Although there was a thread on the PS flights since that is chit chat and conjecture, I figured I"d post my experiences from yesterday LY212 when that plane was used.

I was flying economy since it is a relatively short trip and I need to save a few $$ here and there.

Upon presenting my boarding card at the gate I was informed that I had been upgraded to business. It turned out that most of the passengers in business had been upgraded and most had never flown business and had no expectations ( which was probably good)

Unlike the beautiful seats in the picture on the other thread this was old equipment. The seat was narrow and barely worked. I was unable to get it into the lie flat position. The best I could do was maybe 150 degree! The seat was also narrow. ( granted I am unfamiliar with the width on the same El Al plane) When the time came for me to straighten my seat for landing, it didn't move. The touchpad was totally inoperative. A PS attendant had to lift the cushion and manually move the seat.

There were were two El Al cabin personal present. They were supervising the PS FAs and doing the duty free sales. ( kinda made me wonder if it weren't for duty free if they would have been there at all) They did have minimal customer contact. They were seated in the two middle business seats--not on jump seats.

Announcements were made by a PS FA reading a script. Her English accident was horrendous and the announcements were semi-intelligible. There were no announcements made in Hebrew. There was no safety film, but the TAs ( from PS) stood and demonstrated as someone read a script--again, English only!

The service in the business section was poor. When I finally received my meal I was never offered bread and had to catch a FA and ask for it!! The Israeli FA did help serve desert and that went more smoothly. There were a large number of people allowed to come forward and visit with family members. Bottom line, it was the business cabin, business food but economy service. If I had been paying for business I would have been totally furious! I do know a handful of people did board when they called for business passengers to board first. I think El Al blew a chance to show how good they can be. I can't believe that PS doesn't run a business section. ( but then again, do they run anything nowadays?)

I also was disconcerted by the fact that every time I needed the restroom (which for me happens a lot} access was blocked because the Captain was using it. In fact, the curtain was closed a fair amount of time. I am not sure if the Captain spent more time in the restroom than on the flight deck or not--but it was close. It also meant that the business FAs instead of being in the cabin with passengers were busy using food carts to block access to that area.

As the flight neared an end one El Al flight attendant asked a passenger she knew to take a photo of her and the PS attendants. I questioned her and she indicated this was her first time on the run--so apparently instead of working on getting people who may learn what to do and make it smoother--they are using different personnel each time!

Bottom line, for those of you who think El Al is functioning at rock bottom--you are wrong. With this wet-lease, they found away to go lower!