Cue long thread on PPRuNe by armchair critics about whether you should fly "all that way" after a hydraulic failure and that only a glider pilot could have landed it!
If they did not have specific indications of hydraulic failure that would affect the flight controls, going "all the way" may have been the best option given that it would be daylight on landing in Krakov while landing after burning down fuel in the U.S. would have had to be after dark.