El Al Israel Airlines

LY339 Tel-Aviv - Amsterdam 28 Sep 2014 737-800 window seat. The flight was full and had a delay of almost 2 hours which is main reason of the total score however El Al arrival and departure times are more convenient as compared with KLM. The flight attendants were not particularly cheerful but they did their job professionally. There was a choice of 2 main courses I opted for chicken meatballs with couscous which tasted fine. The seats with adjustable headrests were quite comfortable.

ATH-TLV-EWR horrible service. Security never ending. Wanted me to explain reason for my vacation why had so much vacation time. Looked through my phone pics in ATH. Onboard first flight warm sandwich and bottle of water. No entertainment. Prepared for landing very early close to 45 mins out. On way to Newark one beverage service with tiny cups. No beer or spirits. Only soft drinks and red wine. Then dinner which was OK. No further beverages entire flight. Only tiny water on meal tray. They did follow up with coffee. IFE was so old and on a loop. Made 12 hour flight unbearable. I fly often and found these seats horrible. No room to move. Only plus were gate agents who were kind. Crew and security out of control and rude. Never again.

TLV-ATH-TLV in July. Outbound full B747-400. Total chaos during boarding many of the home printed boarding cards did not pass the reader many passengers were asked to wait aside for new boarding cards for up to 20 min. Not a nice scene. Onboard no IFE the excuse "short flight" never heard of such a poor reason. Food was a warm bun with cheese or tuna and a bottle of water. Poor. Some passengers were offered choices between cheese or tuna some were not. Kids were offered nice toys or games nice touch. Return onboard B737-800 all went perfectly. Friendly and organized crew but same poor catering. This time IFE was offered even though flight was "shorter" than outbound. All in all good experience.

TLV-BKK round trip. Flight was old and not comfortable. Service was non-existent on both flights. The tasteless food was given as if we were begging for it. When I asked for water from the crew it was also given in a similar manner. Apart from those interactions the staff was invisible throughout the flight. There was no on-board entertainment. Also we weren't able to hear anything the pilot said due to bad speakers. The toilet was filthy. Definitely not worth going through the excessive security and flying the longer route (to avoid other middle eastern countries) for such old plane and bad service.

Friday June 27th from London Luton. Returned on July 6th. I flew with EL-AL June 2014 London-TLV-London. 737-800 series from Luton. I find staff very friendly and always willing to help. Very acceptable food. Best thing about EL-AL is the security.

B777 LHR-TLV. Warm welcoming crew at the door inclusive of head stewardess nice touch. Had a bulkhead seat which was comfortable. Free soft and alcoholic drinks followed by a delicious hot lunch Israeli Style. 2 water rounds on a 4 hour flight toilets clean cabin crew always smiled and ready to serve. IFE on demand but very limited selection. Great Israeli hospitality US carriers can learn one or two things about economy class service from ELAL.

Flew from HKG to TLV last week on Boeing 777. Unlike my previous flight in the opposite direction this flight was very good. The purser and flight attendants were friendly and helpful. The food was tasty.T here were drink runs throughout the flight. The seats were comfortable for economy class. The toilets were kept clean. The entertainment system was on demand but programing was limited. It goes to show that the quality of the flight is determined by the crew and this is inconsistent on El Al.

Flew from LAX to Tel Aviv and back on 777. Crew was curt and inattentive service is not a word staff understand please and thank you was like wise. The food was eatable but uninspiring plane was dirty.

TLV-LAX B777. Seat back when not reclined is too stiff and strains neck muscles. Just two meal services both very light. Very poor snack selections. IFE is laughable fuzzy video on fixed loop with obscure movies. That El Al cannot invest in state of the art IFE for such long flights is shameful. Flight attendants pretty curt and careless (delivered my special meal to the wrong seat and didn't check or apologize). While the 3-3-3 seat layout on the 777 helps the cabin still seemed very cramped.

TLV-HKG Boeing 777. At check-in staff were so rude in their manner and speech to the passenger. Sold me an extra leg room seat that had no electric's no reading light working no movie screen working. When complained to the purser he shouted that it was not his problem. A fellow passenger an El All platinum ff member told me that the seats have not been working for a while. All the extra leg room seats electric's were not working. It is unfair to charge unsuspecting customers for seats that they know do not work. It is terrible being on a 12 hour flight without being able to read or watch anything. The food portions were tiny but tasty. The hostesses did not hand out landing cards for Hong Kong when I asked them they said it was not needed! Wasted 10 minutes having to fill them up at immigration. No drink service throughout the flight had to go get water which were given in tiny cups. Not a pleasant experience.