Originally Posted by damaxer91

I fly El Al quite often and although I am an American I've developed some Israeli Chutzpah.

I was waiting in the F lounge for my flight from JFK-TLV when in pranced El Al CEO, Eliezer Shkedi. He was accompanied by several El Al employees and walked around the (very small) room introducing himself to the 5 or 6 passengers who were there. One of the few great perks of F is being escorted as a group through security and to the plane a few minutes before boarding. Shkedy joined the group and I hung onto him, sensing a great opportunity.

As we walked the long corridor toward the plane, I saw an SQ A380 in the distance and asked him "Why doesn't El Al get one of those?". It took him a couple of seconds to realize what I was talking about but he recovered quickly and smiled "You do know that those aren't safe". I then asked him about a 787 or 747-800 and he either played dumb or had no clue what I was talking about. Maybe both

Shkedi was seated in Business (no idea why as there were several open seats in F) but came up to the F Cabin a few times to converse with the passengers. Most of the passengers ignored him but I had a great conversation with him. I applauded the fantastic F service and meal and then told him my honest feeling about the El Al F Seat. His reply was even better; "Nobody else has First Class seats like this from New York to Tel Aviv". When I reminded him that Delta and Continental don't have F and that their Business seats are even better he just smiled again and told me that El Al was the best in the industry.

All in all, seemed like an extremely nice guy with little or no clue about the airline business. Here's to hoping that he is just a figurehead (and maybe a backup pliot) and that there is someone else running the show