I frequently fly and usually fly business class. The El Al experience was the worst business class experience that I have ever had.

The lounge at JFK is spartan, and offers little in the way of food and drink. A big bowl of tuna fish was the principal offering!

Boarding the plane, I was struck that our seats still had ashtrays which indicated the plane had never been updated. The leg rest required the passenger to lean over and shove it back into place. The pull out movie screen was real small, something from the early '90s.

No champagne was offered prior to departure. My wife ordered one of their special drinks, an appletini, which was served warm in a plastic glass. I asked for a glass of white wine, which came with an ice cube as they had not chilled the wine.

The dinner was mediocre; they did not have my selection (despite business class being only 1/3 full) though the flight attendant did go to first class and get a similar offering. It was a chicken breast that was overcooked. I thought it was really classic that when it came time for dinner, the other flight attendant, threw the table cloth on my wife's tray (she was in a middle seat) rather than go to the trouble of unfolding it and placing it on the tray.

After dinner, I ordered an after dinner drink from the very limited selections (a Southern Comfort) that came in a big water tumbler (I never saw a glass that big on an airline) and the flight attendant had filled it to the top like you would pour a draft beer.

In summary, a lousy lounge, mediocre food, indifferent and untrained flight attendants. It was a real rip-off for the money we paid and I will never fly El Al again.