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The first time you flew El Al...

The first time you flew El Al...

Old May 8, 2012, 4:28 pm
  #16  
 
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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.
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Old May 8, 2012, 4:53 pm
  #17  
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1953: LHR-CIA-ATH-TLV, on a DC4 or a Connie, I think. Memories fade after so many years.
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Old May 8, 2012, 10:31 pm
  #18  
 
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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. 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.
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Old May 8, 2012, 11:29 pm
  #19  
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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!
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Old May 8, 2012, 11:42 pm
  #20  
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Originally Posted by ELAL
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/Untit...58C/0262065/L/
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Old May 9, 2012, 1:14 am
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Originally Posted by clubman
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

Last edited by ELAL; May 9, 2012 at 1:17 am Reason: Scared of clubman ;-)
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Old May 9, 2012, 5:25 am
  #22  
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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.

Originally Posted by clubman
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!
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Old May 9, 2012, 6:35 am
  #23  
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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
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Old May 9, 2012, 7:34 am
  #24  
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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).
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Old May 9, 2012, 8:13 am
  #25  
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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.
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Old May 9, 2012, 8:19 am
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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.
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Old May 9, 2012, 9:40 pm
  #27  
 
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The first time you flew El Al...

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

DLP
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Old May 24, 2012, 9:01 am
  #28  
 
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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...
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