A female passenger on an El Al flight, not a resident of Israel, has filed a 50,000 NIS lawsuit against El Al after a cabin crew official gave an avreich her seat. According to the Galei Tzahal (Army Radio) report the passenger was on a recent flight and found herself without a seat after a chareidi male decided to sit there, wishing to be between two other chareidim.
When asked to vacate the seat, showing her boarding pass, the avreich refused, compelling a member of the cabin crew to intervene. The El Al official compelled the woman to sit elsewhere. She explains that she ordered that seat in particular due to her medical realities. She adds that as a result of the avreich occupying her seat she did not receive the vegetarian meal she ordered.
The attorney representing the woman explained the El Al cabin crew official acted contrary to airline policy by compelling the woman to sit elsewhere. The attorney adds the actions show a clear discriminatory practice towards women and therefore the client is seeking compensatory damages in the amount of 50,000 NIS.
Responding to the Galei Tzahal (Army Radio) report, El Al states cabin crew members do their utmost to maintain the highest level of client satisfaction as was the case here, adding this particular case is being investigated as are all complaints received by the airline.
(YWN – Israel Desk, Jerusalem)
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12 Responses
If he refused to move from a seat that was not his, he should have been arrested and removed from the flight.
A person who pays and reserves a seat should be given the seat. Those who want to sit gender seperated have to arrange with their travel agents or purchasers to sit next to their desired gender.
Her lawsuit is justified yet unfortunate.
massive chillul HaShem. unfortunately basic derech eretz is oblivious to many.
The woman happens to be completely correct. Maybe it would have been nice if she had let him stay but that is not the issue. There is no EL-AL policy that says men get to choose where they sit, or that flight are separate seating. Once in a flight to israel I volunteered to change seats because I could see that the man next to me was very uncomfortable so I switched with another gentleman. There was no scene though, and the man did not demand I move.
opportunist.
a hillul hashem- if you want a specific seat, or to sit with, or not sit with a particular person or gender, this needs to be arranged in advance, you should not cause someone else to suffer for your chumra because you failed to plan ahead, where are the midos. now it would have been nice if the woman agreed to the switch but from this article it doesnt sound like she was given any opportunity to discuss it. I am all for separate seating- but plan ahead…in this day and age who doesn’t know to arrange these things ahead of time..come on
Flight crew on any airline routinely move people around to accommodate others. If the seat she was given was not suitable for some reason, she should have informed the crew of her alleged medical needs and they could have either found her a more suitable seat, or they could have found another seat for the charedi guy instead. And if she didn’t get her special meal she should have told the crew again; it’s not as if the charedi guy would have eaten it! But there’s nothing to sue for; a ticket is a contract, but a boarding pass is not.
I find it hard to believe that the woman did not receive her vegetarian meal she had requested, UNLESS she did not receive it because she was sleepig at the time and had situated herself in such a way that her TRAY was not available for the stewardess to place it on for her!
I find this woman to be completely disrepectful of other peoples’ feelings! I think the courts should ORDER HER to take a course on what it means to be thoughful of other peoples’ value systems and to be accomodating to others!
Lieba – I might not agree with everything, but I do believe that she did not get the meal she requested.
Twice I flew EL AL recently and they moved my seat and BOTH my husband and I did not get our Glatt Kosher meals. We contacted customer service regarding this and they sent us vouchers for money off a future flight. Meals go by seat numbers and if the seat is moved chances are you might not get your meal. When we were asked by the stewardess to move our seats we told them both times about our Glatt Kosher meals, and both times they screwed up and gave away our ordered meals and didn’t have any left for us.
Leiba you could NOT be more wrong.
To #8:
you are completely off the mark. The woman was within her rights to demand the seat she was originally designated to have. It is the avreich, with his “Si kimt mich alles” attitude that should be given the course. Unfortunately, this is what our generation has been brought up with, but torah means nothing if you are not a mentsch!
“She explains that she ordered that seat in particular due to her medical realities’
What kind of medical realities can she have that she cant sit in a diffrent seat ?!?!?!?!
and she was in the middle seat between 2 other people
most probably they gave her a better seat !!!
CHUTZPA