Does anyone here fly this route?
Is business class usually full? I am wondering if it's worth booking S class... (I will be flying on Dec 8th)

Assuming you're traveling on LY005 flight doesn't look very full at all, although anything can happen between now and then...

What's the difference in fare?

let's talk strategy:

1. its a wednesday night flight (thursday 1:10am) people will buy S class ticket only for an upgrade. otherwise there are cheaper tickets.
2. looking at the seat map of the economy section, you see that all the preferred seats are free (22c, exit rows). this means that no GL/PL/TPL took those seats. this might imply that there are not many (if at all) gl/pl/tpl on this flight in economy right now.

3. there are 8 free seats in Biz + 2 more reserved for Crew

4. only one seat taken in First Class

taking all of this into consideration - if the flight was in the next few days, you would probably snatch an upgrade. but the flight is 3 weeks from now, and anything can happen.

what you might consider, and take a chance - you can get an S ticket and wait with the ticketing. (also S can be canceled without penalty).
if you see that biz gets crowded, you can re-book in a lower class.

good luck

the difference for the round trip between S and the cheap fare is around 1500 vs 3000 $.

From your exprience how long is the upgrade list? (I am GL with only 2000 points in the past 12 months)

1. i dont know what is the situation with your return , so you might consider S only for one leg.

2. do you work at a big place that travel alot ? you can get discount from elal on S class tix.

3. i dont know how long is the list... but based on what i've written, it seems short. you can call Elal gold hotline and ask. they will not tell you how many, but they will give you a clue if the situation is good or bad.

4. in any case, if you didnt already book your travel, at least book something so you can get 22c or the exit row !

you could also check if M class is available. sometimes cheaper than S but still upgradable class

try to get W if you have Saturday in your trip
Most of the time W is cheaper then S

Lior

this hasn't been the case for a long time now.

elal gives now discount on W if booked at least 15 days before departure. but still much more expensive than S/M.
on his onward flight, there is no W/Z/D . only C/I
still 8 seats available on biz.
the preferred seats are still all available. so maybe not so many tpl/pl/gl on the flight ...