distraction from real life.
@ Ethan -- Whoops, thanks!
That looks a lot like port in a shot glass, not "shots in a port glass". :)
Well at least you survived. I'm not planning to fly LOT until they're bought up by Turkish Airlines or some other company that will revamp them but thanks for letting me know what I'm missing :D
@ Scottrick -- ROFL!
Vanilla creme and raspberry jam? In other words, they put whipped cream on jelly… That's not dessert, that's what I eat when I haven't been grocery shopping in two weeks.
@ Brett -- I'd have to say the Austrian/Brussels product was the best.
So, of this trip, what was the best hard product you flew?
@ David -- Like I said, I'm not one! :p
It's foodie ;)