LOT – General Information
The Polish airlines LOT are found on January 1, 1929. The Company has come a long way since its first flight with the planes "Junkers", designed for a limited number of passengers and transporting several hundred passengers annually. In 1989, LOT became the first transporter in Eastern Europe, which used the "West" Boeing 767, and in October 2003 it joined the alliance Star Alliance. Only a year later, LOT became the first company in the world to present the ultra-modern Embraer 170. LOT Polish Airlines has over 3500 employees. In 2007, the company has transported 4.28 million passengers, successfully competing with other airlines in terms of modern equipment, quality of service and convenience of flight connections. This necessitated the logo of LOT, which is a stylized crane, as an easily recognizable brand for the Polish national carrier.
The high quality of the offered services and the professionalism of the crew have been awarded many times. From 1996 to 1999 the airline was declared from “Business Travel World” to be the best airline in Central and East Europe for a business class. From 1998 to 2007 LOT was a laureate of the prize of “Business Traveller” for the best Eastern airline. In 2007 the biggest Polish website for air flights, pasazer.com, declared LOT to be the airline with the best network for 2006.
Main Headquarter and Flights
The main base of LOT is the airport in Warsaw. The strengths of the airline are the modern fleet and the well-developed network of flight connections, including most of the important cities in Western, Central and Eastern Europe, USA and Canada. The current network includes the airline's scheduled flights to 60 destinations in Europe and the rest of the world, plus eight flights within Poland.
In March 2008, LOT returned on the Chinese market after nearly 10 years, opening a direct connection between the main airports in Warsaw to Beijing.
LOT also performs combined flights with the following companies: Adria Airways, Aeroflot, Aerosvit Airlines, Air Canada, Air One, Alitalia, ANA, Asiana Airlines, Austrian Airlines, Belavia, Blue1, BMI, Brussels Airlines, Bulgaria Air, Croatia Airlines, Cyprus Airways , EL AL, Lufthansa, Luxair, Malev, Rossiya Airlines, SAS, Singapore Airlines, South African Airways, Spanair, Swiss International Air Lines, TAP, TAROM, Turkish Airlines and United Airlines.
Every day there are flights from Sofia to Amsterdam, Copenhagen, Frankfurt, Gdansk, Geneva, Hamburg, Helsinki, Krakow, Munich, Paris, Poznan, Warsaw, Wroclaw and Zurich.
Fleet
The fleet of LOT consists of 54 planes – 7 Boeing 767, 8 B737, 6 Embraer 175, 10 Embraer 170, 9 Embraer 145 and 14 ATR. LOT offers two classes – economy and business for all of its international flights. The main base is the airport in Warsaw.
LOT is the first transporter in Europe who uses Boeing 787 Dreamliner which is going to be a “small revolution” for the passengers. They are going to enjoy the new and innovational internal surrounding with higher humidity, wider seats and isles, bigger windows, which will considerably improve the feeling of flying.
Classes
Since January 2009, LOT has introduced new food for the economy class for short distances - sandwiches wrapped in eco-pack of gray paper. In the economy class fruit juices, beverages, coffee, tea, beer, vodka, whiskey and wine are offered.
For the business class the airline plans to offer a special menu prepared by a renowned chef in a prestigious hotel in Warsaw. For the passengers of the business class fruit juices, beverages, coffee, tea, beer, wine and other alcoholic beverages will be also served.
For the passengers of the domestic flights coffee and tea is served, and sometimes when the flight is very short water and fruit juice are served instead.
Frequent Flyer Program
The frequent flyer program of LOT is a part of Miles & More. The members of the program can collect miles from every flight of LOT or Star Alliance. The statuses in Miles & More are determined by the number of miles flown within one calendar year with the flights from the given partners. The levels of membership are primary (no minimal threshold), Frequent Traveller (Silver card with threshold 35,000 miles), Senator (Gold Card with threshold 100,000 miles), and HON Circle (black card, 600,000 miles for two calendar years). All levels other than the primary offer lounge access and extra bonus miles. Each higher level extends additional the benefits for the user.
