Review of LOT Polish flight Warsaw → London in Economy

introduction

Hi everyone!

Welcome to this new report series which cover my flight to/from London last June. Those two reports are going to include LO flight to London City on their E190 and a W6 flight from London Luton on one of their older A320. As those are the, what I call, retro-reports, they won't include too many photos. I will however, make sure that the narrative is engaging and makes up for the small number of pictures. 

Some flight details for you
Flight number: LO287
Route: Warsaw Chopin to London City
Flight date: 6th June 2019 (0715-0905)
Scheduled flight time: 2:50 (a bit fraudulent… as normally the flight is not much longer than 2 hours)
Aircraft model: Embraer ERJ-190
Aircraft registration: SP-LMB
Seating configuration: CY106
Aircraft age (at the time of flight): 0.5 years
Seat number: 6CD

A few words on LOT's route to London City. It was launched on the 7th January 2019 and was the 100th route in LOT's network. And soon it turned out to be a great success, especially that they introduced the route with some great prices. To serve this route, on the very specific and demanding LCY, LOT ordered Embraers E190, registrations SP-LMA/B/C/D. Before the pandemic, they were primarily used on routes from VNO, BUD and WAW to LCY, but also some other European routes. Those Embraers are (were) brand new and configured significantly tighter than those from BA or LH. However, as I'll point out later, they're still very comfortable.

The booking process

I booked the flight two months or so in advance via lot.com website. It was OK but nothing more… They could work on the website design, responsiveness, and some features like "manage my booking" page. Once the booking was made, I got at least 4 or 5 different emails from LOT which is a bit confusing. Every of the three tickets I bought were in a separate email. The email designs leave much to be desired as well.

The usual booking confirmation from LOT, 675 PLN / 153 EUR is an alright price for a flight to LCY, I guess? Although I remember there were also fares for 499 PLN/ 113 EUR for other dates and during a promo. Apart from the 3 emails where each of them included an e-ticket for one of the 3 passengers, LOT also sent me a booking confirmation. A bit convoluted, isn't it?

And there it is, a booking confirmation. The flight was initially scheduled to depart at 0720 but… 3 weeks after booking I got an email saying the flight time has changed.

The departure time changed to 0715, the whole 5 minutes!!! A bit funny, but I fully understand, it's their duty to inform about even the smallest change in departure time. Of course I also got another 3 mails with e-tickets for three passengers, with the changed departure time.

Those looked like that… VERY poor design. Apart from getting those emails, I also received a call from a lady at LOT call centre, who confirmed if I am aware of the changed departure time. Just to add, she was very kind.

To summarise, the booking process was easy but could be designed a bit better. The issue that definitely should be solved, is the huge number of emails being sent to customers without reason. I can imagine how difficult it can get if someone books more than one flight each month and gets so many mails for each of those flights. The information given on the changed departure time was sufficient or even too much, given how little the change was.

The flight

The experience at WAW was pretty much the same as always. We didn't have any checked in luggage so we proceeded directly to the security check, where we came across some impolite agents (as usually). Then through the non-Schengen gates. It was actually the first time I used the e-gates at WAW, as they are only 1-2 years old. Quite an obvious yet very useful improvement. The gates still didn't work too well, but after those 2 years, they already got better and now work as well as those in the UK, for example.

Boarding was called on time and as E90 is quite a small jet, there was no fuss at the gate. Maybe that's also because LCY is quite a prestigious destination and is chosen mostly by people who fly quite often. Once we stepped on board, we were welcomed by two ladies from the cabin crew at the front. The freshness of the aircraft could be felt and smelt :) I quickly made my way to 6D and put my hand luggage into the overhead bin (which actually had enough space!). It turned out, I'll have a free seat next to myself on this busy flight to London City, yeah!

Views of the cabin, as people are still boarding the rear of the aircraft.

We had a few transferring passengers this morning with tight connections at WAW, however all of them managed to get to the flight on time and no delay because of that occurred. However, at this point, I'd like to mention a few words about our uninformed crew. One of the transferring passengers asked the cabin crew lady, how many flights to London City LOT has daily? (He was afraid if his luggage had enough time to be transferred onto the airplane and was wondering if the luggage could arrive with the next flight). The lady, although very polite and smiling, had no idea. She said "3 or maybe 2 or 1?". Well, perhaps it's not their duty to know everything about the airline's route network but some kind of knowledge would be appreciated. Just to put the record straight: before the pandemic, LOT flew 3 times daily to LHR and twice daily to LCY (excluding Sat and Sun - 1 flight) - all flights operated from Warsaw.

When it comes to the crew, the quality of announcements in English could also be better. I was wondering whether the few international passengers could even understand anything… Anyway, the takeoff was on time and after crossing the clouds, we made our way towards London.

Soon after the seatbelt sign was switched off, the inflight service started. I have no clue, what was served in business class. But passengers in Economy were given a tiny chocolate bar "Grześki" and a glass of water (Still or sparkling) and/or tea, coffee. Quite a poor selection but at least something. I simply opted for a glass of still water.

This photo is only for your appreciation. The chocolate bars served on board were much smaller, however of the same kind. (I took the photo at home).

Once the service was finished and rubbish collected, I made a tour around the cabin and so I'll mention a few words about it here. The overall look was elegant and fresh. I liked how the dark leather seats compose with blue antimacassars and white plane interior. The seats, although had less legroom than on other airlines operating on E90, were still very comfortable and well padded (they were not the typical slimline seats). They also featured an adjustable headrest and a power outlet, which is always a nice touch. The cabin itself, including the toilet were reasonably clean. The only thing that I can complain about is the temperature, really. It was freezing cold when we first stepped on board. After a few requests from passengers the temperature was increased slightly, once in the air. I think, it is the issue with Embraers, as it's nearly always cold inside them, especially in the summer.

Seat back and the typical Embraer overhead panels featuring personal air vents (which however were not needed due to the winter cold inside).

And the cabin from the back. Nice and cosy airplane. To be fair, I like it better than 737 or A320 on the same route to London, although sometimes the turbulence is more intense on those smaller jets.

After the small refreshment and "tour de cabin" I still had 1 hour to spare. In terms of entertainment, only Kaleidoscope inflight magazine and views outside the window were available. And of course you could use your own device, resting assured that when your battery goes red, you can charge your device on board ? I decided to use the two former options ? and I have to say, views from 6D are amazing. Especially in nice weather.

I really love the winglet painting by LOT.

Even though I didn't have too much to do, the time went past quickly and we soon started our descent into LCY. I could feel that and also see that (the windmill energy plant).

A bit of waiting for landing this morning and of course no information about the waiting time for landing from the captain or the crew, I didn't expect that from LOT anyway. We flew towards Margate, made a loop there and then flew towards Southend to start our final approach. The weather was however amazing for those holding patterns and we could see lots of fantastic views outside the window.

Quite a smooth landing into City (if landing into LCY can be smooth…). And we touched down before the scheduled time. Parked at the centrally located gate, we were ready to disembark the airplane.

This is our brand new SP-LMB E90. 2 other LOT Embraers were present at LCY at the time, one from Vilnius and one from Budapest.

Lufthansa E90 preparing for departure to Frankfurt.

And British Airways E90, which has just landed. London City really gives nice opportunities for spotting when leaving the plane <3

The LCY airport was quite crowded, however we managed to leave it quickly as we didn't have any bags to collect. The DLR station is close to the airport which is really convenient. We opted exactly for DLR to get to the centre and then made our way towards Paddington station.

This is pretty much it for this report. I hope you enjoyed it, and I'd like to invite you for the next one. In a few days I'll post a brand new report of my flight with Wizz Air from WAW to VIE on their A321neo.

Cheers!
Matthevv 

Bonus : Click here display hide

Only a short travelling bonus this time. A few months earlier, in March, I travelled to Oslo and I really wanted to see some Munch works in the Munch museum but it turned out all of them were gone and transferred to some other museums. But in June 2019, British museum had an exhibition with Munch's paintings so I decided to see those, being in the UK anyway :)

The permanent collection of British museum was however fascinating as well.