Avis du vol entre Warsaw et Chicago en classe Premium Eco avec LOT Polish

Report No: 2019-506E

Ladies and Gentlemen,

Welcome to this new series where I would try LOT Polish Airlines for the first time after finding a sweet deal on their Premium Economy cabin. As my final destination would be Washington DC and LOT Polish Airlines doesn't fly to the DC area, I would fly to Chicago with LOT and then take an American flight down to DC. Also, in this series, I would have the opportunity to visit the signature lounges of two different Star Alliance carriers.

The second report of this series would be onboard the 787-8 of LOT Polish Airlines from a flight from Warsaw to Chicago on their Premium Economy cabin. It was my first transatlantic flight onboard this carrier and I also had the chance to experience the breakfast and lunch offerings in the Mazurek Lounge in Warsaw during my layover.

So the routing for this series would look like this; 

Pax for this flight:

Business Class: %60-65
Premium Economy Class: %60-65
 Economy Class: %95-100 

WARSAW FREDERIC CHOPIN AIRPORT - WAW

As I was the first passenger arriving to transfer security after my flight from Istanbul, I have cleared it in a breeze with no wait. Then I've headed to the Mazurek Lounge to relax a bit before my flight to Chicago.

LOT MAZUREK LOUNGE - WARSAW FREDERIC CHOPIN AIRPORT

The retro-jet that took me from Istanbul to Warsaw was visible from the lounge.

The lounge is really small compared to other airlines' signature lounges; however, the Schengen lounge is much bigger than this one. The lounge was empty early in the morning but it got crowded later on.

Breakfast was present when I arrived to the lounge

The list of food options

Water, snacks and fruits available that morning

Coffee and tea was also available

And the hot options for that morning

Alcoholic beverages were also present

While enjoying my breakfast, this Easyjet A320 had passed by.

As well as our friend, TC-LNF

And this SSJ-100 arriving from Moscow-SVO.

Two of the LOT Embraer's were parked in a gate close to the lounge.

During my layover, I decided to take a shower and this key was handed by the front desk to access the shower room. There is only one shower room at this lounge.

There was only one body towel, one hand towel and a toothbrush present in the shower room. The shampoo was almost finishing so it took a time to get some in to my hand. In overall, this shower is not the best airport lounge shower but it was alright with some missing things.

When I left the shower room my seat was taken, however, I found another spot to sit. At that point, the breakfast offering were being changed to lunch offerings.

While enjoying some of the lunch dishes, F-GKXT had arrived from Paris CDG.

Boarding pass for today's flight

GATE AREA & BOARDING

50 minutes before boarding, I had left the lounge. Here are the Non-Schengen FIDS for the day.

Our aircraft was present at the gate. That day, I was going to fly with SP-LRE.

PH-BGX arriving from Amsterdam.

Which was followed by A6-ENR arriving from Dubai.

Both gates 17N and 18N were used for boarding. The left side of the gate was used for Group 2 and 3 passengers while the right side for Group 1 passengers. However, when boarding started, both priorities ( Group 1 ) and Group 2 were boarding at the same time. Boarding had started 25-30 minutes before scheduled departure time.

Fuselage shot

LO 1 WARSAW FREDERIC CHOPIN AIRPORT TO CHICAGO O'HARE AIRPORT

After being welcomed by the cabin crew, I have took my seat. A pillow and a blanket was present at that time. There were no earphones present at that time so I requested one later during the flight.

A refreshing tissue was also present

The legroom onboard Premium Economy is generous as well as the seat is comfortable.

Water and a small amenity kit was present at each occupied seat so this meant that I wouldn't have a neighbor for this flight.

As boarding was completed, champagne was offered as a welcome drink. It was the first time that I was offered champagne in Premium Economy Class.

At that time, SP-LSE had just arrived from LAX.

Shortly later, menus were distributed

And as the personal screens are stowed for takeoff, the safety video was played on the monitors in front of the cabin.

As I could understand from this remote, this aircraft was equipped with the Thales IFE system.

EuroLOT aircraft

A7-AEF had just landed from Doha while we were taxiing to the runway.

OO-ABD was going to operate LO 6 to New York JFK that day.

Another LOT regional jet which would head to Katowice that afternoon

And another one, which would head to Wroclaw.

Later on, we had took off

A last view of the airport

Warsaw

And we're over the clouds

Shortly after takeoff, I have visited one of the lavatories which was clean at that time. As Premium Economy does not have dedicated lavatories, passengers needed to go all the way back to Economy lavatories.

IFE - LO 1 WARSAW FREDERIC CHOPIN AIRPORT TO CHICAGO O'HARE AIRPORT

As I've mentioned before, the aircraft was equipped with Thales IFE system.

The IFE system is offered in various languages.

And the menu;

Route map

The seat pocket content: Safety card, magazine and duty free catalogue.
Inflight shopping was offered onboard this flight. 

LOT Route Map

LOT fleet

Shortly after takeoff, hot towels were distributed throughout the cabin

Later on, the service continued with the aperitif service which contained a drink of choice and peanuts. Also the cabin crew asked if I would like any wine. In these days it's rare to see peanuts onboard flights.

LUNCH - LO 1 WARSAW FREDERIC CHOPIN AIRPORT TO CHICAGO O'HARE AIRPORT

That day, I have opted for the steak option. The steak was served with gnocchi, carrots and spinach which made the main course enjoyable. Also, I liked the point where there is an actual starter and a separate salad at the same time. A dessert, butter, vinaigrette was also present on the tray. Drink and water refills were offered throughout the service.

Roast beef served with smoked cheese and cranberry chutney
Pork sirloin steak with rosemary sauce served with gnocchi, braised spinach and carrot
Cake with raspberry 

After the meal, I've asked for a peppermint tea.

Shortly after the trays were collected, the snack basket came around. These were my picks for the day.

As well as immigration forms were distributed.

Then I've slept for a couple of hours and woke up over Canada

As I've told in the beginning of the report, my seat didn't had earphones so I went to the galley and asked for a pair. The crew told that she was sure that she had put one into my seat, however, she happily gave me two pairs in case one of them didn't worked.

As I didn't have time for a movie, I watched three episodes of Family Guy.

LIGHT MEAL - LO 1 WARSAW FREDERIC CHOPIN AIRPORT TO CHICAGO O'HARE AIRPORT

1h30mins before landing, a light meal was served by the crew. It literally had two really light starter dishes and a fruit plate but it was better than nothing when we compare this tray in terms of portion. The dishes were tasty and good. The tray also contained Lindt chocolate and butter. I had asked for a coffee with Irish cream. A funny thing that LOT doesn't have Bailey's. Instead, they serve Carolans.

Beef cheeks with herbal dip served with potato salad
Roast pork loin with pepper sauce served with red and green bean salad
Fresh fruit salad 

A regional airport prior to landing as we started our descend

Some photos before landing

And we had landed to Chicago O'Hare Airport, 35-40 minutes before our scheduled arrival time and the nightmare had begun. You would understand why I used the term "nightmare".

The first visible aircrafts were these United and American birds

N57852 heading to the runway for his flight to LAX

United 777-200 heading to Frankfurt

A6-EPW had just arrived from Dubai as EK235

N27724 was heading to Norfolk that afternoon

This Finnair A330-300 had arrived from Helsinki

HP-1844CMP was heading to the runway for his flight to Panama

And we had finally arrived near the international terminal, the first visible aircraft there was this China Eastern bird.

Followed by an Hainan 787 and a KLM A330

SP-LRB was at ORD as well. That bird was going to operate LO32 to Budapest.

United and Aer Lingus birds

N334FR getting ready for his flight to Dallas Fort Worth

This Spirit bird had arrived from Cancun so it was parked at the international terminal

And the nightmare begins, after a 15 minute taxi, the captain told that our gate was occupied so we needed to wait a couple of minutes. As 787's are designed not to receive phone signal, the 30-35 minute wait was a bit painful with nothing to do except listening music. I was planning to catch an earlier ORD-DCA flight because of our early arrival but in the end we would be arriving to the gate few minutes later than our scheduled arrival time.

With the super-low phone signal I was able to catch, I have noticed that Emirates and Royal Jordanian birds were also being waited at another parts of the airport.

And our aircraft waiting

30-35 minutes later we had started to taxi to our gate, this Spirit bird heading to FLL was visible

An American Eagle aircraft heading to Tulsa

This American 787 would head to Rome that afternoon

And as B-7347 had pushed back, we had docked to gate M10.

Our neighbor was this Finnair A330-300 which had arrived later than us.

After entering the terminal, the visitor lane was packed and there was almost a 1h30-2h wait. As my visa type is not eligible for the kiosks, I needed to head to the special visa lane where I've waited 15-20 minutes. Later on, I've went to the belt and realized that priority baggages were not the first bags arriving. All bags were arriving in a random order. After another 5 minutes over there, I had headed to the American Airlines transfer counter to re-drop my bag. I have also requested to change my flight to the earlier ORD-DCA flight which was delayed 1h20mins delayed. Otherwise, I was going to wait around 5 hours as my originally booked ORD-DCA flight was also delayed. The friendly agent tried to make a confirmed change but the system let her do, so I have asked her to put me on the stand-by list. Then I've left the immigration hall and headed to the bus stop to go to Terminal 3.

This report has came to an end.
Thanks for reading and hope too see you in another report.