LOT Air - any "good" comments?
 

I am going through Warsaw on a trip to Amsterdam because that airline came up as the least expensive. Anyone have any comments I should know about before boarding these flights? Of course I don't want to hear "OMG - you aren't flying them are you?" I hope someone that has flown with them can share nice experiences and tell me how lucky I am to fly them. LOL
Whatever - tell me the truth. I did like that they fly BOEING planes and the Brazilian Embracers. That was good news.

I'm flying one on the Embracers from Warsaw to Tallinn in July. I have no previous experience with them, but here is Skytax, an airline review site, if you haven't already seen it.
http://www.airlinequality.com/Forum/lot.htm

I flew LOT from Paris to Krakow in 2010 and had a wonderful experience. I can highly recommend the airline. And to be honest - I also had my fears. No reason - all staff were extremely helpful and friendly and spoke English well enough for us to communicate easily with them. The plane departed on time and arrived a few minutes earlier than scheduled in Krakaow.

agedude - the Embraers are a Brazilian airplane (if it's the same one that I'm thinking of). I live in Egypt and Egypt Air has a whole fleet of them they added to their line for domestic flights. They are fabulous little planes. I don't know if LOT outfitted them the same way Egypt Air did, but in ours there is plenty of leg room, leather seats, and I think maximum 75 seats, so fast loading and off loading. They are great. I love it when I get to fly on one of them.
Thanks chiarachiara for your review. That is just what I wanted to hear. Sounds like they are equivalent to Egypt Air, which gets lots of similar questions, and they are just fine, as well. When I bought my ticket, I did see LOT and Egypt Air are both Star Alliance members, so that is good.

Worst airline I've ever flown. On-time, yes. Safe, yes. The plane had no personal entertainment players, which for transatlantic flights are amazing.

It was the seats I hated. Many were slightly broken. On our flight over, my sight was tipped to the right. After about 10 minutes my back was killing me. I ended up having to move to get a decent seat and spent the whole flight away from my family. On the way back the seat was again gympy, just not as bad. I ended up putting a pillow under one bun and that helped level it out.

Unless I was saving a bundle, I wouldn't fly them again.

turnip - thanks for the review. I am saving a bundle, and two of the flights I'll be on will be on fairly new planes. My main flight is from Cairo to Warsaw - not transatlantic. Were you going from NYC?

Last year I used LOT to fly Athens-Warsaw and return, and it was absolutely fine. Very kind staff and although rates were low, more leg room than most European budget companies I've fly with and decent snacks included.

We flew LOT from Warsaw to Prague. Not a problem. On time, attentive crew. English was spoken.

Sucked less than AA's 767-300s when we took it in 2007. Also sucked less than Olympic. Seat Guru says the transatlantic flights have 32" of pitch and are 18.7" wide - both are better than AA's 767-300s.

Transatlantic flights are not getting better, on a quality scale, because so many US airlines put crap planes into the air. Turnip's comment "The plane had no personal entertainment players, which for transatlantic flights are amazing" is out of date - Delta, AA and US(sc)Air all routinely cough up transatlantic planes without personal entertainment consoles. I agree, that's ridiculous, especially considering a dump airline like Olympic had personal video on its flying tin cans back in 2001.

LOT actually used to have 747s running across the pond, but now only uses 767-300s for long haul flights, which tend to have few amenities.

I don't think you can compare local versus transatlantic flights on most airlines. I've flown LOT within Europe and it was fine, it's just a short flight for a few hours, it doesn't make much difference IMO.

My flights from Cairo will be on BOEING planes (being a native Seattleite, I am good with that), and from Warsaw to Amsterdam, I'll be on the Embraers - which is probably what mariha was on and as I mentioned, the way Egypt Air outfitted theirs, it sounds like LOT did likewise so they are totally comfortable. It seems it will be fine. I can live without a personal entertainment system so long as the movies they do show are current and in English. :) and if they aren't, I guess I'll live with that too.