El Al Israel Airlines

My last few experiences with El Al have been so horrendous. On two separate occasions (our flight from NY to Israel, and now our flight from Israel to Bangkok), El Al have "mysteriously" cancelled our reservation and told us that we were on Standby. The first time for no reason. And the second time when I tried to use my credit card they said that because it was a foreign credit card (American Express) they needed further authorization, i.e. passport pictures, credit card images, a form, etc. We sent all of that in. And then got confirmation that we were all set. Even got a confirmation email. Now, a day before our flight they're telling us that they don't have any reservation for us and that if we want to book a flight the same flight, it's going to cost us an extra $800. Are you kidding me?? I'm sorry - for all the things Israel is good at, it's an embarrassment to have an airline that operates like this.

Tel Aviv to Newark with El Al, and to put it mildly, this was the flight from hell! The worst part was we could not get into a restroom because a certain passengers needed to perform a religious ritual on the plane and were allowed to congregate in the aisle and block other passengers from using the bathroom. When we could eventually access the restroom. There was no toilet paper, soap or paper towels. Flight attendants did not came through the cabin once to offer anything (including water) for many hours. They have antiquated entertainment and no wifi. We did not hear anything from the pilot - no acknowledgement or words of welcome, or assurance when going through some fairly severe turbulence.

After an uneventful El Al flight from Zurich to Tel Aviv on 13th January, a young member of the crew seeing my great difficulty to walk (I am 86), ordered the buggy for me! As I was sitting waiting, he even came to check whether I had been fetched, and called again. Again, all my thanks to this young man.

Tel Aviv to Luton with El Al. Excellent flight, lots of leg room in business and comfortable seat for 5 hour flight. Aircraft was clean and tidy and departed on time. Breakfast was served on this flight which was OK, service was reasonable although the drinks service was pretty sparse. Inflight entertainment was via overhead screens which is pretty dated by today's standards on a full fare airline. In view of this used my iPad although I think El Al has some form of iPad app for entertainment but didn't use it. Arrived in Luton virtually on time, bags collected in quick time too, overall the experience with El Al was very good and the business class seats and space are far superior to BA for example. I would definately fly El Al again even in economy , as we did on the way out from the UK.

London to Tel Aviv return on El Al.After 3 hours of security checks at the airport I had almost 6 hours of screaming kids all around me. The airlines count was 35 kids all in the same section. Jumping, running, screaming. On top of that El Al had the kindness of informing me mid flight that they left my bags behind. No explanation, the bags are not lost they were left behind! Amazing airline, the entertainment system is from the 80's where we all can watch the same movie on the overhead, and the service is overwhelmed with requests from people asking for parents to control their kids! This happened to me on both flights - there and on the way back to London.

New York (JFK) to Tel Aviv on El AL. I thankfully slept for 7 of the 12 hour flight. This was fortunate as someone in the row behind us kept swatting my seat mate on the head and thumping on the back of her seat. This in turn resulted in multiple visits by the flight crew to intercede. Food wasn't bad. Seat the usual cramped economy. Entertainment limited.

Tel Aviv to New York JFK with El Al in first class. King David Club at TLV was very nice with large selection of pastries and breakfast items. I was the only passenger in First class and was treated like royalty by the crew. The seats are 2-2-2 without aisle access for the window seat if full there is room to exit from the window seat stepping over the passenger next to you. The seat otherwise was comfortable. The highlight was the amazing array of Israeli/Meditteranean food served for breakfast and lunch/dinner, served with attentive and friendly service. It was the best food I have eaten on First/Business of any airline. Only limitation was the somewhat outdated IFE though on this plane it was at least VOD.

Very bad experience with El Al - the service is really slow and unfriendly - I was flying to visit my boyfriend. Apparently giving them his name wasn't enough to let me go. I was being told to show his facebook, our talks and all details about our relationship. Eventually they decided to call him by the phone and wake him up (it was 6 in the morning!). After the call they let me go. All these took them around half an hour of being confused and stressed what the hell they want from me. I travel to Israel often with LOT and Wizzair and none of these airlines acted so annoying. I can only explain it by curiosity of the El Al clerks what it is like to be in an international distant relationship or whatever.

Terrible experience. We flew El AL fro0m Tel Aviv to Bangkok for our honeymoon. We chose El Al Israel Airlines because it was the only direct flight to Thailand. It was more expensive than other airlines, but we thought the high price was worth a direct flight. Seats with not much space for feet and knees. Seems lower than other airlines. Also, the back of the seat was twisted in a weird angle. Not comfortable at all for a 10.5 hours flight. We saw my seat was not the only one which was not maintained well. Entertainment was bad. Very bad. One would expect to have a normal entertainment system, but what we had is a 10-15 old year entertainment personal system. Tiny LCD's (4 or 5 inch) very low resolution, dead pixels and not touch sensitive. Variety of media was also poor. Very disappointing for such a long flight. Food was fair. Not more than that. Service - many time the attendants will ignore you (they seem not to hear you talking to them). Value for money: very low. Not recommended.

My trip with El Al Israel Airlines was marred by the fact that there are no screens for the 12 hour journey from Israel. Luckily, the seats were so comfortable that I was able to get about 10 hours of sleep and wake up just in time for breakfast. The crepes in the morning are great and the crew were nice in both Hebrew and English. The seat was very comfortable and the mood lighting gave the illusion that the plane was new. The truth is though, that El Al has outdated planes, El Al relied on people's mobile devices for entertainment and the problem there is that, customers did not know that an appointment existed for in-flight entertainment, and this problem is exclusive for the Tel Aviv-Toronto route. Also, it seems that ashtrays were more important than a remote even if smoking on planes is banned. I give El Al 5/10 because of their terrible plane quality but decent service to makeup for it.