El Al is in the midst of retiring their current long-haul fleet, which consists of aging 747, 767, and 777 aircraft. They are being replaced by 787 Dreamliners. The 787s eliminate first class in favor of business class, premium economy, and economy. Many airlines are moving away from first class, including United this summer, so it’s no surprise that El Al is going down that route as well.
El Al’s 787 business class has mostly positive reviews, with some complaints about the width of the seat and the aisle, but overall it’s an improvement for most passengers thanks to direct aisle access for all seats.
Here are key dates for changes on a number of long-haul routes:
Bangkok: The final El Al 747 flight is currently scheduled to fly from Bangkok to Tel Aviv on March 31. The flight will be operated by 767s and 777s afterward.
JFK: El Al will begin flying 787s between JFK and Tel Aviv on July 1. The final 747 flight between JFK and Tel Aviv is currently scheduled for October 25. The final flight with first class service between JFK and Tel Aviv is currently scheduled for March 28 on a 777, after which all JFK flights are scheduled to be operated by 787s.
Los Angeles: The final flight with first class service between Los Angeles and Tel Aviv is currently scheduled for October 25 on a 777, after which all Los Angeles flights (except for limited one-off flights) are scheduled to be operated by 787s.
Miami: The final flight with first class service between Miami and Tel Aviv is currently scheduled for October 27 on a 777, after which all Miami flights (except for limited one-off flights) are scheduled to be operated by 787s.
Newark: El Al has been flying 2 daily 787 flights between Newark and Tel Aviv since March 25. This will decrease to 1 daily flight on October 28. That may be added back next year, but so far El Al is selling seats for just one daily flight through the end of scheduling next April.
San Francisco: Back in January I wrote about El Al’s announcement that they would start service between San Francisco and Tel Aviv. At the time I wrote that,
I wrote in that post,
“United serves that route with 787-8s that do not have direct aisle access from all business class seats, while El Al’s 787s do have direct aisle access from all business class seats.
United could respond by protecting their hub with 77W Polaris service with direct aisle access from all business class seats between San Francisco and Tel Aviv, but that will flood the market with tons of extra coach and business class capacity that will drive down airfares. That could be a short-term strategy to try to force El Al out of the market. But either way, the added capacity should be a good thing for consumers.”
A few weeks after that I noted that United had done exactly that by adding daily 77W service between San Francisco and Tel Aviv. United even dumped massive quantities of coach and business saver award space on the route.
I wrote in the United 77W post,
“The higher capacity will serve to drive down margins and may even make El Al reconsider the route’s potential profitability and viability.
Personally, I’m surprised that El Al is picking San Francisco over Chicago or Washington DC/Baltimore. Sure, San Francisco has the premium tech market business. But in San Francisco they will face brutal entrenched competition from United, and United is clearly signaling that they are willing to defend the route. Plus United owns the San Francisco fortress hub market and has many elite members that are fiercely loyal to United.
And sure enough, El Al has cancelled their plans to start the route in November. They say that they will start it in May, but they are not currently selling any seats on the route.
I won’t be surprised if the route never launches. San Francisco is a market dominated by United and they are not about to let El Al make it there without a fight. El Al ought to pick a route like Tel Aviv to Chicago or Washington DC/Baltimore that doesn’t have entrenched competition. Than again if El Al does announce Chicago or Washington DC, it’s entirely possible that United will launch service from their hubs there as well…
El Al plans to maintain the same old 767s on their Boston and Toronto routes for the foreseeable future.
In other news, El Al is testing out serving a sandwich on select routes to Europe instead of a full meal. It probably won’t be long until free food is eliminated on Europe routes. The problem is, how much can El Al cut and still charge a major premium above the low cost carriers flying to Europe?
El Al shares are down 70% from a year ago. Aside from massive labor costs, one of El Al’s major problem is that they have failed to cultivate meaningful airline partnerships. That means that while United can feed passengers to their Newark and San Francisco flights from across their network, El Al is nearly entirely reliant on nonstop traffic.
El Al’s frequent flyer program, Matmid, is a hot mess of convoluted rules, confusing points, fuel surcharges, expiring points, and distinct award charts for every single El Al destination. Instead of taking the Alaska Air approach to partner with quality airlines around the world to add value and make big money from their loyalty program, El Al looks at Matmid as a cost center and does nothing to enhance and profit from it.
El Al’s website is one of the worst in the industry, something that’s shocking in a country that’s so technologically advanced. El Al still doesn’t have WiFi on their longhaul planes…
Perhaps it’s time for El Al to bring in some aviation people from outside of Israel to fix the airline and bring out its potential?
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56 Comments On "El Al: New 787 Routes, Route Launch Cancellation, End Of 747/First Class Dates, Sandwiches Instead Of Meals, And How To Fix What Ails It"
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Dan, I vote for you.
הכי בבית בעולם
LOL!
For the homeless
The last 3 paragraphs about El Al is so true, so well said, I was crunching on every single word..
the el al flight from Rome to tel aviv on 8/1 is on a 747. Any particular reason?
I don’t understand why El Al isn’t upgrading their Toronto flight. Air Canada is now flying a dreamliner from Toronto and a updated Airbus from Montreal — and Air Transat has a flight from Montreal too. It’s actually embarrassing how old the El Al flight is from Toronto — it’s held together with duct tape.
Probably can’t fill a 787-9. Will probably switch to a 787-8 when deliveries start
It looks like El Al shows 2 flights per day every other day to/from EWR next march on their time table.
BTW the award space availability on el al is much much better than united or delta in all 3 cabins.
As it needs to be given that they only fly to TLV versus thousands of other uses for Delta/United miles.
But El Al also charges a lot of miles and fuel surcharges. Better to redeem with Qantas…
El Al is a piece of garbage. And by that I’m referring to their web site, airplanes, service/attitude of flight attendants, crew, frequent flyer program. They should just shutter their doors and go out of business. No one will miss them.
Actually, El-Al does make a profit off Matmid through its Israeli Credit Card partner, so it is no longer viewed as a cost center. All the rest of the post is correct.
When I last spoke to a Matmid executive they still viewed it as a cost center. Regardless, where is a US credit card? Where are partnerships?
There’s so much that can be done to monetize loyalty that they are failing at.
There sure is…
Problem with ELAL is that they used to be one of only a handful of “premium” airlines flying to Israel, using “security” as their top selling point only having to be marginally cheaper then the other big carriers and they “won” clients based on being a Jewish airline. With the low cost boom in Europe and tightening of belts I don’t know how long they can survive if they don’t lower their prices or offer a truly premium service! I personally think they should offer a true low cost economy and a true premium business class on the same flight
El Al genuinely think they offer a premium service now; that is a large part of the problem. Their staff are rightly perceived as arrogant by their non-Israeli customers and their meal offerings are just too backward for words to those who are used to real business class meals, kosher or otherwise. The UK based Hermolis Kedassia kosher meals are streets ahead of El Al’s offerings, and they are what BA offer. Even the much-maligned Alitalia is a better product on the ground and in the air. Their excellent value Premium Economy service across to New York is streets ahead of El Al.
how do i go about getting compensation from elal? email, phone, or the chase ur trave that i booked through? i had a very unpleasent difficult flight and i was not given the seat i put down on the website that i wanted to get instead they put me in the back row in the middle section!! thanks
About 15-20 years ago before all major airlines ELAL had wifi on few of the 747’s and then removed due to security… Guess that’s part of reason it’s not YET back with wifi
ElAl airlines is probably the safest way to fly anywhere in the world HOWEVER their prices are ridiculously high , economy “class” is sardine boxes , the crew is rude and not professional.
Quote:
“Perhaps it’s time for El Al to bring in some aviation people from outside of Israel to fix the airline and bring out its potential?”
Perhaps someone from CLE?
Will they still fly on יו״ט שני של גלויות if they employ a consultant from CLE?
No need to lecture ELAL about aviation. May Hashem protect it’s paasengers.
If you say there’s no need you obviously haven’t had much to do with them.
“they have failed to cultivate meaningful airline partnerships. That means that while United can feed passengers to their Newark and San Francisco flights from across their network, El Al is nearly entirely reliant on nonstop traffic.”
If I live “out of town”, what difference does it make to me booking the flight as to whether the airline that’s going to fly me to Israel has a partnership with the airline that serves my local airport?
For example, SEA-TLV RT 1/9/2019-1/16/2019
Alaska Airlines to JFK or EWR, then LY to TLV, $1072
United to EWR or SFO, then United to TLV, $1803
And when you get to EWR, you will get the LY brand new 787, as opposed to a UA 777 possibly 20 years old (such as tail number N78002 which is at this moment flying UA 84)
If your Alaska flight to EWR is delayed then you could lose your El Al ticket. Same goes for the return if the El Al flight is delayed.
If you want to book an award United can get you from Seattle to Tel Aviv, while with El Al you would need to get yourself to NYC.
There are lots of other advantages to seamless travel on the same airline.
If you want a new UA plane then take the red-eye on the brand new 77W.
Also you would only have to check your bags once.
Same thing with EL Al/Alaska.
Out of the US, they will both transfer. Inbound, none of them can transfer.
“If your Alaska flight to EWR is delayed then you could lose your El Al ticket. Same goes for the return if the El Al flight is delayed.”
Not true. El AL partners with Alaska. As long as it’s an El Al ticket, they will rebook you.
Are you are the only EL-AL PR employee tonight? All of your colleagues are asleep?
Ynet just reported that LY is going to hold back on retiring some of the 747 and retire 1st all the 767’s
חה חה, איזה אמריקאי יגיד לנו מה לעשות? הצחקת אותנו
They will always think that they have the whole world under their control. No numbers or economic factors will ever make them rethink that. These type of posts are just a good place for all of us to let off steam and rant. Thanks Dan!
For all those in favor of the new 787’s vs’ older planes. the newer planes are tighter vs roomier older planes. Just look at United’s 2 flights EWR-TLV, They’ve squeezed an extra seat into the newer plane. much less comfortable
> the newer planes are tighter vs roomier older planes
Not Boing’s fault. That is what the airlines wanted.
That’s not the point. From a seat width and pitch perspective those old 747s are about as generous as you’ll get in coach.
The last 3 paragraphs are so true. I flew today the May 28 2:30 am flight from JFK to TLV. I did not get my assigned seats instead was made to sit right in front of the bathrooms which is a 2 seater, in addition to 2 rows of 3 and it caused a lot of heartache since we had requested seats on the opposite side of the plane and in the 50’s rows. The stewardesses were not the nicest. We flew with 2 rows of kids in front of us- siblings and we did not get any entertainment for the little ones. They’re movie system was horrible, really bad movies and horrible quality screens. They were officially upgraded at some point since there was a games option however none of them worked the screen just blacked out. The seats themselves were not so bad, since it was a 777 and had a 3-3-3 configuration. The meals were Regal but really not appetizing or something you would order yourself- supper the only interesting thing was the pita and hummus with a lemon sponge cake, breakfast we only ate the yogurt and individually wrapped rugelach, the rest was garbage. We would’ve totally eaten sandwiches, which we did since we had made sure to buy. The only reason I still fly elal is because of the homey ness of flying an Israeli and kosher airline.
yup! CEO said he doesn’t care about service for us charideis because we will come regardless to holy land with dans campaign we shall see how long they can speak that way
there is not one other air line that treat chareideis like a piece of garbage I once went from LA with Qantas air line the stewards couldnt be nicer they offered us fruits, they “offered to find out from the pilot when alos hashachar will be……
as a ta i cant help but agree. its unfortunately sadly all true. they have no idea of customer service which goes with the territory=israel
their attitude is לא רוצה,לא צריך and boy some attitude it is
their business motto is theirs a limitless supply of charedi travelers that will fill their seats if some go to united no great loss and truth to be told their flights at least from ny area are always 90-100 % full no other route has that percentage
until another lower cost carrier as in tower air or isra air enters the market they wont feel the need to improve and its bound to happen sooner or later
You, know, having lived in Israel, and going back any chance I get, I got to thinking that Israel does not have a culture of customer service. Guess they don’t think they have to have one. Those who come, will come, no matter how they are treated.
The fact that you can’t get flight status from the El Al website – is this because of security concerns or do they just not have the technical capability to provide it? If I have to call El Al and wait on the phone for an hour+ 1 more time just to be told the flight took off, only to get a text from someone 90 minutes later that they still haven’t taken off, I think I’m going to lose it.
My guess is that it is security. In my experience they consistently report arrival times which are off. Though with flightradar24 one can see accurate times, so at this point it might just be מעשה אבותינו בידינו
Very well put, Dan! I know that ElAl is the safest airline in terms of security, and is Israel’s national airline, but I totally hate flying with them.
if matmid program is no good is one better off crediting paid elal flights to quantas?
the 787 is a downgrade for frequent fliers, the are eliminating the economy plus upgrades and assuming that there will be less seats per flights means the desirable flights will become more expensive !
I dont think that Israelis live a tech advanced life like smart homes amazon etc. so for the Israeli market they don’t know much better and the whole credit card points thing is almost non existent in Israel
I would fly EL AL if they had a direct flight to Cleveland or PIttsburgh
I had thought I read someplace that the FAA had forbidden the 787 with Rolls Royce engines to fly over the ocean.
It only effects a small number of engine’s, and it lowered the ETOPs limits from 330 to 140 minutes so it should be able to make the flight if it changes the flight plan
Out of all the Economy class seats on the airlines what is the consensus best kosher meal?
In all the talk, no one has pointed out something quite significant….I can fly TLV-EWR/JFK much cheaper on El Al economy then i do on United economy. Tickets price sometimes $500 less, and for a motzei shabbos flight out of TLV, forget about United. Very expensive.
Hey Dan,
Any idea what’s happening with 4x-elc? Hasn’t flown in over a month since bcn-tlv… did they retire the bird earlier?
As a transplanted American living in Jerusalem, I still try to avoid El Al at all costs. Their slogan – הכי בבית בעולם (the most at home in the world) – simply makes me cringe. It reminds me of the crappy service I still have difficulty getting used to living here. The rare times that I “had” to fly El Al invariably resulted in something unpleasant occurring before or during my flight. And don’t bother writing to them. They do not respond unless you prod them constantly and then they tell how wonderful their service is. Bringing in aviation people from outside of Israel cannot possibly fix a problem that permeates all sectors of their business.
I have not flown on El Al for several years but I must say that the flight crew did try to be as helpful as possible during the flight. Also, while I agree with much that CollegeGirl wrote above you cannot blame the crew for the terrible attitude of El Al Corporate. At least they try to keep the bathrooms clean which is more than what the crew on United does. El Al customer service people try to be helpful, but they are hindered by Corporate. Also, even though I have Gold One Pass status when I write to United customer service they rarely reply.
Seriously why not start a campaign to improve not only ELAL but all flights to and from TLV
Current final flight to JFK on the 747 is pushed to Mar 31
I think many of your are being unfair to El Al.I have flown it several times Toronto to Tel Aviv and Boston and Newark to Tel Aviv and the service was very good. The food was excellent and the staff was professional and friendly. Try flying United or Air Canada to Israel and I guarantee you will complain a lot more. L’Chaim.