Regarding the former, not sure it would be so bad for there to be no lounge in a terminal dedicated to LCCs. I mean, unless it's a paid lounge

Regarding the latter, it is weird that UP offers lounge access in some tickets. (I believe it goes back to LY not knowing how to run an airline and just hears some ideas and tries throwing them at a wall.) So if they took that away, not the craziest thing in the world. (I'm just thinking about other LCCs, and can't come up with real ones that offered lounge access)

Not so much a matter of LCCs offering lounge access, more a matter of passengers with lounge access through other means.

As for UP offering lounge access for what they call "Smart" tickets, I can understand it as there is no business class offering on board, it allows people the option of lounge access and for those with status.
In essence UP did not open up new routes, but replaced existing routes offering full service including business class.

Smart fares are actually incredibly expensive compared to the regular ones, and so to be honest, take away KD access and unless your ticket is paid for it makes it pretty bad value.

I have seen some sort of VIP lounge area in T1 landside, next to the arrivals. Locked. I don't suppose they'll just expand that.

Confession: I preferred Terminal 1 and was not thrilled by Terminal 3. Yes, you have to take a bus to/from the plane but at least you don't have a five kilometer walk from Passport Control to your gate.

There used to be a smoking area in Terminal 1. Is there still one?

With the expansion, I wonder if they'll add some jetways

Dosent FCO still have LY and DL,UA,AA among a few others have their passengers check-in @ T5 and then get bused over to T3. You land @ T3.

T5 hasnt anything but check-in desks and security and then you remain airside, so I dont understand the whole uproar over T1 @ TLV. If you arent being dropped off by a car @ FCO then you end up having to go to T3 and catch a special bus that goes only to T5. Its been like that for a few years

I don't get the complaints about the length of walking at TLV.
It seriously is not that bad, and even if one is a realy slow walker it shouldn't take more than 5-7 minutes from passport control down hill to to the gates (2-3 minutes for me).

I end up walking away more at LHR,AMS,FRA, MAD and some US hubs to name a few, not to mention having to take shuttle trains in some of these airports in addition to the walking.

Yep.

thats what I thought. Im not saying it isnt a pita but my pt was TLV isnt the only airport where you run into this.Im sure there are others as well

I also never felt the walks @ TLV werent bad, if anything its welcomed after a long/mid haul flight. I find most large airports in the US to be worse and w/o any moving sidewalks to boot.And many European airports require a train ride and then a nice walk to boot

Clearly, you never had a problem walking. I did for a year and finally had it fixed with stents being placed in my legs. Today, yes, it doesn't bother me to talk at TLV (or any other airport) but my last trip before the stents (TLV-JFK) was sheer agony for me. Terminal 4 in JFK requires a walk to the passport section that is slightly shorter than the walk to Manhattan.

I think you can pay for it with Easyjet. At least in Luton.

yep T4 @ JFK is no easy picnic, but I found SFO and LAX to be as bad if not worse, and dont get me started on IAD or MIA. LHR isnt a breeze, nor is FRA and PEK or SIN or HKG I wish I could order Uber

At least for TLV an Inbounding person can pay for VIP which cuts out the vast majority of the walking. Dont know of a single US airport that offers that, dont think TLV is set up for it on the outbound. But there is a station (sort of )of electric carts right after passport control and after swiping your exit card, that will take a person to the gate or a club.

As more and more airports are looking to cash in on shopping, I feel going forward that the walk will be getting alot longer as they try to get everyone to cough up some of their money before leaving. At least here in the US one isnt forced to walk a mile thru a Duty Free(but not Rip-off Free) store like I have to in many a European airports, in order to get to the gate.

Wouldnt surprise me to start seeing them popping up before you get to baggage claim(Im not talking about a store where you have to walk over to it) but that in order to get to the carousel area you have to walk thru a maze of a duty free store. I think it was in LHR where you have to walk thru a small DF store in order to leave the baggage area

As for TLV I dont see any change a happenin, heck there are a number of Carriers where you have to checkin on the arrivals level due to lack of enough space on the departure level. So T1 comes in very handy. Back in May for my A3 TLV-ATH we were bused from T3 to almost T1 where there was a bunch of planes parked. Will the new 'A' gates change things, I doubt it especially as more and more LCCs start to fly in or add routes. Most flights to Europe are early morn 4-6am or late afternoon 4-6p, since those planes are simply doing a turn and heading home ASAP.

Thanks g-d no. However, I was simply making a point that unless you compare it to some small regional airports like LCY, LGA, SXF etc, TLV is in no way worse than most of the bigger hubs, and far better than many of them in that respect.

Glad you are better Dovster, but did you not use disability assistance when you were having trouble?

No, I could make the walk stopping every 25 meters or so to rest (it was especially helpful if I could sit down but did not find many places for that) so I left disability assistance for those who could not make it at all.

Incidentally, between the arrivals gate at JFK and Passport Control, I didn't see a single assistance vehicle. My only option would have been to arrange for a wheelchair when making my reservation.

I wouldn't be bringing evidence from FCO. That's one of the places in the world which I go to that makes Israel (and TLV) feel like a bona-fide First World country.