This past Sunday, Gabi and I had the opportunity to ride business class on LOT Polish from Chicago to Krakow. They fly this route once weekly with the rest of the week to Warsaw.

I don’t believe there’s any other airline that flies direct from Chicago to Poland just yet, and I think the reason why LOT flies it is because Chicago boasts an impressive Polish and people with Polish ancestry population. It’s to the point where a 2023 study by the city found Polish to be the 4th most widely spoken language in Chicago behind English, Spanish, and Mandarin. What’s interesting is that the 1972 musical Grease had the majority of characters with Polish surnames based on real-life experiences in a Chicago high school, but subsequent productions and films have toned down the Chicago Polish influences.

Anyways, back to the flight, we’re flying non-revenue standby, so we didn’t have confirmed tickets yet. We needed to clear with the ticketing counter for standby boarding passes, then we’d have to go to the gate to clear for actual seats. The loads had looked good, and we had little issue with it all. Security check at ORD Terminal 5 was awful as it was around 9pm and the PreCheck/Clear lines were all closed. It went from 4 security lines to 1 combined one, and it took us 45 minutes to get through. Our standby passes had “Fast Track” but it was just for show haha. Good thing we had enough time. Once boarding almost finished, the gate agent issued us our confirmed boarding passes: 1A and 1B! Not only business class, but also sitting next to each other without having to explicitly ask! To be fair, the cabin was only 2/3rds full.

So, LOT Polish still has the common but outdated 2-2-2 business class layout. That means 33% of business class passengers do not have direct access to the aisle and would likely need to climb over or wake up a sleeping passenger to use the restroom or exit their seats. However, what’s nice about it is that it felt a lot more open and spacious. The seats seemed noticeable wider with more legroom, which Gabi enjoyed a lot. The lack of wifi was honestly a fresh change of pace; I’ve missed the forced disengagement from the digital world air travel used to have. However, this layout and older product definitely can invite more awkwardness if sitting with strangers due to the limited divider and shared middle tray. Some other cons was that the seats lacked accessible storage space with only the foot cabinet space (unreachable if secured with a seatbelt) and overhead bins as storage. The entertainment devices were also quite outdated, and we ended up not using them at all. There was also this annoying, bright green light that I could not understand having.

The food was pretty solid, though! That was a relief as we didn’t have dinner. For the appetizer, I chose the green asparagus cream soup, and I really enjoyed it! Baked rib eye with mashed potatoes and veggies was my main of choice. The meat was on the drier end, but only slightly, and it was overall well-seasoned and tasty. The drinks kept flowing non-stop—great Polish hospitality. Had mostly blackcurrant and orange juice haha, but I’m sure their wine selection was great. Tons of dessert options. Breakfast was also good. The cafe latte, though, tasted evidently like powdered espresso. I’m not sure how Turkish Airlines had such good espresso for their catering.

After dinner, we set the beds ourselves. I’m sure they would’ve helped if requested, but it honestly was pretty simple. The mattress cover was more for cleanliness than comfort—quite thin. Blanket—also quite thin—was enough comfort, although on the shorter side (not for me given average height). Pillow was solid. Gabi slept really well. I woke up a few times, mostly due to light coming from the gallery. I really should’ve used the nice eye mask I keep with me 24/7 or not have dropped the one they gave me. My fault. Overall, solid and roomy sleep experience.

At the end of the day, it was a relaxing and pleasant time. We had a great flight attendant taking care of us. She definitely helped elevate the experience, especially by stating that she was really happy to have had us as passengers (made my day). We all bonded over the cute Kodak Charmera we were taking photos with. Everyone was nice and helpful overall, too! It’s no Turkish Airlines in terms of hard and soft business class product, but it definitely was a memorable experience all the same.