I bought a ticket for my 78-year old father-in-law to travel from Kiev via Warsaw to Copenhagen. The layover time in Warsaw was only 55 min which is borderline enough considering he did not need to change terminals or airlines. The plane from Kyiv to Warsaw was almost on time (8 min delayed arriving to Warsaw), but our relative was seriously delayed at immigration and customs. He was not advised to access any express line for delayed travelers and there were none of those in place. But while standing in a regular line for passport control he was called by an airport official who was reaching out to possible travelers to Copenhagen as this flight was already boarding. My father-in-law responded immediately and the airport official kindly helped him jump the line and be passport-controlled and finger-printed right away. All this time he was naturally concerned if he was going to make it onto the plane but the airport official reassured him that the flight would not leave without him. When he finally cleared security (which took 15-20 min!) and arrived at the gate (a 78-year old can not run sprint!), it was too late to board the plane for Copenhagen. And even though the plane did not leave the gate yet, our 78-year old traveler was received at the gate by a smiling clerk who said that "unfortunately the boarding was complete", and instead of accommodating him onto the plane took him right to the information desk (LOT Transfer Center). He also pointed out they called his name twice on the airport intercom which is obviously a fat lie because in reality such announcement never took place. On my father-in-law's desperate question: "What am I supposed to do know?", the impersonal reply was: "You'll be helped here" followed by the clerk's immediate leaving.
The LOT official at the information desk offered a re-book on a later flight if our relative could pay a fee of 600 USD. He was not able to pay and the LOT official recommended me to buy another ticket for a flight the next morning. I bought another ticket for departing next morning at 09:10.
Moreover, the missed flight left the gate right on time as scheduled, as if a 5-minute delay would be too much of a stretch for an airline to accommodate an elderly patient already going through a passport control, according to the ticket/service purchased; and my father-in-law's luggage was located right away as if it was never taken onto the plane, which looks to me like LOT "planned" to NOT take this passenger onto the plane.
When calling LOT customer service today to ask why LOT was not able to re-book our relative, I was informed that the return ticket has been canceled because of the "no show up" policy of LOT and I must say that I feel cheated by LOT on this matter.
a) My father-in-law was checked-in all the way from Kyiv to Copenhagen. He was present all the time in the transit zone and was only delayed because of a long process at immigration control and because he was required to provide fingerprints time and again. LOT does not have any information about allowing extra time for clearing immigration office upon entering Schengen.
b) By doing a re-booking my father-in-law's return ticket will still be considered valid, but charging 600 USD for this service (to be paid in cash!) is not something to be expected from an elderly traveler. I consider the service of the LOT official EXTREMELY unfriendly and incompetent.
c) The LOT official recommended me to buy a new ticket for my father-in-law. The LOT official NEVER told me that buying a new ticket would automatically void our already bought return ticket. LOT has already made me pay 1366 DKK for the flight from Warsaw to Copenhagen and now want me to pay additional 310 USD for "re-activating" the void return ticket.
NEVER FLY LOT AGAIN! read more
