After an 18-hour bus ride from Kyiv to Warsaw and an 8-hour wait for my flight, it was time to board my flight to New York. While I spent most of the flight sleeping, I found the service and catering on LOT Polish 787-8 in business class to be lovely. LOT surprised me in a very good way.
LOT Polish 787-8 Business Class Review
Last year, I reported on my LOT 787-9 journey from Krakow to Chicago that left me somewhat disappointed. The experience was not horrible, but the service was robotic, the food unmemorable, and the bedding quite poor. In that sense, I probably would have tried another carrier…if I had a choice. But in terms of schedule, only LOT’s late flight to New York would allows me to get home same-day and so I made the choice to try LOT again…and I am so glad I did.
I booked the ticket for 70,000 Aeroplan points and about $100 in taxes and fees. Certainly flying via Frankfurt in Lufthansa Class would have been preferable, but sometimes schedule dictates flight selection more than product.
Check-In
LOT Polish has a dedicated check-in area at Warsaw Chopin Airprot for business class and Star Alliance Gold travelers. As you enter Terminal 1, head to the right side.
After checking in for my flight, I used a special priority security lane to quickly clear security.
I spent the day visiting the Polenz and Mazurek LOT Polish business lounges (as well as the Preludium and Bolero and Priority Pass lounges), but ultimately made my way to the gate about 20 minutes before scheduled boarding time at 4:00 pm.
Boarding was ultimately delayed by about 30 minutes, which gate agents blamed on our aircraft being parked at a remote stand.
At around 4:00 pm the crew boarded.
When it came time to board, passengers were herded onto a bus, then we were driven to the other side of the airport to board our Dreamliner to New York.
I strategically positioned myself on the right side of the bus in the front so that I could be the first off the bus and grab a few cabin pictures before other passengers boarded.
LOT Polish 26
Warsaw (WAW) – New York (JFK)
Depart: 04:50 PM
Arrive: 08:35 PM
Duration: 09hr, 45min
Distance: 4,267 miles
Aircraft: Boeing 787-8
Seat: 2A (Business Class)
At the aircraft door, the purser greeted me and asked me for my seat number. He then directed me left to the intimate business class cabin.
Seat
LOT Polish uses an off-the-shelf Zodiac Aura Lite business class seat on its 787-8 jet. Business class is only 18 seats in the front cabin; three rows of 2-2-2 seating. While window seats do not offer direct aisle access, one thing I like about these lie-flat seats is that your feet are not constrained since there is no “cubby” that your feet fit into while in lie-flat mode. Seats are 23 inches wide and 78-80 inches when fully reclined.
Seat controls are located in the center console while a passenger service unit (remote control) controls the IFE screen and reading light.
A universal power outlet and USB-A charging port was located in the center console.
While storage space is limited, there is space for a small bag under your feet in front of you. Unlike on Turkish Airlines, this is not a cabinet that opens and shuts, but a space in which you can at least put your shoes and small hand bag.
My biggest criticism of LOT Polish is the bedding, which I find terrible. The pillow is acceptable, though on the small side, but the small blanket is more fit for economy class and the sheet, while appreciated, is no substitute for a mattress pad.
I brought my own duvet along (for the Ukrainian train and bus trips) and was very thankful for that. Each seat has an individual air nozzle, which also helped me to fall asleep quickly.
Service
The crew on this flight was truly lovely. Three ladies worked business class and they were incredibly attentive, gracious, and kind. I also appreciated that they were efficient. Meal service began promptly after takeoff and moved at a steady clip, such that I was able to get over six hours of sleep between meals.
Far from merely going through the motions, the flight attendants were well-intentioned and exceedingly friendly, polite and engaged.
Food + Drink
The greatest difference between this flight and my last LOT flight was the meal service onboard.
After boarding, a pre-departure beverage of water or sparkling wine was offered in glasses. Menus were also distributed.
Then, flight attendants came around the cabin with an amuse bouche, a decidedly first class touch. The sliced beet with cheese on top was a scrumptious bite.
Just minutes after takeoff, dinner service began. I pulled out my tray table so that a flight attendant could place a tablecloth down. Flight attendants also offered a hot towel.
Here’s the menu, including an extensive wine list with a number of options from around the world and other alcoholic beverages.
First came a small ramekin of mixed nuts with a choice of beverage.
For my appetizer, I chose corn cream soup over a pearl barley and roasted vegetable salad with harissa dressing. Both options were served with a green salad and choice of bread.
The soup was delicious, served piping hot and with big chunks of corn in it.
For my main course, I chose grilled cod with wasabi potatoes and vegetables.
While the first course is served on a tray, after eating your appetizer and salad the tray is removed and the main course is served directly on your tray table. The portion of fish was small, but nicely cooked and the wasabi potatoes were better than I thought. There was a bit too much empty space on the dish; perhaps LOT should consider at least adding some garnishes to fill in those white spaces.
After dishes were cleared away, the dessert cart rolled down the aisle, with a choice of cheese, fruit, and petit fours. I enjoyed a selection of cheese with another bread roll and then rounded out my meal with a delicious chocolate cake and cappuccino.
Finally, flight attendants offered a shot of Złota Polska Wiśniowa (a cherry liqueur that tasted like cough medicine) to conclude dinner service.
LOT Polish uses Do & Co catering out of Warsaw and the food was certainly excellent.
Between meals, lights snacks were available in the galley (sandwiches on request).
Bottles of water were also distributed.
About an hour before landing, the cabin lights were turned on for the pre-arrival meal service. Everyone who did not order a special meal received the same tray, which included rigatoni pasta with cheese, asparagus, and sun-dried tomatoes, a picked cauliflower salad, a green salad with shrimp, and freshly-cut fruit.
This was a very hearty meal and delicious as well.
Just prior to landing, a piece of candy was offered (Solidarnosc candied plums).
Overall, the food in business class out of Warsaw on LOT Polish is excellent.
Amenity Kit
The amenity kit was in a gray LOT-branded bag and included:
- toothbrush
- toothpaste
- earplugs
- nail file
- socks
- eyeshade
IFE + Wi-Fi
LOT offers video on-demand with a section of tv shows, movies, games, and music.
I started to watch a fascinating Japanese movie called Plan 75 that deals with euthanasia, but did not finish it. I want to and have not been able to find it on any streaming service. Any suggestions?
Noise-cancelling headphones were offered.
Sadly, LOT Polish does not offer wi-fi on its 787-8 aircraft.
I typically like to look out the window during the flight, but with the exception of a brief few moments after takeoff, our flight was in total darkness.
Lavatory
The lavatory was clean and I love that LOT always has a fresh-cut flower in the lavatory on longhaul flights.
CONCLUSION
LOT Polish Airlines business class has moved from mediocre to resoundingly positive. Flying LOT during the day may be more difficult if wi-fi is needed, but the warm hospitality and delicious meals onboard made up for the 2-2-2 configuration in business and class and poor bedding. Overall, I would not hesitate to fly LOT Polish again, though I think business class passengers who value privacy will find better products elsewhere.
After landing in New York Kennedy, I quickly cleared immigration and then proceeded out to catch an AirTrain to Terminal 5 (that turned out to be a huge mistake…)
“Turkish Airlines uses Do & Co catering out of Warsaw and the food was certainly excellent.”
That’s cool, which caterer does LOT Polish use?
Do&Co too
Yes, a typo. I meant LOT.
” *Turkish Airlines* uses Do & Co catering out of Warsaw and the food was certainly excellent.” ;-p
Based off of this report; LOT seems basic but decent enough. Thanks for sharing.
Sorry for typo. Turkish and Do & Co are so intertwined I almost wrote Turkish by habit.
It’s amazing what the decision to use Do&Co can do! That actually looks like a great flight. I’ve been hesitant to go with LO, but if this is a typical flight, there’s no reason not to. In fact, I thought that wine list looked pretty good.
Seems like they are going for Wine Spectator with all of the detail on wines
After the photos of the vodka you say “Turkish Airllines uses Do & Co”, I think that should be LOT?
Thanks and interesting, I’ve flown LO within Europe (EVN-WAW-HAM and back) a few years ago, it was decidedly more basic.
Gorgeous food! From the corn soup down to the candied plums (I love those).
The corn soup does look good.. but one grape on the cheese plate? Seems cheap.
Did you have your original seat assignment? This past year I flew LOT 3 times transatlantic, and on all occasions our seats were taken away from us the day before check-in opened. Our tickets were always under one record locator, but they still moved us apart.
When I called them they said that it was because some seats were broken. Weirdly, our original seats were then reassigned to other people. Similar things I have only experienced with TK.
I booked eight hours before takeoff. At the time, only 3D showed available. But when I put in my Star Gold number (UA), 2A and 2K showed available.
Hmm, strange. In a month another 2 LOT trips are coming up for us. Hopefully they will not mess with our seat assignments.
Looks great. I think for a sleeping flight with my wife I’d prefer that kind of spacious seat to the tighter “better” ones.
Nice try LOT, nice try.
Now we are waiting patiently for some reale genuine improvents. Whisper marketing ain’t gonna do the job.
What’s the problem?
Wondering how much you will spend in dry cleaning after this trip. With all that cigarette smoke, sleeping in trains and buses I can only imagine how your duvet, winter jacket and other clothes smells like. LOL!!!
The winter jacket was seriously horrendous!
But already back from the cleaners and it now smells fresh again.
Nice report. Great photos. It all looks pretty good and seems like LOT has upgraded the catering and the overall service. The business class seats and cabin remain largely unchanged (flew WAW-JFK in 2019), and dated.
Polaris is behind even LOT now… does United have the worst international business catering in all of star alliance now
I think that the issue with your previous flight may have been the fact that they don’t have many long haul flights out of KRK, so compromises may have to be made in terms of catering and even rostering.
I have never flown LO long haul, but I do want to try one of their Asian routes.
Food looks seriously impressive, LOT and Brussels are the two last *A Europe airlines I haven’t yet tried, so I have good reason now to stop putting them off and take a trip to Poland soon!
Honestly, I have never regretted flying with LOT. But then I also think that most of the main line carriers in Europe offer better service than those in America. Warsaw’s Chopin Airport is also very clean and easy to navigate.
About your remark on the big plate with little food: I read somewhere that serving food on small plates somehow makes people feel fuller than if it was on the big plate for some reason. So… you can thank that choice of aesthetics perhaps helped you to save your appetite to finish all the rest of the goodies. 🙂
Regarding the sweet liquor: Slavs seem to have this sweet tooth palate when it comes to alcohol.
My friend is from Kazakhstan and she often has a variety of sweet liqueur drinks that she gets at Russian grocery stores here. Some of them are quite good–albeit the copious amounts of sugar.
That piece of chocolate cake looks almost exactly like the one I had on Iberia intra-European J last year (also Do&Co), just mine was cut in a different shape and called “panna cotta.”
Hoping that the food on my LOT flight later this year (if I take them) has the same upgraded catering and good service.
That chocolate cake can be called anything but panna cotta. Panna cotta (Italian for “cooked cream”) is an Italian dessert of sweetened cream thickened with gelatin and molded. There is no flour on panna cotta as it is more like a pudding or custard than a cake.
When I flew Waw-Ord back in January,same menu by the way,the FA also came around with the cherry vodka.Having already tried several glasses of excellent Slovenia red wine,I politely declined,but she graciously wouldnot accept no for an answer!It was nice,and they also came around with baguette sandwiches between meals.You had a much nicer dessert selection on the JFK route from the photo.
Plain, blah, hard product looks just like LH’s plain, blah hard product. I’m glad everything else is much better. I’ve been tempted to try LOT. Usually, Biz seats can be had with half the amount of UA miles than UA’s own flights.
I got re-accommodated on LO in Sepyltember due to IROPS and was dreading the ride, but I was pleasantly surprised. Crew was beyond awesome, food was delicious, and service was very close to F Class.
Keep it up!
Surprised the bottle of water isn’t Poland Springs
Thanks, as we just booked business class on LOT from Warsaw to LAX on their Dreamliner for next Spring. Hopefully, by then the bedding will have improved!
I have always enjoyed flying LOT. I wish that they would reinstate their direct flights between Budapest and New York, but the connection in Warsaw isn’t all that bad, probably one of the easier airports in Europe in which to transit.