LOT Polish Airlines Review

Overall Rating

I finally made it to SF (48 hours later than it was scheduled).

Read my comments below.

I was connecting in Warsaw to JFK and then SF. I had an open bottle of brandy with me which I bought in a Duty Free. When coming through the security, they asked me to dispose of this bottle, I said "sure", went to the end of the line and finished the bottle before passing through the security again. Sure, I was not 100 % sober, but I was not going to pilot the plane, just be a passenger. What do you think? They indeed did not let me on the plane. When I asked their customer service what to do and how they could help me, the answer was that all planes were overbooked and it was my problem. Any time they were doing something for me, they made sure I understood they were doing me a big favor. The only nice and competent person associated with LOT or their airport was a lady at a cashier's office, who when I spoke to her on the next day managed to find me a ticket to SF through Chicago for the next afternoon (my 3rd day in Warsaw). There were a couple of more decent people (I suspect they were working for the airport and not for LOT), but the rest were completely incompetent and explicitly rude.

Anyway, I am running ahead of myself. I spent the first night at the hotel for which I paid about $100. The room was just large enough for a twin-size bed and TV, the shower and rest-room were in the hall. The next day they sold me a stand-by boarding pass for a flight to NY and then to Chicago, and I found out they were right about overbooked flights - it seemed it was their common practice to sell 10-15 more tickets per flight than there were sits on the plane. A strategy of this sort can be afforded only by a large and well-organized airline who has several large planes flying to a few different US destinations every day (which is not the case with LOT) so that it could easily re-book people on the next flight. Needless to say, I did not make it on a plane that day (my second day in Warsaw). After that a guy from their ground services took passports from me and a few other people who did not fly and said that he would arrange for a hotel and lunch for us. I also asked him to write a letter for my company to confirm that I was late for work because I got stuck for three days in Warsaw. He was coming, giving us a piece of information, leaving again and asking to wait "for 20 more minutes" several times. When we had waited for a long time (I don't know, maybe 3 hours or so), he came and said that his colleague would pick us up and finish what he had started. He said that the letter for my employer had already been prepared and maybe even printed out, and his colleague was aware of that and would bring it to me. His colleague was giving an impression it was his first day on the job. Finally he went somewhere, came back and said that "since I was drunk" the previous day, they would not provide a hotel for me and I would not get any letter either...

I flew to the US on my third day in Warsaw. The flight was late, the baggage was delayed and I did not catch my connecting flight to SF. Luckily, there was another flight 1.5 hours later (flights in the US are operated for LOT by United) and I came to SF with it. My baggage was not on this flight, though, but it is another story.

To summarize, if you want to save ~$100-200 (I paid $1400 for my ticket as opposed to $1500-$1600 with a major airline) and have a risk of getting stuck in Warsaw for an unpredictable amount of time, paying $100 a night for a tiny hotel room without a bathroom and loosing your salary for two days of work - go ahead, fly with LOT, and good luck in this case. You will definitely need it.