The director of the Vaad Lema'an Tohar Machaneinu
received the following report of a recent flight with El-Al
and asked us to share it with our readers, since many of them
fly often.
It is with feelings of great appreciation that we would like
to share with you the experiences of our recent flight from
the Ben-Gurion Airport in Lod to London. The date was July 7,
1999; the flight number: LY227.
As we are a chareidi family, we asked our travel agent to
reserve seats for us in the movie-free section. When we
reached El-Al counter in the airport approximately two hours
before our scheduled flight time, we were shocked and
disappointed to hear that we would could not receive the
seats which had been ordered for us. These seats were located
near an emergency exit, the clerk explained, and as we were a
family of seven -- two parents and five children kein
yirbu -- we could not occupy these seats.
After waiting for what seemed an interminable amount of time,
negotiating and pleading in vain, we turned to the
representative of the Vaad Letohar Machaneinu (Committee for
Spiritual Purity in our Camp). He immediately contacted you,
and as soon as you took control of the situation, things
started moving!
Following your instructions, we approached Counter #30, where
the clerk had already received your instructions to change
our seats. He did so pleasantly and with no fuss, displaying
sensitivity to our tension that we were running late -- our
flight was due for takeoff in five minutes! The clerk asked a
stewardess to accompany us upstairs and waive us through
security and passport control so that we would not have to
wait on line. She brought us directly to Gate 35, where our
new boarding cards were ready and waiting for us. That taken
care of, we descended the steps and a bus immediately pulled
up to transport us to the aircraft! Despite the delay we had
caused, the staff greeted us cordially and treated us most
graciously.
They showed us to the seats which has been reserved for us,
behind a curtain: 2 rows in which we could all sit together
calmly, enjoying the movie-free arrangements.
When the other Orthodox passengers saw what a marvelous
flight we were having thanks to the mehadrin area we
were seated in, they requested to join as well. We were truly
sorry that there was not enough room for all of them. Only
two passengers were able to join us. The others were greatly
disappointed that they had not known about the possibility of
such seating before.
Space does not allow us to adequately express our gratitude
for this wonderful service and for the sensitivity and
understanding which you displayed for an issue so important
to us -- a movie-free flight! As frequent flyers who have
flown with various airlines over the years, we are thrilled
to have chosen El-Al this time, as we feel certain no other
airline would have provided us with such outstanding service.
And for this reason, we and others like us shall continue,
Be'ezras Hashem, to choose El-Al!
In conclusion, we wish El-Al much success. May you continue
to be the number one airline, and may you always be able to
help and serve your passengers. Please continue to display
sensitivity to the needs of the Orthodox public. We want all
those flying after us to enjoy the same wonderful service,
kashrus, and sensitivity that we did!
