LOT Polish Airlines Adds Flights To Los Angeles…And That’s Great News!

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LOT Polish Airlines is a member of the Star Alliance and, as of yesterday, the airline opened up reservations on its new route between Warsaw and Los Angeles which is scheduled to start in Spring 2017. The route will be operated by LOT’s new 787-8 Dreamliners and will be the first direct service between Central Europe (a.k.a Eastern Europe of old) and the US West Coast.

LOT Polish Airlines Warsaw – Los Angeles Route

LOT will operate this route 4x/week from 3 April 2017 on the following schedule:

LO021 WAW 1120 – 1440 LAX (Tue & Sat)
LO023 WAW 1630 – 1950 LAX 788 (Mon & Fri)

LO022 LAX 1630 – 1250+1 day WAW (Tue & Sat)
LO024 LAX 2140 – 1800+1day WAW (Mon & Fri)

That sets the flight times at 12 hours & 20 minutes westbound and 11 hours & 20 minutes eastbound.

LOT 787-8 Dreamliner

The LOT 787-8 Dreamliner can hold up to 252 passengers split between three cabins – Business Class, Premium Economy and Economy.

First the good news.

LOT’s Dreamliners have been fitted with a new-style Business Class seat which, while it doesn’t offer all-aisle-access, does offer comfortable lie-flat seats and a good amount of room.

LOT 787-8 Business Class seat map

LOT 787 Business Class

LOT 787 Business Class

The good news continues into the Premium Economy cabin where passengers are given 19.5″ wide seats with a seat pitch of 38″ – that’s not too dissimilar to the highly regarded Premium Economy seats that Virgin Atlantic offers in its 787-9 Dreamliners (Virgin offers 1″ more seat width).

LOT 787 Premium Economy Class

LOT 787 Premium Economy Class

That’s where the good news ends, because I have little interest in experiencing the airline’s Economy Class cabin.

LOT has, like a lot of other airlines, squeezed in 9 seats across its 787-8 Dreamliner cabin …

… and that’s resulted in a seat width of a little under 17″ – that’s horrible for a flight that could take over 12 hours.

The airline has also squeezed in 213 Economy Class seats into the cabin and that has left the seat pitch at just 31″ – and that’s not a lot of legroom.

The Economy Class cabin looks fine (it should, it’s new!)…….

LOT 787 Economy Class

LOT 787 Economy Class

….. but I’d rather pay a little more (if I have to) and fly an airline like Austrian which has just announced service to LA and which offers considerably more seat width and a little more seat pitch on its flights to LA.

This Is Great News For Flyers

LOT’s announcement of a new service to Los Angeles is the third such announcement from a European airline in the past few months (Austrian and SAS are starting up their own routes too) and that’s adding a lot of capacity between the West Coast and Europe.

More capacity means more seats to fill and therefore more competition….. and that always bodes well for travelers.

We have already seen a lot of award space open up on LOT’s new route so, if you have Star Alliance miles (Aeroplan, United, Avianca etc…) then this may be a good time to book an award if you’re looking to fly to Europe.

There is one caveat I should mention.

I fully expect there to be an all-out Business Class fare war in July and August next year so, if you’re looking to fly to/from Europe in either of those months, I wouldn’t rush to book any awards that would cost you a lot to cancel.

I suspect we’re going to see some very low Business Class fares between Europe and the US in the summer of 2017 and that usually means that you’re better off saving you miles/points for another day.

Historically, summer Business Class deals have been better and more plentiful when originating in Europe but we’ve seen some great fares out of the US in the past too.

Bottom Line

Another airline flying between Europe and the US can only mean good news for travelers…and the fact that this is another route to Los Angeles (one of my bases) only makes me happier 🙂

Keep a close eye on fares over the coming months as I’d expect to see some very good deals around as the airlines compete for passengers…but make sure you do your research before you book. It’s not worth saving a few bucks if you end up flying in more cramped conditions that you would have otherwise done.

All images courtesy of LOT Polish Airlines