Second flight with Elal to the east.
The first time I flew to Thailand (BKK) with ELAL in Boeing 747-400 4X-ELH, known in Israel as: "The flying pigsty". (LY081 and LY082)
I hoped for better flight in this time and It was better and "repaired" the bad experience.
I got the "newest" Boeing 767-300 in ELAL fleet, 4X-EAL. (Flying since 2000, in service in ELAL from April 2011)
Ben Gurion airport entry:
After 2 hours in the duty free, I boarded to the aircraft.
(Thank You IAA for the points on the window that always make my photos looks bad)
The flight took off at time.
The aircraft isn't so huge and I liked It. Better flight exprience than the Boeing 747-400 that carries more passengers (Something like twice than the B763).
The seat space is perfect! The comfortest aircraft I flew in ELAL fleet! (I tried B738, B744, B752 and B763)
Short time after take off the crew served us crackers and drinks.
Some cabin photos during cruise: (I think that I'm the only person who doesn't sleep in long flights)
The flight is very boring. There's no PTV. I brought my laptop with me and It helped to entertain me.
But I had a luck! The pilots recived my request and I entered to the cockpit! They were very nice and I was in the cockpit for 2 hours of the flight. I think that they were boring also ;)
7 hours after the take off, the crew served a breakfast:
It's included: Salad, bread, yogurt, water, "ski" cheese (white cheese in hebrew), date honey, vinaigrette sauce and water. Also we got hot drinks like cofee and tea.
(Sorry but I wasn't took photos of the meal that served after the take off)
Then we closed to Beijing. Some cabin photos:
And from the gate:
PEK airport is huge! I never saw so huge airport in my life! But it's organized well and You can go to your destination in the airport without problems.
Thank you for sharing this rare LY long-haul FR!
B767s are some of the most comfortable with the 2-3-2 configuration. It's a shame these have never been retrofitted with newer cabins with personal IFE. The old school boxy overhead bins bring back memories.
The breakfast offering looks good for a second meal on a long-haul flight. Too bad no pictures of the first meal (I realize this flight is >2 years old so nothing you can do about it).
But it's organized well and You can go to your destination in the airport without problems.
- Most might disagree with this statement, PEK can be an unfriendly experience depending on the day.
Definitely a treat to go into the cockpit midflight, won't ever see this on a US carrier.
Today ELAL has a streaming system that You can use with laptop or smartphone. It's not like PTV, but it's better than nothing.
The first meal usually in long haul flights like this is sandwich or something. In LY096 flight (PEK to TLV) I got two meal and Crackers.
I think that PEK is very OK and I found my destination without any problems.
Also, usually ELAL will not enter to the cockpit, most of the time I got negative answer.
By the way... ELAL have Ipads for Bussiness class and Economy premium class for free.
I don't know if I would like to take such a long trip in a plane like that, but if you say it was comfortable, then i'll trust you. Maybe it is bearable during the night flight, but maybe the return is not as candid.
Thanks for sharing!
The flight to/from Beijing in ELAL are always night flights. (and for most or even for all the destinations in the far east)
Most of the people are sleeping during the long haul flights. I am the crazy... :)
Very nice trip report. I just wondered what route EL AL follows to PEK.
Even though the flight is long, the cabin looks very clean at the end of it. EL AL seems to be a quite nice airline.
Thanks for sharing!
I think that Hanian airlines product is better, they offering new aircraft with IFE systems, Elal operates in this route only B763 that some of them are very old (1991... Like EAP and EAJ).