ly787

Those expensive Y class fares cost almost as much as Business Class, but have to give 700 points each way and lose 150 points each way for not flying on a business fare.

If they use the Y+ for upgrades, I bet a lot of FF will leave to another programme.

LXA350

QUite frankly speaking does LY have a premium Product Well joke aside their King David Lounges especially in TLV and JFK are very good and can keep up with lounges from competing airlines....nevertheless as soon as you enter the aircraft the premium question has vanished especially on the long haul segment.

mikebg

I beg to differ. Whilst it is true that their seats leave quite a bit to be desired, the crews can easily compete with those of the top major airlines. Furthermore, in my experience they seem to be getting slowly better all the time. A really good crew can easily make up for slightly less luxurious seats, especially in First.

damaxer91

Really? I never found the LY crews in Business to be up to par, don't even get me started on the ones in economy

clubman

When you say especially TLV and JFK I think you mean only, and what lounges to they have to compete with in TLV? the Dan lounge?

ebzed

I dont know why you had bad exprience..., Business and First Class crew of EL-AL are on of the best, I can say on myself that i fly a "little bit" so i can
compare.

As for Economy, They are not that bad, From all the economy flights i have
done this year i found myself only once with bad taste and had to complain
on the service, On the rest, The service was fine and above.

I am not sure how often you require your airline help (such as having urgency
to fly back home, Problems with overweight or any special requests), On that
I can say that no one beats EL-AL, And that is the reason I choose to fly
EL-AL whenever possible.


So they are not the best company in the world, They dont have the best planes or seats, But if you look on the general package, I would say EL-AL
is a very good deal.

entropy

IMHO, LY has excellent crews up front/top.

However, El Al underinvests in its product (the seats suck relative to other international airlines, and their website is an embarrassment)

EL-AL 1971

Which is specially regrettable for the airline of a country which has so many high end specialists in everything related to the internet...and where some of its important technologies have been and are being developed.


As for the crews...I had all kind of experiences, from the very best (my last flight for instance!) to very bad (arrogant and unpolite crew members). But I have noted a general improvement in the attitude of the employees towards the customer compared to the situation in the 1980s and early 1990s.

clubman

But that is no different to any other airline.
You get good crews and bad crews (it's amazing how so often it's the entire crew that are either good or bad, not individual FA's) and that can make all the difference between having a very average experience to a very good one.

LY777

You're 100% right.

mikebg

I don't think it's amazing at all. I think it all boils down to the purser. It's the same as any other management situation.

LXA350

Ok, I only know those 2 but I guess the remaining ones such as LHR and CDG are nothing special either. Of course the Dan lounge is a disgrace, I didn't compare the LY lounge at TLV to the Dan Lounge however to Business Class lounges of major airlines at their homebase airports they can compete. Having a great crew or not....no matter how bad or good the crew is there has to be a minimum standard that makes the flight experience at least acceptable. With LY it goes into 2 extreems catasptrophic crew or a great crew...altough a great crew can not be found too often. Then again...a great crew will not compensate for having a crapy C Class seat and outdated IFE system non AVOD on a 12 hour flight. I can live with having a bad crew but hacing a bad seat and inferior IFE disturbs me much more

clubman

While the hard product is very important especially on a relatively long flight, the soft product, to me at least (and to most I would imagine) is just as important (or almost as important...).
There really is nothing like a miserable crew to leave a bad taste in your mouth after a flight.