BA164 TLV-LHR 17 NOV 10 (CLUB WORLD)

After a couple of nights in Tel Aviv and the two more in Haifi, it was time to head home. We headed to the train station and missed the train as it pulled in as we arrived (in reality we won't have made it as we were questioned etc before we could get into the station).

The Israeli train service is very good and air conditioned, so it was rather pleasant getting the train out to the airport at TLV (and much cheaper).
arrival, it took us a while to realise that we had to go up to the top floor for BA check-in (some airlines are on the ground floor). When we arrived, we wandered down to the First / Business lane in the A zone. There were long queues in the non-premium lane and confusion as to what was happening. Some BA First passengers came from somewhere else and stood in front of us and then pulled rank as they were first (the typical image of a BA First passenger that I have in my mind!). The initial questions were in regards to our passports and our time in Israel - they seem to have people there who have no inter-personal skills and are not very intelligent (they had never heard of the WHO or UN!). After some grilling about Dubai stamps etc, it was off to have the first baggage screen. Here, a bar code is applied to the bag and it is then scanned before being x-rayed so that they can trace each bag to the x-ray. Laptops have to be taken out and opened and then stood upside down. Once the bags were through this, you then join further queues in front of the hand search of your bags. This basically means that you are called forwarded and the security person calls up the x-rays and then you open your bag. For the next 20 minutes or so my bag was hand searched, swabbed countless times for explosives (including all my clothes and shoes etc) and more questions. Then my laptop was taken away and x-rayed / examined for about 10 minutes and then they came back to ask if they could remove the battery and re-examine it (which took another 10 minutes). Finally it was on to my hand luggage which was swabbed countless times again and then items individually x-rayed. After all my baggage was approved, I was then swabbed for explosives.

Once I was given the all clear to check-in, I was escorted to the check-in desk and my bag watched until it had left the baggage belt. I was escorted to security (and for some reason I don't think I actually went through a metal detector, even after all the other stuff) and left to an immigration hall with people 20 deep to get to the desk to be asked more questions and then have a further Israeli stamp put in my passport.

All in all this process took nearly 2 hours from time of getting to the airport to getting to the lounge, and they really make you feel nervous the whole time.

Brief visit to the duty free and then to the lounge - the place was almost full and there were no seats. I could have found the other one, but boarding was in 10 minutes. I grabbed one last glass of wine and then headed off to the plane.

Once on board, it was a B777 with on demand entertainment. Champagne offered, along with the menus etc.

Starters
Salmon gravlas with creme fraiche
Panzella salad with pecornio

Mains
Fillet of beef with veg and garlic mashed potato
Rock bass fillet with tomato, herb and red onion salsa, aspargus and lemon rice
Ricotta ravioli with mushroom bolognese
Chilled main course salad

Dessert
Mixed berry cheesecake
Cheese

My order was taken before taken off. Firstly I apologise to BA for not obviously being their typical Club World passenger, as I had no idea what panzanella salad with percorino was. When I asked, I was told rather rudely that it was the vegetarian option. When I tried to clarify this again, I was told "its vegetarian!". Finally I said that I wanted to know what this was, to which she said "cheese and tomato".

Anyway after take-off, I nipped to the toilet just as drinks were starting. I was in 10A and also he was serving 10C on my return he proceeded to ignore me and start serving the rest of the cabin. Once he had got three rows down, as I wanted a proper drink after the stress of the immigration stuff, I went and "apologised for not being in my seat at the time of service, but wondered if it would be at all possible to get a drink"

The panezanella was very good, as was the beef. The rolls were Israeli, as were certain other things on the tray. The service was typical BA - unfriendly but efficient (maybe they had had a similar problem with immigration/security).

The flight home was about 4 hours 35, so again not long enough. Arrived at LHR and had to get the transit back to a packed immigration - about 25 people in the Iris queue. I was lucky enough to be able to use the automatic gates, which were very quick. Baggage took ages to come out - priority tagging meant absolutely nothing on this flight (although I got worried that maybe they had decided not to load my bag in the end).

Overall the flight was acceptable, let down by the unfirednly crew. However, the important thing to remember if on this route is to ensure that you get to the airport with plenty of time to spare as the process is very slow!

Have only been to Israel once and the security issue was the very same, hence my reluctance to ever go back, especially with family.

Shame about the CC with his head in is ar£e. (sorry i think that is on HL' flight. I am so confused now)

Iain

[honey lamb]

OMIGOD! I was on that flight too in 11J!!! When I saw the title of the TR I was puzzled as I had no recollection of writing mine

Fantastic TR thank you - very interesting to catch up what's happening security wise at TLV. And, another thumbs down for BA's unfriendly onboard service ...

Thanks for your TR, immigration sounded like hell, come to think of it going to Isreal sounds like hell!
Glad you had a half decent if unfriendly flight back.

cheers

alex

To be perfectly honest, I think the security sounds fantastic. I'd much rather have detailed screening like that where you actually feel secure boarding the aircraft, as opposed to the half-arsed efforts in the UK and USA.

Great TR - thank you very much.

I've often thought of visiting Israel with the family, and will certainly consider the security screening carefully in terms of whether I want to deal with that.

Interesting side note here re peception of "all that was a pain in the a*se" - which might be my reaction, as aposed to "I'm glad, it makes me feel safer" - horses for courses I guess.

These TRs are rather confirming my experience and opinions of BA over recent years - efficient and surly, with little regard to making passenger experience "special". I do wonder, though, how much the farcical situation re industrial relations is effecting staff morale - it can't be easy...Also, if I had to go through that level of scrutiny etc just to get to work, perhaps I wouldn't be in the best frame of mind either!

And how funny that we had two V-flyers on the same non-VS flight...

Thank you for the great return TR, shame about the CC.

This will teach me to read TR's on my phone when I've just woken up - I actually thought it was HL that had written it until I just read it again now! *smacks head*

[honey lamb]

The initial questions were in regards to our passports and our time in Israel - they seem to have people there who have no inter-personal skills and are not very intelligent (they had never heard of the WHO or UN!). After some grilling about Dubai stamps etc, it was off to have the first baggage screen. Here, a bar code is applied to the bag and it is then scanned before being x-rayed so that they can trace each bag to the x-ray. Laptops have to be taken out and opened and then stood upside down. Once the bags were through this, you then join further queues in front of the hand search of your bags. This basically means that you are called forwarded and the security person calls up the x-rays and then you open your bag. For the next 20 minutes or so my bag was hand searched, swabbed countless times for explosives (including all my clothes and shoes etc) and more questions. Then my laptop was taken away and x-rayed / examined for about 10 minutes and then they came back to ask if they could remove the battery and re-examine it (which took another 10 minutes). Finally it was on to my hand luggage which was swabbed countless times again and then items individually x-rayed. After all my baggage was approved, I was then swabbed for explosives. Once I was given the all clear to check-in, I was escorted to the check-in desk and my bag watched until it had left the baggage belt. I was escorted to security (and for some reason I don't think I actually went through a metal detector, even after all the other stuff) and left to an immigration hall with people 20 deep to get to the desk to be asked more questions and then have a further Israeli stamp put in my passport.

I was never asked about my Dubai stamps in my passport and I certainly didn't have half the palaver that you had at the first screening. No-one took any notice of my laptop either then or at the secondary screening and certainly nothing was swabbed nor was I escorted to check-in

My order was taken before taken off. Firstly I apologise to BA for not obviously being their typical Club World passenger, as I had no idea what panzanella salad with percorino was. When I asked, I was told rather rudely that it was the vegetarian option. When I tried to clarify this again, I was told "its vegetarian!". Finally I said that I wanted to know what this was, to which she said "cheese and tomato".

Anyway after take-off, I nipped to the toilet just as drinks were starting. I was in 10A and also he was serving 10C on my return he proceeded to ignore me and start serving the rest of the cabin. Once he had got three rows down, as I wanted a proper drink after the stress of the immigration stuff, I went and "apologised for not being in my seat at the time of service, but wondered if it would be at all possible to get a drink"

The panezanella was very good, as was the beef. The rolls were Israeli, as were certain other things on the tray. The service was typical BA - unfriendly but efficient (maybe they had had a similar problem with immigration/security).

Apart from the CSD who served my drinks round I would be inclined to agree with you

Overall the flight was acceptable, let down by the unfirednly crew. However, the important thing to remember if on this route is to ensure that you get to the airport with plenty of time to spare as the process is very slow!

I agree on both counts