Yesterday EL AL finally revealed the details of their new Boeing 787 cabins, as the airline will be taking delivery of their first of 16 787 aircraft in the coming months. Up until now EL AL's longhaul hard product has been really underwhelming, as they don't even have direct aisle access from every seat in…
Continue reading: EL AL’s First 787 Destinations Will Be London And Newark
Share your questions, experiences, and thoughts below.
Though I agree that competing with United at EWR would make sense, it could just be that El Al exclusively uses the 747 to serve JFK, and a switch to a 787 would be too great a capacity reduction.
There is an extremely sizable Hasidic population in Clearwater, NJ, which is orders of magnitude closer to EWR than JFK. I think this will play to that crowd well.
Doesn't 16 new 787s seem like a lot when they have less than 10 long haul destinations?
@niko jas keep in mind some of their longer routes will require two planes to operate daily frequencies as well as having I assume atleast one extra 787, most likely operated on a high-traffic medium haul destination when not in longhual use, to be able to swap in on routes when planes go on scheduled maintenance and during unscheduled mechanical failures being able to swap in.
good luck getting a seat. most of the premium seats long haul to israel are taken up by ultra orthodox charity collectors on their way to-from collection runs. plus their extended families.
plus, you only have a 50/50 shot that any given elal plane will take off reasonably on time.
plus, their soft product should be considered torture according to the geneva conventions
however, israel is an amazing place and you should visit
oh, and there only is one decent kosher champagne. it's good, reasonably available, and not particularly expensive (Pommery). too bad ElAl doesn't stock it- expect a 10 dollar cava
This is good news for those up in the front=, but those in the back sitting 9 across for a TLV-EWR or TLV-LAX will be very uncomfortable.
The El Al Business Class and Qatar Qsuite trip report in September is actually going to be one of the best ever!!!
@Ben @J Frid There is a ginormous Jewish population throughout the tri-state area (1.8 million in New York and over 545,000 in NJ). Some live closer to EWR and some are closer to JFK. While some Jews do wear blacks hats and black robes (like those in Lakewood) many do not. Anyways, point is there's demand at both airports.
Hi Lucky. Again I want to pointed out that El Al business class seat is different from United Polaris. The seat have more pitch and have similar layout to Thompson Vantage XL instead.
Lucky try this route:
US to CDG - AF La Premiere
CDG to TLV - AF
TLV to LHR - El Al 787
LHR to DOH - Qatar Qsuite
DOH to US however you can.
Would be great.
@Steve @Lucky I think we need to wait to see what the pricing on El Al business class will be. That said, a five hour flight is not very long. Flying from Newark will give Lucky a much better sense of the product. Then he should fly their old first class to London which will allow him to compare, but most importantly review a product that has gotten virtually no reviews before it goes extinct. It's not likely that Lucky will be back in Israel anytime soon after he visits so he might as well try and experience an airline all he can instead of flying an airline and product he already has.