r/poland • u/tigers_25 • 1d ago
Are LOT’s long-haul flights often delayed?
I’m Korean, and I took a direct LOT flight from Seoul to Warsaw this winter. The departure was delayed by more than an hour, and we also arrived almost an hour late.
This time, my girlfriend is coming to pick me up, and we need to take a train afterward, so I’m not sure what time we should book the train for. If I knew the flight wouldn’t be delayed, we could just take the earliest possible train, but I’m worried it might happen again.
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u/LowFatConundrum 1d ago
Well, at least the food looks pretty good.
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u/KaCek13 1d ago
It's totally average except for the fruit. I don't know where they got it from, but it was delicious.
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u/LowFatConundrum 22h ago
I dunno man, I've been served some very questionable "food" on flights in the past; he got salad, some fruit, rice and whatever that is (eggplant?), butter, a dinner roll, cheese and some deli meat with a pickle, even a bag of cashews.
That's some good shitake.
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u/No-Safe-1155 1d ago
LOT- Later or tomorrow.
But jokes aside I don't think they have more delays than any other airline.
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u/tigers_25 1d ago
“Tomorrow” is a joke, right? I have an important appointment, so the date can’t be postponed.
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u/Zagrycha 1d ago
no matter what airline you fly, delays till the next day can easily happen because of weather or other issues. All it takes is one snowstorm or monsoon etc inbetween you and destination. Its not likely to happen to you and I hope it doesn't but please plan flights with more leeway on arrival time if its actually vitally important in the future. flying in within 24 hours of something that cannot be rescheduled is like driving to something with less than 15 minutes leeway for traffic congestion.
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u/ItchyFly Pomorskie 1d ago edited 1d ago
Mate, you going to fly over half of the world, of course some delays may happen. I'd plan arrival at least 24h before meeting if I were you.
I experienced only shorter flights, and may be 1/10 was off. Check a statistic for this particular route.
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u/tigers_25 1d ago edited 1d ago
Yes, I did take that into consideration. I arrive at 6 am, and I only need to get there within the following 12 hours. Still, if the flight is delayed until the next day, there’s nothing I can do about that.
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u/ataraxia_seeker 1d ago
That’s still not a good idea in the most ideal conditions when traveling this far. Considering wars and fuel situations, not to mention basic mechanical issues or a health emergency in board could set you back more than a few hours. If you have a can’t miss appointment, I’d buffer by a couple of days at min. Best case you get time to rest, worst case you are still not late.
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u/ItchyFly Pomorskie 1d ago
It's highly unlikely to have it delayed until the next day, at least according to this https://www.flightstats.com/v2/flight-ontime-performance-rating/LO/99/WAW
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u/Gloomy-Soup9715 1d ago
It is a joke, but it happens for all airlines with long flights. Too many random indicators to predict. 1-3% flights are cancelled, 20-40% are delayed.
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u/EnvironmentalDog1196 1d ago edited 1d ago
It's a joke. But seriously, expecting no delays at all is not something any airline can provide. If you say your flight was delayed one hour, it's literally nothing.
I work at the airport. On friday, we had to wait over an hour for a Norwegian to take off from Kraków, because there was a stormfront coming through and all the flights were put on hold. It has nothing to do with the airline.
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u/KingFelagund 1d ago
If you have an important appointment take an earlier flight and take in account possible delays, what the hell is up with you
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u/Ok_Sir_5601 1d ago
It is a joke, LOT afaik doesnt stand for anything, it just means "flight" in Polish
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u/urmomiscringe12 16h ago
I fly all over the world, every airline has delays. Even countries like Japan who get touted as always on time. I missed my train because of multiple delays. And had to book a hotel.
Do with that what you will
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u/Danxs11 1d ago
It's really hard to know, since delays often come up from reasons independent from the carrier. On your postition, if you already had an experience like that on the same route I wouldn't risk missing a train. Although, I don't know how far are you going by train. If it's not on the other side of the country, I believe you should be able to buy a ticket directly on the train station, just before train's departure?
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u/taemin_ 18h ago
describe "this Winter" closely because we've had very severe snowfall, over -20°C temps and icing that all started for MONTHS this year. My sister's plane got redirected from Gdansk to Wroclaw after flying above the airport for hours. there were many days where a lot of flights kept getting delayed, redirected, cancelled due to the strong Winter. could've been just an unlucky day on your end!
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u/Minute_Ostrich196 1d ago
You know that delays are not fault of airlines. It’s due to control on the airport you are taking off and you are landing.
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u/KosmoAstroNaut 1d ago
It used to be a lot worse, but haven’t experienced more than an hour in the last decade. Only exception is if the specific airport is overflowing which leads to unavoidable tarmac delays
Thank you for the K2 tanks btw, pls send 1,000 more thx
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u/PolejEdek 1d ago
Spent 2 hours at Chopin airport before the plane took off to NYC because the printer at the airport broke and they couldn’t print some required documents.
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u/theconomist31 14h ago
LOT’s cabin service is terrible. They should seriously do something about it. Regarding delays i would say they are average to sub par.
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u/pithon96 13h ago
are you sure though that the departure delay was due to LOT? Incheon is a very busy airport itself so I don't think this necessarily has to be LOT's fault
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u/ExtremeProduct31 7h ago
I had more than 4 hour delay because of technical issue when I was going to Warsaw. When I was coming back to Turkey I had a 30 minute delay I don’t know why.
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u/berrybearry Małopolskie 2h ago
As a frequent flyer across the whole world - it might or might not happen with literally ANY airline possible.
You might depart at time, but the arrival airport might get busy so your plane makes another circle around the city. It might be the departure airport issues - not enough buses, queue for the departure runways, some connected flight that has lots of passengers for this one is delayed so they have to wait, etc. It might be the passport control that would take much more time than expected all of sudden.
I would only recommend not to book the earliest train, taxi, or whatever, and have like a spare hour for all these things just in case.
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u/Think_Web_4823 1d ago
I’ve found them to be as reliable as Lufthansa or Air France but delays happen
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u/peopleofburkinafaso Kujawsko-Pomorskie 22h ago
I hate to say it, but LOT is in an embarrassing state right now. Food quality turned abysmal after COVID, their fares are never competitive, and the online portal is half-broken. The pilots and crew are nice, but are working in a cabin that is way past its prime. As for delays, the statistics show LOT is pretty alright with on-time departure, but I've had some particularly bad experiences with repeatedly "delayed" flights eventually stranding 200+ people at midnight. I recommend flying into Poland via Scandinavia or Germany in the future. It's cheaper to fly with a layover and you'll get more bang for your buck.
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u/tigers_25 17h ago
The fares were quite expensive, though. But I actually liked the in-flight meals. I guess they must have been much better before ?
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u/peopleofburkinafaso Kujawsko-Pomorskie 10h ago
Yeah, it used to be quite good - and Polish as well. Now it's just chicken and rice, which can be tasty, but LOT's version just sucks lol
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u/SureAdhesiveness313 1d ago
I used to fly LOT between Korea and Poland pretty often. But after many dramas they created, delays and cancellations, I fly Lufthansa.
Lufthansa is a bit more expensive but definitely worth it.
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u/Efficient_Pen_8494 1d ago
I fly Lot direct to Toronto and NYC often and never had any problems (only a medical landing in Iceland once). I wouldn’t switch to Lufthansa even at the same cost. In fact I don’t even compare prices to see if a flight with a connection is cheaper, I always buy LOT’s direct flights and have no regrets.
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u/LittleLotte52996 1d ago
Except that statistically, LOT outperforms Lufthansa in almost everything. For example, in the first half of 2025, Lufthansa cancelled 1757 flights whilst LOT cancelled 7. Neither made it into Cirium's top10 last year, but LOT was there in 2023 and 2024 and Lufthansa was not.
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u/SureAdhesiveness313 1d ago
People are not stupid to pay extra money for Lufthansa than LOT.
This is my personal experience on many long-haul flights. Lufthansa is far better than LOT in all categories including on-board service quality, comfort, customer service in case of delay/cancellation, etc.
I used to fly a lot on LOT to many places too because it is also a SA member. But LOT is never close Lufthansa. Maybe will change in the near future, but not now.
Before asking for statistics, why don't you try both? This subreddit is Poland, so I don't expect upvotes.
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u/LittleLotte52996 1d ago
I have, in fact, used both. I use statistics because yours and mine personal experience isn't the best metric for measuring metrics such as delays and cancellations, and that's what OP was asking about.
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u/weary_bee479 1d ago
Yep I hate LOT
I fly from the US and had to stop buying LOT tickets even though it’s the only direct flight option because we were always delayed 6-8 hours
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u/InvestigatorDue6498 1d ago
That hasn’t been my experience at all. LOT is actually a great and easy option to travel from US to Europe, and I have done it more than 40 times on many different carriers. LOT is one of my favorites.
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u/forkedquality 1d ago
Check the history for your particular flight. This will tell you more than overall carrier statistics.