After avoiding 4X-ELS (the lone LY 744 that has only Y on the main deck and just 24 seats of C on the upper deck) like the plague because of the ulikelihood of ever getting upgraded on this craft, I actually flew it last week, quite by accident. The upper deck was very nice - I think even nicer than the other 4 744's. The seats were motorized and even more comfortable, though having only one bathroom was a tremendous minus. I walked around downstairs and it seemed to me that the layout in Y was pretty decent as well.

I have read elsewhere in this forum that LY's lease on ELS is ending soon and that they will be returing the craft, taking a 743 instead. Why? This seems to be a very useful, comfotable bird - and, if I am not mistaken, considerably younger & certainly less worn on the inside than ELA-B-C-D.

Yeah, I mentioned that the business class was much better in the ELS aircraft. It has the older Singapore raffles class seats, which are better then the current LY business class seats. There are actually two extra seats in the upper deck, since the SQ configuration is different.
The SQ a/c is actually older than the LY 744, Its about a year or two older than ELA, ELB (Bela) and ELC (Cela) and about 7 years older than ELD.

I'm sorry if I missed it in another thread - are you able to find out which aircraft is flying ahead of time? How?

Any recollection of what the 'name' is of that aircraft?

No internet

Generally speaking its not such easily accesssible information, though a day before or so the rez people (if they know how to use their system properly) can tell you what AC is doing your flight.

With ELS its easy - at least right now. Since its the only 744 without F class at this moment, whenever you see a flight listed on LY's website's "online schedule" as 744 with only CY (and not FCY) you know its got to be ELS.

Yeah - I forgot to mention that - a real downer was the lack of WiFi - but I will admit that it was kind of nice to once again be completely cut off from the world for 10 hours. No e-mail. No VOIP. The good 'ol days of R&R on board!

Another tremendous downer was the (IMHO) lousy entertainment system on ELS. Only 2 movies at a time. Really sub-par.

I hate when ppl use VOIP (making a call via the internet) its very rude!
Phone calls should be kept away from a/c forever, unless its in a confined area.

Anyone know why they are dumping ELS for a 743???

There is a Phone in every seat on the 777 and 7474...

Voip is just long calls and I agree with you about the noise.
But it is the same as 2 pax talking while evry one else try to sleep.
(and don't forget all this FA that talks a lot in the kitchen)
I wlays tell the FA in advance that I have a very light sleep
and I can hear thier conversations which wake me up.
(It doesn't help, it's in the FA DNA to talk loudly)

Lior

I have now flown on this Singapore 744 TLV-JFK and today JFK-TLV. The seats are indeed very good but since it is Singaporean you can't jack in to AC power unless you have a Singaporean AC power jack.

The AV was indeed lousy and ate many tapes and the system had to be restarted on the TLV-JFK flight since BC didn't see any movies whereas economy did. On the JFK-TLV flight they had to stop one movie after a few minutes and try a different one (they picked one from the TLV-NYC selection)

The control station in the upper deck doesn't work (I watched the purser try) so all control on AV and AC has to be done from below.

-Hank