Off to Israel in Delta BusinessElite

This trip was a consolation prize. I had applied for a job in Tel Aviv, another in San Francisco. I got the job in San Francisco, so I decided to take a fling to Israel before I move to California.

Although I’d really hoped to fly with El Al, their fares were at least $1,000 higher than the competition, almost $2,000 higher than Delta. Although I couldn’t snag a flight on the 777 (via Atlanta) on the outbound, I got a decent fare, and the benefit of 150 percent elite miles, something that Continental does not offer with discounted Business Class fares.

The afternoon prior to departure, I stunned myself by checking in on line. No SSSS, which was definitely a plus.

There was no line to check-in, and Delta has added a First/Medallion line at check-in. The kiosk happily accepted my passport and I assigned myself a nicer seat. A grim agent tagged my bag. I had to be assertive to get a yellow priority tag, but he didn’t balk at the idea. In the past, the yellow tags have carried some significance in Tel Aviv, so it’s worth asking.

There was a 10-minute wait at security, but I was off the hook: they were busy making a girl with Down Syndrome cry. Good work, TSA. I’ll bet they sleep well at night!

Soon I was at Starbucks, and off to the gate for half an hour of free WiFi.

7 June 2008
Delta (Chatauqua Airlines) 6382
Embraer 145
Seat 4B
There was a fair bit of drama at the gate. There was a weight problem. I assume this was due to the weight of the baggage, but this was

Columbus, where we have patients too big to fit in the hospital MRI, so they go to the vet school. (No, I’m not making that up.) Anyway, there was a lot of back and forth between the gate agents and flight crew about how many passengers to accept.

A gentleman traveling to Keflavik watched his bags get left behind as we pushed back. The flight attendant pointed the bags out to the ground crew, who just shrugged.

Passengers were then told that not all bags would be joining us. Since pretty much everyone was making an international connection, this wasn’t good. The woman next to me was presenting at a conference at Oxford, others were going to a conference in Berlin. Pretty much everyone started to panic.

The flight and cabin crews were not terribly sympathetic. Although they didn’t escalate the arguments, they weren’t apologetic either.

After a quick flight, we taxied, only to enjoy—surprise!—no gate available. Getting stuck on the ground in a 747 sucks; getting stuck on a Jungle Jet is profoundly claustrophobic.

The guy next to me, perhaps worried about his connection, responded by whistling, then playing “the drums” with his pens. I’m told it’s rude to slap people on airplanes, but I came close.

In any event, we disembarked, all confused by the makeshift boarding apparatus for regional flights. This featured a barking woman, who seemed exasperated that we didn’t all automatically know where to find the unmarked exit.

JFK
Delta has worked hard to clean the place up, but it’s still dark and cramped. The building seems to be crumbling. It sounds, however, that PANYNJ and Delta are working together to build something new.

I went to the former BusinessElite lounge, now a Crown Room. It’s no better or worse than any most other lounges in the US. There were a few crudités, boring cookies, and some freakish “berry mousse,” which looked like a pharmaceutical or hair care product.

7 June 2008
Delta 86
Boeing 767-300ER
Seat 2F
Boarding was delayed by perhaps 15 minutes. The gate staff worked hard to calm a full flight with many families, small children, and otherwise high-maintenance passengers. In fact, they were calm, polite, addressed me by name, wished me a pleasant flight, and so on.

The additional security for the flight was equally professional. The staff were friendly, and the process was quite easy: x-ray and walk-through metal detector. A security staff member helped me put my laptop back in my bag, wishing me a pleasant flight. Why can’t the TSA hire people like this?

A cheerful young flight attendant greeted me in Hebrew, and the purser was at my seat minutes later with a welcome and a menu. Champagne and OJ arrived shortly thereafter.

I don’t think there is an ideal seat on the 767-300, but 2F is pretty good. It’s just far enough from the galley, slightly protected on one side by the crew bunk, and the leg room is more than adequate. You can still get out of your seat even if 1F is completely reclined.

The crew were excellent: a fairly senior group, with Delta’s legendary, almost motherly service. They weren’t doting; sometimes refills were forgotten, but they were generally pleased to have us on board.

One flight attendant said to me, “I keep touching your arm because you’re so cute.” Considering that she’s married, probably 15-20 years older than I am, I took this as a compliment rather than a come-on.

We had a 50 (fifty) minute taxi, only to return to the gate. An engine problem erupted, so back we went. The crew took advantage of the hour-long wait at the gate to pass out drinks and snacks in all cabins.
Misconnected bags were also loaded, making the delay a blessing for some passengers (I may have been one of them!)

Once cleared by maintenance, we had a much shorter taxi and headed off to Israel.

Dinner was served almost immediately: I love the appetizer-intensive dinner. These are not terribly expensive or gourmet foods, but they came well-presented, offered a little bit of something to please everyone, and the service moved a reasonable pace. There were no carts.

Although I think the screen is small, Delta’s AVOD worked perfectly. I watched several sitcoms and a movie, then finished my book.

I slept for a good 6-7 hours and woke up for lunch.

Since this flight arrives at 3 pm, the pre-arrival service is lunch, not breakfast:
The salad was pretty grim, but the pizza was pretty good. It’s substantially better than most airplane pizzas. The cake was powerfully rich, but quite good.

There were many announcements about a “30-minute” rule for Tel Aviv. This was presented as a regulation of the Israeli Government. I haven’t been to Israel in a year, so maybe this is something new. Or perhaps it’s Delta’s idea, and they just like to blame the Israeli Government.

Why I should have flown El Al
There are lots of reasons I love El Al, but this time I really missed the emotional reaction during our descent. Nobody seemed tearful (except me), there was no singing, no applause, nothing. I suppose it would have been a little weird for me to start clapping and singing "Shalom Aleichem," so I did so in my head.

We made a quick taxi, and the purser announced that he was pleased to welcome us “to The Holy Land.” I was sent off with hugs and well wishes from the flight attendants. I’m not entirely sure how I endeared myself to them so easily.

Ben Gurion Airport
I made mad dash to get to immigration quickly. I know how the lines can back up. Sure enough, a family of seven cut in front of me, yelling in broken Hebrew that they HAD to be somewhere right away and HAD to cut in front of me immediately. I shrugged and let them through. Perhaps due to the family drama, I was of little interest to the immigration officer.

Bags arrived within 20 minutes and off to Jerusalem.

The Regency Hotel, Jerusalem
This is my third time at the Regency. It’s not as luxurious as some other places in the city, but it has a fantastic view, an even more fantastic gym, it’s cheap, and they have a fantastic breakfast.

The one problem: it’s impossible to find. I’ve had multiple taxi drivers get lost trying to find it. Today’s featured a driver with a GPS system, and even that didn’t work. It ended up being a rather long trip through some iffier neighborhoods, but I eventually made it.

Once again, I was upgraded to a “Business Class” room. Not really a “club” room by American standards, but certainly well-appointed. The staff were as cheerful and as helpful as always.

Very nice, entertaining report. Sounds like DL has a pretty solid product. Thanks for sharing!^

Thanks for an interesting trip report. I would bet that missing the emotional reaction was worth $2000.

I always thought that El Al purposefully descended quite low so that you could see the ocean, and far off in the distance a blip of land that gets larger and larger, until finally you cross over the beach and over land, all while a traditional song is playing overhead. It is a great thing about El Al, and I get goose bumps thinking about it.

Thanks for a great report so far!

I agreed. I thinks its absolutely was very good fabulous trip reports details. I knew the loads each way from JFK-TLV is very full flights but, there is no seat available left for this time. You will considered to kept fly on Delta instead of LY. I knows it was lot of Jewish populations are gone the trip to Israel. Please keep it up writing the trip reports details once he can returns home from TLV.

Yes, I'm not sure the ground staff or flight crew can do much during a weight restriction but a simple apology is sufficient. What your secret to the personal service that the flight attendants gave you?

Nice report. Can you tell us more about the 30-minute rule for TLV?

No, there is no 30-minutes rule for TLV flights. I think you must to be remain seat during 30-minute rule. I am not sure what is about more specific information from Israeli regulations.

It tastes like Grandma
To quote Ralph Wiggum, the Regency doesn’t actually taste like Grandma, but it sure smells like her apartment did. This is not a compliment. Although I was in a room seven floors away from any restaurants or kitchens, there was a powerful onion stank at every corner.
But it’s still hard to complain; the Regency is a bargain, the gym is amazing, and the view is unbeatable.

”Where are you from?”
It’s the favorite question of museum security guards in Israel. If you say, “USA,” you’re off the hook. But I loved the clever ways in which Israelis tried to figure out my—umm—“allegiances.” I don’t usually wear a kipah, and I suppose I arouse a bit of suspicion as a male traveling alone.

A wary cab driver asked, “Have you ever been to Bethlehem?” “Bethlehem?” I replied, “like with the Baby Jesus? Isn’t that more popular with Christian tourists?” Suddenly the ice was broken, and he pretty much invited me to join his family for dinner.

Avis
Renting a car in Jerusalem has always been a hassle, and Avis was about as easy as it gets. They acknowledged my reservation and actually had a car for me. The rest involved “customer service Israeli style.” She criticized me—like previous rental car agents—because I made a reservation over the internet. How could I have been so silly? She did, however, produce a beat-up Hyundai, she stared me down, and off I went.

On my last visit, I’d rented a GPS system that tried to drive me into a variety of occupied territories, so I proceeded with great trepidation. I rented from another vendor this time (across from the Avis office), and double-checked the map whenever I could. The GPS took me pretty far out of the way, but seemed to be set to avoid the “uh-oh” parts of Israel.

The last half hour of the drive consists of hair-raising corkscrews down hillsides, so I’m glad I did this during daylight. So I guess the choice is to get bombed driving in the occupied territories, or die by driving off a cliff.

Crowne Plaza Dead Sea, Ein Bokek
The Crowne Plaza is the best place to stay at the Dead Sea. Unlike the Meridian and some others, the Crowne Plaza is actually on the water.

I checked in, and was given a “deluxe room.” I’m not sure what the un-deluxe rooms feature, but this one had a balcony, incredible sea view, and hardwood floors.

The first night I was there, I was exhausted. I felt sick, and was perhaps still nauseated from the drive (or just happy to be alive.) So I did the unthinkable: I stayed in my room.

Yes, I went all the way to Israel and stayed in my room and watched movies. Then I slept for almost 11 hours. Any parent would through a fit, but I thought, ”I’m 33 years-old. If I want to stay in my hotel room and watch movies, nobody can stop me.”

The next day I felt fantastic and spent almost the whole day playing in the sea.

The Crowne Plaza, like other Israeli hotels, has an amazing breakfast. There was an endless array of salads, yoghurt, breads, pastries, cheesecake, fruit. And there was one particularly noteworthy item: a warm tray of what looked like cinnamon rolls. But one bite and you’re back at Grandma’s: they’re filled with semi-burned onions.

The Dan Tel Aviv
I used to have a love affair with the Dan. In fact, I always said that if I get married, I want my honeymoon to be at the Dan. The room rates have definitely gone up, but I felt like it was worth the price for a few days.
Uh-oh-Spaghetti-o! I hit the Dan at a bad time, or perhaps I’d been there on really good days in the past.

The staff seemed dismissive, the room was much smaller than in the past, there were empty soda cans—amid other trash—in the hallways, on the deck, etc. The signature breakfast area was under construction, so breakfast was held in some sort of dark cavern.

It wasn’t terrible, but it wasn’t good either. Definitely not worth the price tag on this occasion. Although I had intended to stay three nights, I changed to just two. And I also filled out a politely-phrased comment card. It wouldn’t be fair to trash the Dan on FlyerTalk without telling them about the problems.

Dan problems aside, I love Tel Aviv. I counted, and I’ve spent time in about 30 cities in the world. Tel Aviv has got to be the best, if not top three. It’s always alive, happy, and safe. I spent hours in cafés, on the beach, and otherwise enjoying myself. There is no place on earth that compares.

Ben Gurion Airport
In the past, I’ve been graced with a “category 1” sticker on my passport by Ben Gurion security. This means that I was assigned to the least amount of security screening. (The choices are 1 through 6, the highest number indicates that you might have to have your shirt and trousers x-rayed.)
So I walked in the building, was not stopped at the entrance, and proceeded to check-in. A very young guy asked me the same questions as always—perhaps only 5 or 6 questions, and that was it. The only difference was that they x-rayed my checked bag this time.

There was a short wait at check-in, largely due to the guy in front of me checking a lot of bags. That aside, a friendly agent checked me in, and asked twice if I had any liquids or gels (I lied.)

There was no line at security or passport control. In other words, I made it through Ben Gurion security, check-in, and passport control in less time than it takes some TSA checkpoints. And I kept my shoes on.

The Dan Lounge
One of the benefits of flying El Al is that their lounge is trillion times better than the competition. The King David Lounge here in Tel Aviv is amazing, complete with Carmel Spa showers and amenities.
The Dan Lounge, on the other hand, is no great shakes. It’s still probably better than a Crown Room Club, but it’s nothing to write home about. I’d say it’s like any other lounge in any other international airport. At least they have a cappuccino machine.
Although there is no wireless access, there a handful of free terminals available. There is free wireless outside the lounge in Terminal 3.

14 June 2008
Delta 153
Boeing 777–200
Seat 10G
At the boarding gate, four 40-something, plain-clothed men boarded immediately after the crew. Although they could have been non-rev or deadheading crew members… I think we all know what that’s about.

Boarding took forever because the Delta (or contract ground crew in Delta uniform) staff do a “liquid” inspection of all carry-on items before boarding. The first ask if you have liquids, then look in your bag. When I say, “look in your bag,” I men that I could have brought an aquarium with me; they were not exactly thorough.

Of the flight attendants on the sheva-sheva-sheva, there were at least three Hebrew-speakers. One of them welcomed me on board, and the purser came by soon thereafter with menus.

The captain made some endless announcement about “congregating,” and then this new rule about remaining seated “while in Israeli airspace.” So it was first a “30-minute rule,” now it’s just “Israeli airspace.” Who knows? And why bother with all of this “congregating” nonsense, when we all saw the marshals board the aircraft?

It’s true that the seats on the 777 are nicer than the 767, but they’re not as nice as those on Continental’s 777. We’ll see how the new Delta 777 seats are once they roll out.

The bathroom, however, is amazing. I’ve flown on the 777 aboard Air France, British Airways, and Continental, and I’ve never seen such a huge bathroom. It had the signature “hardwood” floors and “granite” countertops. But it was just massive. It really does make the plane seem a whole lot nicer.

The bathroom helped make up for the lackluster crew. The flight attendant serving me wasn’t mean, but she certainly didn’t seem engaged or interested in her work. Forget refills, water, etc. She was—I think—just waiting for next break. I overheard her say, “Well I’m extra anyway.” Perhaps an additional crew member for a full flight; so maybe she interpreted this as, “I therefore don’t have to do anything.”

There was further trouble in paradise. I watched a senior flight attendant scold another flight attendant about “how she presented herself. I don’t know what happened during their layover, but this was not a happy group of people. As expected, the Hebrew speakers were the exception: young, cheerful, and energetic. (The same is true on Continental.)

Dinner was as follows:The chicken itself was actually quite good—and largely indistinguishable from the Michelle Bernstein chicken on the outbound. The rice was mostly dry, but parts were still edible.

Despite the mediocre food and even more mediocre crew, I slept for eight hours.

Breakfast was served two hours prior to arrival:
Again, I had to be particularly assertive to get coffee refilled.
Due to the early hour, we had a quick descent into Atlanta, and there was no wait for a gate or a ground crew.

I was perhaps third in line at Immigration, where the officer was actually pleasant.

Bags took about 25 minutes to offload, with no attention paid to priority tags. Delta used to take that very seriously, even having BusinessElite concierges at baggage claim. I guess it’s another cost cut.
There was no wait at Customs nor at the bag drop.

As usual, the TSA line took forever. They had a specially-designated “black diamond” lane, which they left unused. This was the fault of the contract ground agents, not the TSA. So they essentially left one third of the available screening staff and equipment unused. Then they bickered over it. When passengers inquired, they said, “You can’t go there, that’s black diamond only.” Good grief.

[b]15 June 2008
Delta Connection 6486
ATL-CMH
Embraer-170
Seat 1A[/b]

There was a 20 minute delay for this flight, which resulted in only a 10-minute late arrival. It is only a 70-minute flight.

The only item of interest was that one of the flight attendants had an obviously fake “Gone with the Wind” style accent for her announcements. It was a little more than irritating first thing in the morning.

Bags arrived after about a 10-minute wait at CMH, again priority tags were of no interest.

A few remarks about Delta and hotels
The trip was, overall, wonderful. I’d go back to Israel tonight if I could.
Given a choice, I’d still prefer to fly El Al. They have friendlier service in business class, good food (at least for breakfast), and an amazing lounge at Tel Aviv.

Continental has the best entertainment and the best seat Their food is better than the others, but the service tends to be a bit chilly.

Delta isn’t awful, but it’s not good either. The crew on the outbound made a big difference. The return flight was fine, but I’d be in no rush to choose Delta over another option.

The Regency in Jerusalem remains a great bargain, particularly if you don’t mind the grandma smell. The Crowne Plaza at the Dead Sea, also an excellent choice, and good value for money. The Dan—well—I guess my bubble has been burst. Perhaps next time I’ll give the Hilton a try.

Next trip report: starting in six days.
Thanks for your interest and comments.

I'm thinking about switching to this seat for ATL-PVG next week. What did you think of this seat in particular? Seat guru warns it's bumped a lot by passersby. What about leg room? Thanks!

Excellent report Mats, informative and very entertaining. ^
And welcome to San Francisco.

jbatl,
I think 10G is a great seat. I usually like the second cabin on widebodies. Since there is an exit between the seat and the lavatory, it's not too noisy. The crew on my flight were respectful, and there wasn't much noise or light coming from the galley. I'd happily snag it for my next flight.

SFO777,
Thanks. I can't believe I've been here for a month now! It's great. My practice is growing quickly, and I'm enjoying getting to know the city.

Great report - currently looking at the possibility of spending Christmas break in Tel Aviv. ^