Hi for everyone and I hope that you had great summer vacation!!! I'm welocome you to my trip to Holland.
Here is my flights: IZ TLV-AMS in Y. You Are Here LY AMS-TLV in Y. (Business Class seat)
2nd time in Holland 1st time of Arkia 1st time on Boeing 757
Before the trip:
I was working as a Travel Agent at the summer vacation. 3 days before the flight, my best friend asked me if I want to go with him to a trip in Holland and I agreed of course.
We had rent a great house in the small city Broek in Waterland (15 min from the central station of Amsterdam by Bus) and we used with the great public transport of Holland. We were searching for cheap flights, charter flights from Tel Aviv, Israel to Amsterdam. Finally, we chose to fly Arkia with 7 days of stay.
Arkia is flown the Boeing 757-300 to Amsterdam. Arkia have 2 757-300 (4X-BAU, 4X-BAW). They flies to destinations like Eilat, Barcelona, Munich, Zanzibar, Seychelles, Greek Islands etc.
The day of the flight:
After 5 weeks of stretching cause of the Protective Edge and the war between Israel and Gaza, the day of the flight finally arrived!!!!
The flight schedule to depart at 1:10PM, But at 9 AM i got a nofitication that the flight was delayed to 2:00PM, Because the plane were stucking in Rhodes, Greece.
I arrived to Terminal 3 at Ben Gurion Intl Airport at 12:10PM, 1:50 hours before departure.
The way to the terminal, great and comfortable route:
We want to the LCD to see what happen with the flights, and where is the check-in counter:
Our flight, the boarding is late than the depart LOL….
We got row 5, seats D E F for us. El Al Boeing 737-900ER (Reg: 4X-EHE) before flight to european destination: Duty Free Zone, One of the biggest duty free zones relative to the size of the airport (TLV is a medium-size airport, over 15M people in year).
We had been entering to Dan Lounge, Not the best food, only ugly snacks and drinks as you can see: I know that here must to be some ice cubes, but where are them???
Aeroflot Boeing 777-300ER heading to Moscow, Russia (SVO):
Ukraine International Airlines Boeing 737-800 arrived from short journey from Kiev, Ukraine:
Easy-Jet Airbus A320 had just landed from Geneva, Switzerland: Time to go to the gate, gate C9 for our flight, this gate is used for big planes, like AC 788, UA 772, US A332, DL 744, LX A343 etc. You can see our plane for today, Boeing 757-300, reg 4X-BAU, 14 years old plane:
1 moment before enter to new airline and plane model (1st on Arkia and 1st time on 757 plane), Not tasty hot dog, but sexy plane at all:
It was very nice to go to the left side, like first class passengers :) Legroom is very very tight (I were 1.73M, now 1.76, still growing…..:) Nice cabin like some 737 planes, you can see the old CRT screens (No entertainment and flight maps for all the flight): We were starting pushback at 2:20PM for Europe!!!!
The capitan welcomed us for Arkia flight to Schiphol Airport on Boeing 757-300, and flight time will be 4 hours and 30 minutes, the weather is good, 17 degrees… (The temperature in TLV were 32 degrees!!!) and he wished nice flight and safe flight.
Safety video from 2000:
Broken ceiling:
Taxi for Runway 08 (All the flights were departs to the east because Protactive Edge and Hamas intimidation rockets to Israel):
I took a video of the departure, will be post later. After take-off, not the best quality, sorry about it:
Cursing over the Mediterranean Sea, 34,000ft, also you can see the beautiful winglet and the engine: Over Rhodes and Marmaris: After 1:50 hours the cpaitan said the we're avioded Turkey. Arkia doesn't give meals, like low-cost carriers. I was very hungry, so I had decided to buy a Sandwich for 25NIS (7 USD), and I got Diet-Coke by myself. I asked for water: Cabin at the mid of the flight, boring cabin and flight at all as you can see (Why Arkia doesn't show the flight map???) Iike a school bus: Photo from my seat, 5F: I played 2 games of NBA 2K 2014 in my phone (Nexus 5), so 40 minutes of the flight were passed. Finally we had flown over europe, now over Serbia:
Descend to Amsterdam, 5 minutes before landing. We landed at 5:55PM, After 4:35 hours. LANDING VIDEO WILL BE UPLOADED LATER
New Turkish A321 with sharklets to Istanbul (Why the passengers used bus?)
KLM 747-400:
Sad to see it :(
The plane were parked at gate G6, (All the Israeli airlines parkes in G area, and more airlines like Emirates, Cathay Pacific, Singapore Airlines, Garuda Indonesia, Malaysia Airlines, Suriname Airways etc) Something cools in AMS airport, the arrive and departure passengers are together, so I saw the passengers for TLV). We took a train to Amsterdam Centraal Station, and a taxi to our house in Broke in Waterland (5 EUR for train ticket, 40EUR for taxi).
Finally we arrived to the house, at 19:20PM, we saw our plane flies back to TLV from the village. Dam square: Great cheeses!!!! OK, I arrive to the real Amsterdam!!! Bikes everywhere!!! Anne Frank house: As a european jewish teenager, I can't forget the Holocaust that people of my family where murdered and Anne Frank,I am proud to be a jewish!
Thank you and be continued, Yonatan Paz
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Verdict
Arkia Israel Airlines
4.1/10
Cabin5.0
Cabin crew5.0
Entertainment/wifi0.0
Meal/catering6.5
Independent Dan Lounge
5.2/10
Comfort6.0
Meal/catering6.0
Entertainment/wifi3.0
Services6.0
Tel Aviv - TLV
9.2/10
Efficiency9.0
Access10.0
Services9.0
Cleanliness9.0
Amsterdam - AMS
10.0/10
Efficiency10.0
Access10.0
Services10.0
Cleanliness10.0
Conclusion
Arkia is a nice low-cost airline. the 757-300 is nice plane but the flight was boring because the plane hadn't entertainment. If you find a cheap flight with a charter or low cost airline - Do not expect too many. Be continued, Yonatan Paz.
2 LIKESLIKE TO THANK THE AUTHORTHANKS ! FLIGHT-REPORT LIKED
Thanks for this FR on Arkia ! We had been entering to Dan Lounge, Not the best food, only ugly snacks and drinks as you can see:: Indeed, I also find this loung is not really fine about food and drinks...
Hi and thank you for reading my flight report!!! Dan lounge is a small lounge. King David lounge of EL AL is big and more nice than Dan. The prices of the food in TLV airport is very very expensive, so the lounge doesn't slove the problem of the high prices of the food.
I remember King David lounge when I was 9 years old, I moved to the US with CO flight (777-200ER) and my father office booked to us enterance to King David Lounge, great lounge at all!
Hi and thank you for reading my flight report!!! I don't know what was the price accurately because the ticket were bought by my friend, because he has a great contact with big travel agency, but i think that the ticket cost 400-500$.... It was nice to fly on the 757-300, long plane and beauty. I think that in compared of the service and the seats, the ticket must to cost no more than 250$, but Israel is very expensive country, and it was summer vacation so everything is relative.
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12 Comments
We had been entering to Dan Lounge, Not the best food, only ugly snacks and drinks as you can see:: Indeed, I also find this loung is not really fine about food and drinks...
Dan lounge is a small lounge. King David lounge of EL AL is big and more nice than Dan. The prices of the food in TLV airport is very very expensive, so the lounge doesn't slove the problem of the high prices of the food.
I don't know what was the price accurately because the ticket were bought by my friend, because he has a great contact with big travel agency, but i think that the ticket cost 400-500$....
It was nice to fly on the 757-300, long plane and beauty. I think that in compared of the service and the seats, the ticket must to cost no more than 250$, but Israel is very expensive country, and it was summer vacation so everything is relative.
Too bad that they did not even provide a small bag of munchies with the drinks. Was the sandwich decent at least?
They didn't gave munchie for us, only drink service 25 minutes after take off.
Thanks about sharing your feeling when you read the report!!!!
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