I spend a whole week in Deblin, which is located roughly 80 minutes away by car, due southeast of Warsaw. On Friday afternoon, I am driven back to the capital, where I stay the night at the Renaissance Hotel at Chopin airport.

Check-in

Just before six in the morning, I cross the street that separates the hotel from the terminal. The airport is very busy. LOT checks in on rows C (inclusive charters), D (Economy Class), and E (Business Class).

I‘ve already checked in online the day before using the LOT app. The Business Class check-in area is conveniently located right next to the entrance to Fast Track security.

Fast track security is an easy and efficient process. More importantly, what I like a lot about Warsaw airport, is that security will not eject you straight into the airport’s duty free store. Instead, you are ejected into the food court.

LOT Polonez Lounge

The LOT lounge is located right above the food court. There are two lounges in one. The Polonez lounge is for Business Class passengers. Next to one of the two bars in the main lounge is the entrance to the Elite Club lounge, which is dedicated to Star Gold passengers. I suspect this lounge was added as an afterthought and was originally a separate, independent lounge.

This is the bar in the main lounge. The entrance to the Gold lounge is behind me.

The Star Gold lounge is rather small and quite busy, which makes it rather difficult to take photos.

In addition to the same selection of cold snacks also available in the main lounge, there is an entire fridge with enticing creamy cakes, as well as a selection of sweet and savoury hot dishes.

Boarding

Boarding for the flight starts on time, at 07:10. Originally, I assume the aircraft in the picture below will be my ride to Zürich today.

But today must be my lucky day, because our aircraft is on a remote stand and we‘re being bussed there. The bus stops by the stairs to the rear door, where the sound of the running APU is deafening.

The Cabin

The cabin on this aircraft is different to that of the slightly larger E-195. The galley is smaller, and on the port side there is no row 1. Row 2 is the bulkhead on the port side. As a result, my seat on the starboard side on 1F feels very quiet and intimate. Economy starts on row 3.

The seat pitch is still good, but not quite so generous as it was on the outbound.

The Crew

The crew on this flight are friendly enough, but a bit bland. There are two female cabin crew up front, and a male cabin crew in the rear of the aircraft. The younger of the two cabin crew seems rather vapid. When she takes her jump seat in preparation for our arrival into Zürich, she actually nods off to sleep. She sits there, strapped in by the shoulder belts, with her head lolling precariously from side to side on her long, elegant, swan-like neck. It‘s only when we hit the ground that she jostles awake with a not very lady-like grunt. I mean, I‘ll admit it does look rather funny, other than that though, I find it quite alarming what this says about her apparent lack of safety awareness and the training she received. Safety is not a joke!

The Meal

The meal is breakfast. It consists of a small tray with a good sized bowl of müsli, which tastes a lot like cardboard actually, and a plate with cheese, dried tomatoes, cucumber, and a slice of chicken and egg.

With the meal, the crew serve breads and rolls from a basket. Unlike the outbound, the rolls are not warm. There is a small tub of butter on the tray, but no jam.

There is also a small packet of chocolate covered pumpkin seeds, which are just plain weird.

Arrival

The flight time is one hour and forty minutes and passes quickly. Overhead Stuttgart, the engines are eased back and we start our descent into Switzerland.

We land on time. It‘s a lovely day here in Zürich, but it‘s hot and feels quite oppressive.

We land on runway 16 and then taxi past the E pier and across runway 28.

I only just miss the direct train to Basel. So instead, I catch the S16 to the main station.

And then from there the 10:34 to Basel. The latter service is operated by one of them Dosto trains, which I think the SBB should rename The Puker for all the shaking and swerving it does… but nobody ever asks me anything anyway.