Riccioli

I led a group of 46 from Toronto to Tel Aviv on the 12th and had an amazing experience. EL AL in Toronto was excellent! The security process was complete, professional and efficient. Check in was a breeze. They had us all through in at most 30 minutes.

The return was different. Security was a pain in Ben Gurion, but that's another post. However it went relatively quickly.

The horror came with El Al check in. It took over 2.5hours for our group to check in!I was in a line that took 40 minutes just to check in two people. This was not a rare occurance. All of the lines moved exceedingly slowly. When I complained I was told that many people were traveling with luggage that exceeded the weight limits. This led to lots of arguing, phone calls etc. I can't believe that EL AL doesn't have another way of dealing with problem situations.

The only positive is that by the time the last person in our group got to the gate, me, there was only a 15 minute wait for boarding. We got to the airport about 3.5 hours early!!!

BearX220

I don't know about you, but I try to reserve the word "horror" for events that threaten or take peoples' lives. This sounds like an "inconvenience." Sorry you had to stand in a queue for awhile, but let's try to keep things in perspective.

Riccioli

Point well taken... perhaps EL AL horrible at Tel Aviv would have been a better choice of words.

apirchik

Check-in in the evenings, when YYZ, LAX, EWR, JFK (sometimes 2 flights) and a couple of far east destinations (PEK, HKG) - all do the check-in at about the same time, can be messy.

As you said, people taking 40 minutes to check in is a rare occurrence. Tough luck for you guys, happy you made the flight on time.

Dovster

Unless El Al has instituted a new policy, it is surprising that it gave grief about overweight baggage.

Israelis are famous for traveling with loads of luggage -- including way too much hand luggage and El Al has usually been very lenient about this. In fact, the only time I ever saw anyone getting problems from them was in Milan (where the check in people do not actually work for LY).

Riccioli

Come on, I may not be a FF like some of you but I've travelled at busy airports in the US and Europe and never saw anything like that.

ebzed

- Why did you "fixed' a group checking with EL-AL in advance ?
- Your group manager could do express check-in for the whole group (i know its a bit of work... but i believe the one who orginizied the group probably earned some money for his/her job, not?

As for your comment on US/Europe.... I am sorry to tell you but as a FF
that tend to visit those almost every two weeks,... JFK Terminal 3,
Delta Checkin - Some times u might start the line outside the building
not to mention when you finish checking you need to go outside the building for the TSA line...

EL-AL 1971

I guess you haven't been in Israel for a looooong time...at least with overweight luggage...



Regarding the main subject, it is indeed unacceptable to have to wait for such a long time in order to check in. Crazy. The new Terminal looks impressive but is very badly designed. Instead of being more efficient and more comfortable than the old one, everything seems to take even more time than before... and I'm not saying that security and check-in was a comfortable and quick experience at Terminal 1... ;-) . And not to mention that there are now kilometers to walk while in Terminal 1 you had just to go up one floor...


T3 is so badly conceived that, although it is a totally new building, there are already not enough check-in counters and that's why some new counters had to be installed at another level. But even this is not sufficient, so that a whole commercial space located after the current check-in counters but before the passport control will be closed and transformed in a new check-in area to meet the demand (the shops are anyway closing there, no one sees them, and those who fly prefer to buy in the tax free area)...

Efficient management...? I think it's better not to mention the COST of this new Terminal.

Dovster

Uh, I live in Israel.

But I haven't flown El Al in about a year -- with or without overweight luggage.

mikebg

These shops were doomed from the start! The 'concept' was that the 'before passport control' shops would be a mall which would attract many non-travelling customers. However, this never worked in practice, and the customers preferred to spend their money in 'real' malls.

ebzed

This means while they will do that they will probably leave one operating counter! - The Israeli Way... 8-)

mkilmo

I still remember the "experience". It was February 2007, two days after JetBlue was stuck in NYC for 15 hours (the planes who landed and could not have connect to the terminal itself). Anyhow, I arrived to an evening flight 2.5 hours before hand (JFK->BRU), and had to wait 1.5 hours _outside_ the terminal in temperature of less than 0 degrees (below freezing point). As I was along, I could not even leave the queue to seek hot drinks, and when I offered to a delta employee that they'll distribute hot drinks (tea and coffee) to the queue (composed of elders, families with kids, and other people), I was yelled at. Then, my flight was called out of the queue, just to cause more confusion (so we stood for 15 more minutes as one big group in the middle of the terminal, while the queue around us advances, and no employee knows what to do with us).

The reason for the long queues: all DL evening nights for europe were 100% full (due to rescheduled flights). Something that they knew in advance. Of course, no infrastructure was deployed to take care of that and actually not all the counters in the international side of the terminal were manned.

Did I mention I never fly DL since then?

EL-AL 1971

;-) ! Ok sorry... But from my own experience with El Al, I do indeed remember that a long time ago (in the 1980s...) it seemed to be easier to have overweight with El Al than with other airlines. And I remember also to have noticed the change...and, almost suddenly, El Al's attitude at check-in became similar to the one adopted by other airlines. Thus my remark...


Regarding the "mall" before the passport control at T3, I think it's a bit exaggerated to call this a "mall"... I was very astonished when I saw it for the first time, since in the newspapers they had also called it a "mall for the non flying customers".... It's not a mall in the common acceptance of the word... It's just a very limited number of very small shops such as a newspaper stand and small eateries. But the simple fact that immediately after its opening this grandiose terminal has proven to be too small is simply incredible.
There are some beautiful architectural achievements, but the whole concept is badly designed and frankly the exterior part, the multi-strory highway, is a nightmare. At the old terminal, at least you got outside...and could see the sky and some trees...not a highway tunnel. The most serious problem, however, is that it has been too small from the start...