EL AL Matmid - The first time you flew El Al...

When was the first time you flew El Al.
For me, it was 20 years ago, in 1992: it was a flight from CDG to ETH with a 762.
It was the good old time...
At that time, IIRC, LY flew 7 742s, 2 732s, 4 762s, and 7 757s (correct me if I am wrong).

What about you?

1983 TLV-JFK on a 747-100 or 2OO
I was a child traveling with my parents.

1983 TLV-JFK on a 747-100 or 2OO
I was a child traveling with my parents.

IIRC, LY never operated 747-100s. I guess it was a -200 (?)

1964. Paris Orly to TLV 707 the first of many flights - lots of long haul, HKG TLV and BKK TLV my most regular these days. If only El Al came all the way to SYD.

July 2000. 747-200 outbound (JFK-TLV) and 747-400 inbound (TLV-EWR).

Outbound, saw a really scary movie.

Inbound, first time I ever saw PTVs on a plane. Had about 8 channels. Was revolutionary at the time.

Fantastic flights and crews. Got amenity kit - socks, toothbrush, toothpaste, eye shades, and don't remember what else.

July 1984
JFK-TLV-JFK
747-200
Big thrill was Tefillah (prayer) inflight.

JUly 1971.. JFK-TLV nonstop on a 707.. No movies, very boring flight as a kid, but great food .. on the return,, TLV-AMS-YUL-JFK on the same 707.. 747 was just introduced but did not take " the jumbo" at that time...

IIRC, LY never operated 747-100s. I guess it was a -200 (?)

At that age i didn't know that they have diffarent jumbos.
I also didn't earn miles for that flight....

For me it was Aug 1970 JFK-TLV on a 707, on the way to Hebrew University for the year. It was also the first time I was on any plane

July 2004 on Taglit.

Was my first int'l trip anywhere... I paid for an upgrade to C, got upper deck, it was pretty cool!

July 2004 on Taglit.

Was my first int'l trip anywhere... I paid for an upgrade to C, got upper deck, it was pretty cool!
Were you a participant? Taglit didn't mind you upgrading yourself?

I was a participant... those yutzes demanded that I arrive at JFK 4 hours before the flight(otherwise no trip for u was the threat...), I wasn't about to spend them hanging out at the gate. (nor 11 hours in the back of a 747).

I got my ticket, took it to the ticket counter, they wanted 799 each way. done. The leader was a bit miffed but so be it.

My very first flight! LY142, JNB-NBO-TLV 8 MAY 1969

Aircraft was 4X-ATT

December 2009 and January 2010 on Taglit as well. JFK-TLV-JFK. Pretty sure I had 744 both ways.

Crowded and noisy. Surprised by quantity of food they had not surprised by its lack of quality.

Overall great experience!

July 2000. 747-200 outbound (JFK-TLV)

Am very superised that in 2000 elal still sent 742's to JFK.

They must have stopped very shortly afterwards.

July 1970. I think it was a 707 and it was a 7 week tour for college students run by Sachnut. The plane stopped in Europe both ways ( don't ask me where) I do remember that there was lots of food--at least 3 meals and some snacks in the middle. It was my first time on an airplane and it was all pretty exciting.

1953: LHR-CIA-ATH-TLV, on a DC4 or a Connie, I think. Memories fade after so many years.

July 1996.
On my way to study at grad school in Israel with the plan to stay at least a year and see what happened. Stayed much longer. :)

Oh, and I got an upgrade to business. :D There was some computer malfunction in the check-in line + a gazillion teens on a tour, so they have me a pass and said get a seat at the gate. I had to practically choke someone to get them to stop and give me a BP with a seat assignment. When they handed it to me, I didn't even look at it, really. I just got on board, and what a most excellent surprise. :)

I'm amazed you guys remember the first time even as kids...

I was 4 when my parants made aliyah and the only reason I know it was a 742 (from LHR) is because my dad remembers!

Am very superised that in 2000 elal still sent 742's to JFK.742's or 742s...? ;)

Anyway, I'm not surprised at all..

They used those aircrafts as much as they possibly could and I remember they used them on the LHR route at least for years after that.

I actually tried to avoid them as much as i possibly could (there were endless tech problems with them causing loads of schedule delays) but remember ending up traveling on the upper deck which had the old first class seats...

http://www.airliners.net/photo/Untitled-(El-Al/Boeing-747-258C/0262065/L/

742's or 742s...? ;)

Anyway, I'm not surprised at all..

They used those aircrafts as much as they possibly could and I remember they used them on the LHR route at least for years after that.


they used to use them to europe for many years while the far destinations they used always the 744.

Remember many times being bussed out to the 315 which was a 742, and wishing the bus would stop at the neighbouring 744 which was than used for flight 007

I cannot speak for anyone else, of course, but the reason that the trip I described above sticks in my mind was that it was the very first air journey I had ever undertaken.

Coupled with that was the fact that we were travelling on "the very first Jewish airline in 2000 years" (corny, I know, but people talked like that in those days) to the fairly recently-established "Jewish state" of Israel.

I'm amazed you guys remember the first time even as kids...



Yes, it is astonishing that I can remember the details i mentioned, but for the life of me I can't remember where I put my other spectacles 10 minutes ago!

Yes, I remember the old 742s: the last time I flew an LY 742 was in 2000 IIRC (ORY-TLV).
Then, the 777s replaced them on that route while LHR was still served by 742s until 2005 IIRC

My first time on LY was also my first time flying to Israel, my first time flying an international carrier, my first time flying a flight longer than 3 hours, and my first time flying to an international destination (from the USA).

Before flying LY, we always flew to Israel with TWA (and once with AF).
Does someone know how many flights LY operated between Paris and TLV in the 80s? Were the flights daily? Because it was rare to hear people flying LY from France to TLV: most flew on TWA or AF.

First time was July 1984, I was 10 years old. Can't remember much about the flight other than the fact that we stopped off in Brussels on the way back to NY, and I played some lousy video games there and forever after I was left with some Belgian Franc pocket change. Also remember having to get off onto the tarmac at TLV and take those buses. It was the time of hyper-inflation in Israel, such that in the price of the buses changed every day, since the shekel ended up losing value against the dollar every day.

March 1967
B707 TLV->BRU
Don't remember much.

DLP

1994 JFK-TLV

It was a mid week red-eye, takeoff at midnight. I remember after boarding a young man with a wife and a couple of kids gets up and gingerly asks the flight attendant "e-e-excuse me, sir, I didn't get a pillow." The flight attendant wags a finger at him and snaps "EVERYBODY got a pillow!" The nonplussed young man stammers "Then c-c-can I please have another one?" A few rows up, a guy says "He can have mine; I don't need it." The flight attendant snatches it, shoves it to the young man, and stalks off. I remember thinking "Welcome to Israel."

Davening shacharis was a disaster as the flight was full of yeshiva kids bouncing up and down the plane with their teffilin bags catching people in the shoulder or face or whatever and the non-religious saying nasty things.

No individual screens; just a projector movie in Hebrew with English subtitles. Didn't watch much of it, but what I did see looked boring and poorly acted.

Food? Wilton meals are what they are. (or were what they were)

Then the plane lands in Israel at about 5:00 PM. Exit onto the tarmac. Bus ride to the main building. Hour+ wait for immigration. Another while to get the luggage. Another well over an hour to wait for a "sherut." Didn't pull up to my cousins in B'nei B'rak (what? 15 miles from the airport? less?) until almost 10:00.

Ah... memories...