Originally Posted by apirchik
It seems like you have
knocked Continental this time 
Sorry for you family loss. After all, you are dealing with people and Israeli's tend to be rough at first but do have a heart at most times. Great to hear a nice experience (at not so nice circumstanes).
I am also sorry for the OP loss but unfortunately all is not right in EL Al
My mother A"H passed away in NY a week before her scheduled return to Israel
My brother immediately informed ELAL to cancel the seat
El Al would not refund any part of the ticket saying something about the half being more expensive than the whole or something similar which we couldn't, and were not in the mood, to really follow
Her casket was shipped the next day on El Al and they charged a pretty penny for that and then of course were able to sell her original seat a week later to another customer
We ended up sitting Shiva, and El AL profitted from my mother A"H three times
Not really the right way to do it!