"Cidebur" <[email protected]> skrev i meddelandet
news:[email protected] k.net...
    > DK wrote:
    >> LOT tickets for our recent Chicago-Vienna trip
    > LOT is not serving Chicago-Vienna.
read again and you'll find that the trip was Chicago-Warsaw and
Warsaw -Vienna.

"Markku Grönroos" wrote:
    > Your arse was introduced recently. However, I was horrified that someone had
    > to stand 75 minutes in the check-in queue. 75 MINUTES!!!! That's horrendous.
    > How can anyone stand standing 75 MINUTES in queue is a mystery to me.


You think this is odd ? Have you tried Air Canada at Dorval ? Last
summer, 3 agents to check in 3 widebodies leaving less than an hour
apart. 120 minutes wait for check-in, and they had to hold the flight
because there were still too many who hadn't check-in yet. The've since
reduced the number of check-in position in total, to make way for
self-check in machines. Not sure how many check in positiosn are opened
for intl departures this summer.

In article <[email protected] t>, Cidebur <[email protected]> wrote:
    >DK wrote:
    >> LOT tickets for our recent Chicago-Vienna trip

    >LOT is not serving Chicago-Vienna

Nobody is serving Chicago-Vienna! LOT
with transfer in Warsaw or Krakow, it was one
of the fastest and the least expensive trip.

Lennart Petersen wrote:
    > "Cidebur" <[email protected]> skrev i meddelandet
    > news:[email protected] k.net...
    >
    >>DK wrote:
    >>>LOT tickets for our recent Chicago-Vienna trip
    >>LOT is not serving Chicago-Vienna.
    >
    > read again and you'll find that the trip was Chicago-Warsaw and
    > Warsaw -Vienna.
    >
    >

I was trying to tell, that PLL LOT is not independent,
national.
PLL LOT is a member of www.staralliance.com
EOT
wk

Casey <[email protected]> wrote:
    > I traveled on Lufthansa and LOT in May, and my LOT flight
    > was much more pleasant than my Lufthansa flight.

Feeding your own intestines into a wood chopper is more pleasant than a
Lufthansa flight.

miguel
--
Hit The Road! Photos from 36 countries on 5 continents: http://travel.u.nu
Latest photos: Queens Day in Amsterdam; the Grand Canyon; Amman, Jordan

DK wrote:
    > In article <[email protected] t>, Cidebur <[email protected]> wrote:
    >
    >>DK wrote:
    >>>LOT tickets for our recent Chicago-Vienna trip
    >
    >
    >>LOT is not serving Chicago-Vienna
    >
    >
    > Nobody is serving Chicago-Vienna! LOT
    > with transfer in Warsaw or Krakow, it was one
    > of the fastest and the least expensive trip.
    >

Sorry, I did not read carefully your post.
wk

"DK" <[email protected]> wrote in message
news:[email protected]...
    > LOT tickets for our recent Chicago-Vienna trip were hundred-and-some $$
    > less than comparable United and Lufthansa. After some deliberations,
    > we decided to give this post-Communist company a benefit of doubt.
    > BIG MISTAKE.
    > - 75 min long line to just check in in O'Hare.
    > - 1 hour long security check line in Warsaw. Rude and very invasive
    > search, too.
    > - Even though tickets were purchased 3 months in advance, seating
    > assigned made sure members of our family seat as far from
    > each other as possible (my mistake for not checking it before we
    > came to the airport)
    > - Weather-unrelated delays on both trans-Atlantic flights (1 and 2.5
    > hours; "some kind of engine trouble" (!)).
    > - The luggage was not transferred at all on trip forward and
    > one suitcase was transferred to a wrong flight on trip back.
    > - Without exception, stewardesses keep talking to every passenger
    > in Polish - even after learning that the passenger does not speak
    > Polish.
    > - Food is given in liliputian amounts and has no taste.
    > - The other flight services are unexistent. Pressing stewardess call
    > button has no effect whatsoever.
    > In brief, LOT Airlines seems to be run by a buch of incompetent
    > morons. Stay away from it if you can.
    > DK


Have in mind two things, first that in the US airlines have been operating
in a very competitive, and de-regulated, environment for twenty years now!

This makes a big difference in quality of customer service area.

Another thing to have in mind is that LOT is primarily catering to a
Polish ethnic clientele, it is a national, not a truly "international"
airline
(if anything like that exists at all). Some service is destined to be
better
if you are a native speaker, no matter what country airline.

Do you think you can get the same quality service on American Airlines
as the Gringo next to you, if you don't speak any English, only Spanish?
No way Jose! There is always going to be a slight difference here.

Other than that, I am sorry for your crummy experience, and hope
LOT improves in the future. They have been making a lot of progress
but apparently need to do LOTs more :))


MN


--
Equitable Communications Promise: Milton Noyes does
not discriminate against newsgroup respondents on the
basis of age, sex, race, color, national origin, ancestry,
creed, pregnancy, religion, marital or parental status,
sexual orientation, physical, mental, emotional, or learning
disability or handicap.

"Cidebur" <[email protected]> skrev i meddelandet
news:[email protected] .net...
    > Lennart Petersen wrote:
    >> "Cidebur" <[email protected]> skrev i meddelandet
    >> news:[email protected] k.net...
    >>>DK wrote:
    >>>>LOT tickets for our recent Chicago-Vienna trip
    >>>LOT is not serving Chicago-Vienna.
    >> read again and you'll find that the trip was Chicago-Warsaw and
    >> Warsaw -Vienna.
    > I was trying to tell, that PLL LOT is not independent,
    > national.
    > PLL LOT is a member of www.staralliance.com
    > EOT
    > wk
Obviously you know nothing about airlines and airline alliances.
LOT is a fully independent airline being member of the alliance.
Star Alliance isn't the owner of the member airlines.
All participating airlines are independent and the alliance is for
cooperation between the airlines only.
Anyway as most airlines in Star-Alliance are high quality airlines like
LH,SAS,Singapore and others the could be reason to question if LOT is worth
to be included in STAR assuming the report from DK is true. And having
some experience from Poland I've reason to believe that LOT may have
problems.

    > Aren't Lufthansa considering taking them over?

Are you thinking of Swiss, which Lufthansa now owns? Lufthansa
stated that it is too busy digesting Swiss to be thinking of more
takeovers right now.

Casey

"Milton Noyes" <[email protected]> wrote in message
news:[email protected]. ..

    > Have in mind two things, first that in the US airlines have been operating
    > in a very competitive, and de-regulated, environment for twenty years now!
    > This makes a big difference in quality of customer service area.
    > Another thing to have in mind is that LOT is primarily catering to a
    > Polish ethnic clientele, it is a national, not a truly "international"
    > airline (if anything like that exists at all).


Ooopsss, there was an airline coming quiet close to being
a truly international; PanAM. Although Anlo, it felt really
international at least to Europeans, Eastern-Europeans,
Latin Americans, etc. I imagine Asians would probably have
some reservations about this statement. Any one Oriental
care to comment?

MN


--
Equitable Communications Promise: Milton Noyes does
not discriminate against newsgroup respondents on the
basis of age, sex, race, color, national origin, ancestry,
creed, pregnancy, religion, marital or parental status,
sexual orientation, physical, mental, emotional, or learning
disability or handicap.



    > Some service is destined to be better if you are a native speaker, no
    > matter what country airline.
    > Do you think you can get the same quality service on American Airlines
    > as the Gringo next to you, if you don't speak any English, only Spanish?
    > No way Jose! There is always going to be a slight difference here.
    > Other than that, I am sorry for your crummy experience, and hope
    > LOT improves in the future. They have been making a lot of progress
    > but apparently need to do LOTs more :))
    > MN
    > --
    > Equitable Communications Promise: Milton Noyes does
    > not discriminate against newsgroup respondents on the
    > basis of age, sex, race, color, national origin, ancestry,
    > creed, pregnancy, religion, marital or parental status,
    > sexual orientation, physical, mental, emotional, or learning
    > disability or handicap.
    >

"Jaze" <[email protected]> skrev i meddelandet
news:[email protected]...
    > [email protected] (DK) wrote:
    >>LOT tickets for our recent Chicago-Vienna trip were hundred-and-some $$
    >>less than comparable United and Lufthansa. After some deliberations,
    >>we decided to give this post-Communist company a benefit of doubt.
    > ^^^^^^^^^^^
    > There's your reason right there. You can take a communist out of
    > communism, but you can never take the communism out of a communist.
    > Also keep in mind that the concept of "customer service" is pretty
    > much unheard of outside the US.
---------------
To my experience the American airlines aren't the best in service and never
been.
They're average but not more than so. Best of all I've tried was Air New
Zealand but also LH,BA,SAS,Quantas and some others beats.

The Air Force was very upset when Pan Am stopped serving the Far East.
As long as Pan Am served the Far East, the Air force only ran the
second worst airline in Asia.

Old joke but a lot of truth from one who flew both regularly from
Okinawa 76-79.

Lennart Petersen wrote:
    > Anyway as most airlines in Star-Alliance are high quality airlines like
    > LH,SAS,Singapore and others the could be reason to question if LOT is worth
    > to be included in STAR assuming the report from DK is true. And having
    > some experience from Poland I've reason to believe that LOT may have
    > problems.
    >
    >

I hope, You'll not decide about it.
From www.staralliance.com if You want to read.
wk

LOT Polish Airlines, a company known in many countries worldwide, was
established almost 75 years ago – on January 1st, 1929. LOT – one of the
oldest airlines – has come a long way since its first aircraft, Junkers,
designed with limited seating and yearly carriage of several hundred
passengers. In 2002 LOT carried over 3,3 million passengers,
successfully competing with other airlines in respect of modern
equipment, convenience of connections and the quality of service. Its
emblem, a stylised crane, is recognised almost everywhere as the symbol
of the Polish flag carrier.

LOT Polish Airlines is a joint stock company established on December 29,
1992, as a result of transforming the state owned company of the same
name. Until the end of the year 1999 one hundred per cent of shares in
the Company’s capital was owned by the State Treasury. As a result of
the Company’s privatisation in November 1999, the Swiss holding
SAirGroup acquired part of LOT Polish Airlines shares. On October 30,
2001 the Council of Ministers took a decision on increasing LOT Polish
Airlines initial capital. A new issue of LOT Polish Airlines shares was
accepted in its entirety by the State Treasury, who in this manner
became the owner of 67.96 per cent of the carriers shares, while 25.1
per cent is owned by SAirLines B.V., and the remaining 6.94 per cent is
held by LOT employees.

In 2002 LOT flew 3.388.000 passengers – which is over 5% more than a
year earlier. This is also 115 thousand passengers more than had been
assumed in the business plan for that year. It is worth emphasizing that
the year 2002 observed an operations decline of 3700 flights (4.9%) and
of 10.6% on flights offered. The load factor improved significantly,
reaching 69.6 % from 61.8 %. All this was possible as a result of
tailoring Company activities to market needs and implementing a flexible
pricing policy, as well as the growing efficiency of the LOT hub at
Warsaw Frederic Chopin Airport coupled with expanding co-operation with
other carriers operating to Poland, especially Lufthansa and Austrian.

Network and Fleet
The present network of LOT Polish Airlines scheduled flights covers 46
cities in Europe and beyond, plus 12 within Poland.
In the fleet, LOT has bought 18 new aircraft over the last two years and
placed an order for 10 Embraer 170 aircraft. In the course of 2002 the
ATR 42 aircraft of the -300 variant in the fleet were replaced by the
new generation -500 variant. LOT currently operates a fleet of 5
wide-body B767, 19 single aisle B737, 14 regional jets Embraer 145 and
13 ATRs, offering two-class service (Economy and Business) on most flights.

Awards
The high quality of services and professionalism of LOT’s board
personnel have been honoured a number of times. The Polish carrier is
the winner of the following awards:
The British Business Travel World Magazine prize for the best airlines
in Central and Eastern Europe in business class (1996, 1997, 1998 and 1999)
Business Traveller Monthly’s prize for the “Best Eastern European
Airline� (1998, 1999, 2000, 2001, 2002)
The Reader’s Digest prize of a golden statuette for the Most Trustworthy
Brand (2001, 2002, 2003) The prize for the Best Airline Based in
Central and Eastern Europe awarded by OAG, a company belonging to the
Reed Business Information Group (2001, 2002, 2003).
LOT has also received the Certificate of the Company’s Brand from the
Institute of the Polish Brand (2000).

Jaze <[email protected]> wrote:

    > Also keep in mind that the concept of "customer service" is pretty
    > much unheard of outside the US.

Heh. That's funny on so many levels.

Lennart Petersen wrote:

    > "Jaze" <[email protected]> skrev i meddelandet
    > news:[email protected]...
    >
    >>[email protected] (DK) wrote:
    >>>LOT tickets for our recent Chicago-Vienna trip were hundred-and-some $$
    >>>less than comparable United and Lufthansa. After some deliberations,
    >>>we decided to give this post-Communist company a benefit of doubt.
    >> ^^^^^^^^^^^
    >>There's your reason right there. You can take a communist out of
    >>communism, but you can never take the communism out of a communist.
    >>Also keep in mind that the concept of "customer service" is pretty
    >>much unheard of outside the US.
    >
    > ---------------
    > To my experience the American airlines aren't the best in service and never
    > been.

Yes, US carriers often lack staff that can speak the language of the
country they are going to.