EL AL Matmid - LY routes operated by 747?

Before looking up all routes, does anybody know from the top of their head which routes are operated by a 747?

Btw, can anyone select any business class seat in advance or do you need to have status to do so? (as I´d be interested in travelling on the upper deck)

Thanks a lot!

JFK, EWR (daily flight - switches off between 772 and 744), LHR, BKK (though they get 4X-ELH a lot which is an all Y config on LD, and just C on UD; no F. old plane), CDG (extremely rare)

I think CDG also gets itExtremely rare.

Updated my post. Thanks

JFK, EWR (daily flight - switches off between 772 and 744), LHR, BKK (though they get 4X-ELH a lot which is an all Y config on LD, and just C on UD; no F. old plane), CDG (extremely rare)

Im pretty sure that LH have no 777's in their fleet. With regards to the original question, all oh LH's current 747 fleet use the upper deck for F only. Whether you get the old F or new F is the gamble but they do not fly business class on upper deck on 747's.

Having said that they will be operating the new 747-8's from end of March/early April and that may or may not utilise a different configuration.

Im pretty sure that LH have no 777's in their fleet. With regards to the original question, all oh LH's current 747 fleet use the upper deck for F only. Whether you get the old F or new F is the gamble but they do not fly business class on upper deck on 747's.

Having said that they will be operating the new 747-8's from end of March/early April and that may or may not utilise a different configuration.
You are correct that LH has no 777s, that all 744s use the UD as F, that it's a gamble on getting old F versus new, and that eventually the 748i will come out, and likely will have C on the UD.
That being said, this is not the LH forum, nor did the OP ask anything about LH! LY = EL AL!

That being said, this is not the LH forum, nor did the OP ask anything about LH! LY = EL AL!Indeed! I was a little confused re the LH remarks, read your short posts about 5 times to see if if I missed something about LH in there, or maybe my eye sight was not as good as it used to be... :)

My humble apologies :o, my eyes were really not working very well

No worries!

my eyes were really not working very wellI find putting my glasses on helps... ;)

If you want to see where the El Al 747's have been, you can see their last month history on flight24.com

http://data.flight24.com/airplanes/4x-ela/
http://data.flight24.com/airplanes/4x-elb/
http://data.flight24.com/airplanes/4x-elc/
http://data.flight24.com/airplanes/4x-eld/
http://data.flight24.com/airplanes/4x-ele/
http://data.flight24.com/airplanes/4x-elh/

Cities visited: JFK, EWR, LHR, BKK, Geneva, CDG, Kiev, Barcelona, Amsterdam, FCO, Liege, SQQ (Lithuania), Vienna

Some interesting details -
4x-ELD has not operated since January 15th, and 4X-ELE since January 29th.
The 747's went on rare occasions to Kiev, Barcelona, and Amsterdam. But they all seemed to be one-off flights which may have been for some operational reason. For example - 4X-ELB going to Barcelona today is almost definitely due to the disruptions caused by the Histadrut general strike over the last two days. So El Al probably has had to catch up on moving people to and from spain due to that strike, so they put one of the 747's to ease up the backlog.

I have never heard of them sending 744s to some of those cities! Though you probably are right that some are related to the Histadrut strike

I flew on an LY 747 from DME-TLV a couple of months ago.

I have never heard of them sending 744s to some of those cities! Though you probably are right that some are related to the Histadrut strike

Liege and SQQ (Lithuania) are probably a cargo flight and not passenger flight. Their actual cargo plan 4X-EAF flies to Liege and SQQ all the time. Who knew that there was so much cargo from Lithuania to Israel.

Thanks for the info.

Just two questions regarding seating:

1) Would I be able to select a seat on the upper deck?
2) On some flights rows 2-4 show up as "business class" on Expertflyer. I assume LY decided to cancel F service on those flights and uses the F cabin for C pax. Would I be able to select one of those seats? / Are those seats only available to status pax?

Thanks!

1) Would I be able to select a seat on the upper deck?Except for the exit rows which are reserved for status pax yes, you should have no problem.



2) On some flights rows 2-4 show up as "business class" on Expertflyer. I assume LY decided to cancel F service on those flights and uses the F cabin for C pax. Would I be able to select one of those seats? / Are those seats only available to status pax?This is indeed LY offering the F cabin seats with C service, and it's status pax only that can reserve these (free of charge) in advance.
Anyone else can purchase them at check in.

Except for the exit rows which are reserved for status pax yes, you should have no problem.


This is indeed LY offering the F cabin seats with C service, and it's status pax only that can reserve these (free of charge) in advance.
Anyone else can purchase them at check in.

only PL/TPL can reserve the F seats in advance (+1 more traveller with them, even with no status).
GL can get it at check in for free
all others - 500$ (i think it's going to be raised on 1/march)

only PL/TPL can reserve the F seats in advance (+1 more traveller with them, even with no status).
GL can get it at check in for free
all others - 500$ (i think it's going to be raised on 1/march)
For some reason, I recall $300 being the fee. I also recall a bunch of GLs telling me they managed to pay a fee in advance and sit in F

only PL/TPL can reserve the F seats in advance (+1 more traveller with them, even with no status).
GL can get it at check in for freeIndeed, as discussed in depth very recently here.

Didn't really see the point in getting into the details as they are irrelevant to the OP anyway, but I knew someone would come along and be less lazy then I... ;)

I also recall a bunch of GLs telling me they managed to pay a fee in advance and sit in FBut why would they, when they can get them for free at check in?

Thanks for confirming what I thought...Doesn´t seem like it would be worth it to pay an extra $300/$500 to get a slightly better seat.

Though I would be curious how LY would handle the following situation: All seats on the upper deck are assigned, 10/12 F seats (used as business class) are available and the regular C cabin downstairs seems to be used as Y, so would this mean I wouldn´t be able to get an seat assignment in advance?

But why would they, when they can get them for free at check in?

To confirm the seat for themselves - nervous a TPL or PL would take it. Both times, they told me they took the last one.

Thanks for confirming what I thought...Doesn´t seem like it would be worth it to pay an extra $300/$500 to get a slightly better seat.

Though I would be curious how LY would handle the following situation: All seats on the upper deck are assigned, 10/12 F seats (used as business class) are available and the regular C cabin downstairs seems to be used as Y, so would this mean I wouldn´t be able to get an seat assignment in advance?

While I won't speak for your fiscal situation (what's worth $300/$500 or not,) I can say that F is not a *slightly* better seat. It's a significantly better seat. F goes fully lie-flat, but C is only angled lie-flat. F is 2-2 (nose) on the 744, and C is 2-3-2 downstairs and 2-2 UD.

While I won't speak for your fiscal situation (what's worth $300/$500 or not,) I can say that F is not a *slightly* better seat. It's a significantly better seat. F goes fully lie-flat, but C is only angled lie-flat. F is 2-2 (nose) on the 744, and C is 2-3-2 downstairs and 2-2 UD.

Ok, I´ll take back my statement about C vs. F.;)

I guess my statement about the value of spending an extra $500 for a better seat was somewhat biased. When I´m spending $600 for a o/w business class ticket TLV-BKK-NRT, an extra $500 seems pretty expensive.:p

Ok, I´ll take back my statement about C vs. F.;)

I guess my statement about the value of spending an extra $500 for a better seat was somewhat biased. When I´m spending $600 for a o/w business class ticket TLV-BKK-NRT, an extra $500 seems pretty expensive.:p
Fair point

For some reason, I recall $300 being the fee. I also recall a bunch of GLs telling me they managed to pay a fee in advance and sit in F

http://www.elal.co.il/ELAL/Hebrew/HidePages/he_prferred_seat_fqa_270111

it was 500$, now 499$ for long haul. less for shorter flights.

GL officially cannot get it for free in advance. as always, there are expections... if you call elal gold line a day before the flight and there are 10 free F seats and no PL/TPL on the flight, they might assign a seat. otherwise - you GL can get it for free at the airport (done it a couple of times).