Review of LOT Polish flight from Warsaw to Zagreb in Economy

Hi everyone,
This is a description of the first leg of my latest trip to Croatia including the following flights:
31.08.2016 - WAW - ZAG, LOT, Q400 - you are here
31.08.2016 - ZAG-SPU, CROATIA AIRLINES, A319 - coming soon
11.09.2016 - SPU-ZAG, CROATIA AIRLINES, A319 - coming soon
11.09.2016 - ZAG-WAW, LOT, Q400 - coming soon
I bought the ticket on Croatia Airlines webiste and generally all my flights had the "OU" code as the LOT flights to Zagreb are co-shared. Croatia Airlines website is rather old fashioned but very easy to use. What was a big surprise was a possibility of choosing your seat with no extra charge at the moment of booking your ticket but only for the flights operated by Croatia. 23 kg of checked-in luggage was also included in the price and it made it much more competitive than my first plan to fly to Sicily onboard Wizz that I'm trying to avoid regarding its terrible hand luggage policy. My journey plan was to spend 2 days in Split, then 3 days in Makarska, 2 days in Dubrovnik, 2 days in Kotor in Montenegro and on my way back a couple of hours in Trogir which is very close to Split airport and in Zagreb having almost 7 hours break between the flights. I used local buses for all the routes which found out to be a very good solution regarding low prices and decent level of services. Let the story begin then…. :)
We've checked-in online on LOT website and printed both boarding passes at the airport self check-in machine. This time I've managed to change my seats for the first leg from 9A and 9B to 7C and 7D willing to see something more then the engine during the 1:30 flight. It was quite easy this time, unlikely my flight to and from Vilnius where most of the seats were marked as occupied, this time I could choose almost any seat in economy class.
LOT baggage drop point

Children's area

The airport was quite crowded, I think it was because of many charters flights as the holiday season was still on. The queue to the safety control seemed endless and we were redirected to the second security check point located in the fomer old terminal that has been lately renovated and incorporated into the new terminal building.

I think the company responsible for the security control has changed as I saw new uniforms, new faces and the most important no rudness so characteristic for the previous staff. Good change.

Some spotting before the flight

My gate was located in the non-Shengen area as Croatia is not in the Shengen zone.

One thought made me nervous from the early morning: should we have any delay in the first flight, we're gonna loose the second flight to Split. Should the delay be big, we're gonna loose the second flight to Split too (the ZAG-SPU timetable for that day looked strange: our flight departing 14:00, next one 14:35 and then 22:00) and spend whole afternoon at the airport. When I heard that our flight was delayed I first thought it was only my imagination so infected by the fear of loosing a connecting flight but unfortunately it was nothing but true. Luckily the boarding started 20 minutes later than scheduled and it was still possible to catch the A319 to Split.
I've never flown so many times with Q400 than this year, it was supposed to be a 7th flight within 6 months onboard this aircraft. What I discovered is that a flight up to one hour is ok, anything more is difficult onboard any turboprop even the one named Q for "quiet".

The LF was about 70%, not bad, let's hope this route will remain in LOT's network. There was someone in business class too even though a business class on this aicraft means all the economy passengers queuing for the one and only toilet located in the front. E170 would be a much better choice on this route.

Standard service for all European flights is a glass of water and a chocolate bar (tea in the winter) but the BOB offer is very good and resonable. To celebrate the start of our holiday we've chosen a small bottle of prosecco :)

Inflight magazine

And some views as the weather was excellent that day
Shortly after take-off

Danube river near Vienna

Mountains in Austria/Slovenia

Approaching Zagreb

Gear down

We've landed at 13:35, 35 minutes after schedule, still hoping to catch the flight to Split.
New terminal that will start operating in March 2017.

Finally we reach our stand and disembark

Croatia Airlines advertisment before the passport control

The bus takes us to the old and small terminal where we discover that having a connecting flight to Split we need first to pass a passport control, then exit the airside zone and enter it again passing the security check. In this point I lost all my hopes but when we finally reached our gate the boarding hasn't even started and everyone seemed relaxed and ok about it. Next time no worries, I will take it easy :)
To be continued soon.
Thanks for reading.