Hello and welcome to this review of the flight from Ben Gurion Airport (TLV) to London-Heathrow Airport (LHR), which I took on 10 June 2024 on my way to a family trip in London, from which i'd later split to a solo trip in Paris.
I noticed that, at least in English, this site has no reviews of El Al's Premium Economy product (introduced on the 787s and subsequently brought to the 777s during their cabin renewal), so hopefully this will be an opportunity to fix that omission.
BACKGROUND
During June 2024, at the week of the Jewish Holiday of Shavu'ot, me and my family (my parents, my siblings, and myself) went on a trip to the United Kingdom.
While the initial planning was for an urban trip to London, like my family's last two times visiting Britain, their plans later shifted to only a short stay in London (at which we'd watch the stage adaptation of Hayao Miyazaki's Spirited Away, which was running in London at the time), from whence the rest of my family will go to a holiday home in rural Devon. Since I do not take well to rural areas, and since I have a not-insignificant amount of French friends I made online which I wanted to finally meet in person, I asked to go on a separate solo trip to Paris instead of following my family to Devon (also fulfilling my lifelong dream of taking the Eurostar across the channel).
The flight itinerary I took for the trip was:
Enchainement de vols
- 1LY317 - Premium Economy - Tel Aviv → London - Boeing 787-900
- 2LY324 - Premium Economy - Paris → Tel Aviv - Boeing 787-800
BEN GURION AIRPORT - TERMINAL 3
Me and my family arrived at the Airport by 15, around two hours before the scheduled departure time. Even though Shavuot is not one of the peak travel seasons - that would be Passover (Late March to April, depending on the Hebrew calendar), the school summer break (July and August), and the Tishrei holiday season of Rosh HaShana/Yom Kippur/Sukkot (September to October, depending on the Hebrew calendar) - the airport was full of tourists:
THE FLIGHT ITSELF
Aircraft Information:
4X-EDH "Be'er Sheva"
Boeing 787-9HX (serial number 38085, line number 760)
Delivered new to El Al on 30 October 2018; 5 years and 8 months old at the time of the flight.
This was my first (and as of the initial writing of this report, the only) time flying on that plane.
About an hour and a half after arriving at the terminal, we made it to the gate - and given the short arrival, the fact we ate lunch at home, and the fact we were flying Premium Economy, we didn't do much in the Terminal.
Even though London-Heathrow is a European destination, it is one of two - alongside Paris-Charles de Gaulle - that are consistently served by the long-haul fleet of 777s and 787s, rather than the short-haul 737s, and the only one exclusively served by the long-haul planes (out of four daily TLV-CDG flights, one is consistently flown by a long-haul plane, one alternates between long-haul and short-haul, and two are flown by short-haul planes). Though there are other destinations, such as Amsterdam, Athens, Rome, and Sofia, which are also occasionally served by the long-haul fleet, this only occurs sproadically and the usual planes flying them are those of the short-haul fleet.
El Al's Premium Economy class is a very recent introduction. While it did establish an "Economy Class Plus" in 2012, this was not a new service class, but merely a category for economy class seats with increased legroom and recline. The "proper" Premium Economy class was only introduced in 2017, with the introduction of the 787 into El Al's fleet, and was the exclusive domain of the Dreamliners until the 777s underwent a cabin refresh in 2023-25.
On the Boeing 787, Premium Economy utilizes Recaro PL3530 seats, having 18.7-inch seat witdth and 38-inch row pitch, in a 2-3-2 configuration. Each seat has one USB-A plug and one AC plug, which are located at the end of the seat's middle console.
The increased pitch comes in very useful for those who want increased legspace - or, as in my (very uncommon) case, are travelling with a Fursuit head bag, a large personal item that does not fit into the overhead compartments (though this is purely based off the compartments in older Boeing 737s; I did not bother to test where this is true for the 787 as well, because I - potentially incorrectly - assumed this would not be the case).
Note that many online sources incorrectly claim that Premium Economy has Recaro CL3710 seats, rather than Recaro PL3530 seats: the CL3710s are ordinary Economy Class seats, and while El Al does use them on the 787, it uses them in the Economy Class cabin.
The IFE greeted me with a looping footage of the plane's destination, and a very multilingual welcome message, in each and every one of the IFE User Interface's languages (the available options include, as far as I can remember, not just Hebrew, Arabic, and the major Western European and East Asian Languages, but even more minor languages such as Hungarian).
Not long after, when we were all seated, the safety video was played:
Dinner was served around an hour after departure.
El Al uses the same menu for Business and Premium Economy. In late 2023, El Al introduced a brand-new in-flight menu designed by celebrity chef Assaf Granit. Though the Assaf Granit menu remains El Al's current menu as of August 2025, it was slightly revised sometime in late 2024 or early 2025 (as I noted on my PRG-TLV flight report.) This flight carried the first version of the menu, the same one I encountered four months prior on my AMS-TLV flight.
Once again, I opted for my favorite of the menu, the Beef Shoulder in roasted pumpkin Hamusta sauce and Sha'ariya rice. The meal was excellent, and I finished it down to the plate.
The in-flight entertainment system, as is standard in long-haul fleets, is a monitor built into the seatback in front.
The selection of movies was surprisingly broader than on board the 737s (I expected that both fleets would have the same limited selection), though it remained a bit lacking (as it is in every airline I flew with, with the only exception being Cathay Pacific, which I was yet to fly on at the time). While I do not remember whether I watched two movies or only one, I know that (one of) the movie(s) I watched on this flight was The Grand Budapest Hotel.
I also watched an episode of Zehu Ze! to cover the remaining time until landing:
Landing in Heathrow was uneventful, though (as is usual in London) the drive from the Airport to our hotel was rather long.
