Showing posts with label Air Transat. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Air Transat. Show all posts

Sunday, July 9, 2017

Air Transat Review - Tel-Aviv-Toronto Part 2

Image result for air transatIn my last blog, I provided a review of my first flight on Air Transat between Toronto and Tel-Aviv. I also discussed some of the engaging conversations I had on that flight.  You can read the previous blog here.

I thought I would add some information about the return flight to complete the circle.  It was much less eventful but if you are thinking about trying Air Transat, there is some more information that you might want to know.

As I mentioned previously, I had paid a relatively nominal additional amount to buy "Option Plus." This provided me with an additional baggage allowance (a second bag of 30 kg) as well as some other perqs.  It was also supposed to include "priority boarding."  However, as with most airlines, other than perhaps, Air Canada, there is no such thing as "priority boarding" when leaving Ben Gurion airport.  The Air Transat crew did not even bother to pretend that there was an orderly boarding system.  They simply announced that it was "boarding time" and the inevitable chaos ensued.

I also note that Air Transat was not able to provide me with boarding passes or baggage check all the way through to Toronto, even though everything was confirmed.  I could not check in online for both legs of the flight.  I later discovered that I wasn't the only one - it must be a glitch that hasn't yet been worked out.  So I was only able to get an advance boarding pass from Tel-Aviv to Montreal and had to get the second boarding pass on arrival in Montreal for the flight to Toronto.  Somewhat inconvenient.

The Tel-Aviv to Montreal flight leaves at about 9:30 a.m., though I think we were delayed by about an hour. The flight was about 11.5 hours total and was relatively uneventful.  The crew were excellent.  Friendly, readily available and attentive.  Many of them were trilingual, speaking French, English and Hebrew.  They were offering to help passengers with their Canadian customs forms and they were very social with the passengers.

There were quite a number of Ultra-Orthodox passengers, including many Lubavitch who must have been returning after their proselytizing tours of Israel.  However, unlike the Toronto to Tel-Aviv leg, I only saw one Chabad guy making his way up and down the aisles looking for potential Tefillin  layers.  He didn't come to me or anyone else in my row.  Maybe he had read my last blog.

On the other hand, there were a number of Chabad women, walking up and down the aisles, handing out books of Tehilim (psalms) to any women travelling with children and trying to get them to read a psalm or two.  I was sitting across from a secular Israeli woman who was travelling with twins (and her husband) and she willingly agreed to accept the book of Tehilim and start reading.  So I suppose Chabad felt that it must have saved  at least one soul on this flight.

Air Transat flies an Airbus 330 to Israel - so there were personal screens with movies, TV shows and other entertainment.  Headphones cost $9 so you probably want to bring your own.  Blankets are also $9 and you get to keep them and take them off the plane at the end of the flight.  They seem to be new.  They also sell blow- up neck protectors for $9.  Since I had Option Plus, I received all of these high end gifts for free as well as the eye mask that was thrown in.

I ordered an Asian vegetarian meal which was fine.  The crew came around and served sandwiches mid-flight, which were all kosher (smoked turkey or feta cheese sandwiches).  There was a third meal about an hour and a half before arrival in Montreal.

The transfer in Montreal was not particularly convenient or fun.  You must collect your luggage, pass through customs and then drop off your baggage.  In my case, I also had to go to an Air Transat counter after passing through customs to get a boarding pass and baggage tag.  The seat that I had pre-booked had vanished somehow, so I was given a seat at the back of the plane for the flight to Toronto - though it is only a 50 minute flight.

You also have to go through personal security again.  I note that you are allowed to bring duty free items that you may have bought in Israel if they are in one of those sealed duty free bags.  If the bag is not sealed - or the goods are not in the bag, you cannot take them through security if they include liquids or gels.  I actually did not have any duty free goods with me this time, partially since I did not know if I would be able to bring them on the flight from Montreal to Toronto.

I then had to walk across the entire airport from the arrival gate to the Air Transat departure gate for Toronto.  I had about 2.5 hours to wait for the next flight but there was free wi-fi in the Montreal airport. We were delayed by about an hour but I will assume that was not Air Transat's fault.

The flight from Montreal to Toronto is short and easy.  On arrival in Toronto, there are no customs to clear since you have already cleared them in Montreal.  But, again, we had to cross the entire airport from the arrival gate to the baggage claim area.  Then it took quite a while to actually get the bags, but I eventually got my suitcase and left.

Overall, the flight was fine.  It was a better flying experience than some other airlines but certainly not as good as the better ones.  The key is that the price was fantastic.  Air Transat was selling high season summer round trip tickets for about $1,000 Cdn all inclusive, which was less than half the cost of available Air Canada tickets and significantly less than El Al as well.  You don't get any reward points and have no chance of getting upgraded to "business class" or "premium economy."  But you can save quite a bit of money and enjoy a reasonable flying experience getting to Israel.  I certainly see no reason to avoid it.




Sunday, July 2, 2017

Air Transat Review - Toronto to Tel-Aviv and Gender Equality Issues in Judaism...

I tried something a bit different this time.  I flew Air Transat for my latest trip between Toronto and Tel-Aviv.  Air Transat is a charter airline that has been around for about 30 years.  But it just opened up service to Tel-Aviv direct from Montreal in June.  It flies twice a week - and offers flights at a price than can be less than half of comparable fares on Air Canada or El Al.  Sounded like it would be worth a try.

The airline currently flies on Sundays and Wednesdays from Montreal to Tel-Aviv and flies back on Mondays and Thursdays.  They offer connecting flights between Toronto and Montreal though the connections include medium length wait times - a few hours.

The base price ticket, like some other airlines these days, includes very little.  For "economy" passengers to Tel-Aviv, one 30 kg suitcase is included.  But headphones, a blanket, an advance seat, a glass of wine, etc., are all $7 each.  However, the airline offers an "Option Plus" package that you can buy at the time of booking.  It was quite reasonable.  It included an extra suitcase (30 kg), priority check-in, an advance seat, free blanket, headphones. wine etc.,  Even with the Option Plus, the fare was still about half of the available Air Canada fare.  So I spoiled myself and bought it.

The flight from Toronto left at about 11 a.m.  It was a Boeing 737 and it was completely full. Nothing to report really.  It was a standard, uneventful, one hour flight.  We arrived in Montreal and had about two hours until the next flight.

The convenient thing, compared to some other connections, is that we did not have to go through security a second time.  We remained in the gate area of the terminal.  If you fly from Toronto and change planes almost anywhere else on the way to Tel-Aviv, you generally have to clear security a second time at the connecting airport.

There is some special security at the gate for Israeli flights but it is nothing cumbersome.

Our flight was delayed by about two hours, though I have no information about the reasons for the delay so I will give Air Transat the benefit of the doubt.

Boarding was reasonably smooth - especially for me since I had purchased the Option Plus.  There is no real "business class" or "first class" on the plane - so the economy seats run right up to the front of the plane. They are quite narrow.  I have to say that I felt squished, even compared to seats on the Air Canada 787s.  You might simply tell me I should lose some weight - and I'm working on it - but I still felt squished.

I had originally picked out an aisle seat.  But since I had Option Plus, they moved me to a more desirable exit row seat.  This meant almost unlimited leg room.  But it also meant being in an area that would serve as the congregating area for people who want to get together and stretch, chat, pray, or rabble rouse.  I would happily refuse the extra leg room next time to avoid being in this area.

The airline was packed with Orthodox and Ultra-Orthodox passengers as well as many secular Israelis. As far as I could tell, there were relatively few Canadian tourists.  Air Transat flies Airbus 330s, so it was a fairly large plane. There are personal screens with a selection of movies, games, music and other entertainment. There were not that many newer films but I managed to find a movie or two to watch.

The far more interesting aspect of this particular flight was the discussions that I wound up having with a variety of passengers.  On my right, across the aisle, was a retired Israeli officer, secular, but self-described as "traditional." He was flying his whole extended family to Israel for a Bar Mitzvah - more than 20 people - and was interested in telling a group of us all about his experiences in the army and his life story.

To my left, a Russian-Israeli immigrant, who had also served in the Israeli army, worked for a while as a lawyer in Israel and was now living in Ottawa.  Although not particularly religious, he told a group of us that he had become actively involved in Chabad in the Ottawa area, though he only mentioned that near the end of the flight.  I'll come back to that...

Next to him was a secular but also self-described  "religiously respectful" woman who had traveled to Canada from Ra'anana for a tour of eastern Canada.  She was on her way back home.

The plane was filled with a large group of Chabad emissaries who were determined to ensure that every male on the plane put on tefillin during the course of the flight.  They were using the congregating area - near my seat - to have strategy meetings and decide who to approach and to track their progress.

These young Chabad men were walking up and down the aisles, asking people to put on tefillin. They arrived at our row.  The guy on my right, the retired officer, said "no thanks."  He said that he doesn't appreciate this kind of thing and had no interest.  The guy on my left said that he had already put on tefillin today - so he said no thanks.  I simply said no thanks, as well.  So these guys continued up and down the aisles and found quite a number of willing participants from what I could see.

Then they came back.  "Are you now ready to put on tefillin?"  I said "no thanks."  He said "what's the matter, don't you believe in the Moshiach?"  I said whether or not I believe in the Mashiach is not really related - but I'm fairly sure that your former Rabbi, who is now in a grave in New York, was NOT the Mashiach..."  He walked away....

This sparked a whole conversation between the four of us in the row.  The woman on the left said that this was all "coercive and embarrassing" and that they should leave people alone.  The guy next to her, to my left, defended the Chabad delegate and spoke about how he also used to work in door to door sales, so he knew how hard it was to get people to do things and he empathized with them.  He didn't tell us at this point that he had any involvement with Chabad.  The guy on my right spoke passionately about how it upsets him that the Ultra-Orthodox do not go to the army and collect large amounts of Israeli state funds while not defending the country.

The four of us continued on to a conversation about the state, the place of religion, gender equality and some other issues.  It became quite an active discussion and attracted the participation of a few other passengers in front and in back of our row.

The Chabad guys returned.  This time, one of the guys was a bit more forceful, pushing me to agree to put on tefillin.  So I finally said to him - "I'll tell you what - if you will agree to put the tefillin on the woman two seats away from me (she was fine with this), then I'll agree to put them on..."  He mumbled something about women and walked away...

This brought out the heavy artillery.  The senior rabbi of the delegation overheard the discussion and came wandering over, with an entourage in tow.  The entourage included his wife and two other young Chabad emissaries.  The senior rabbi was apparently the head of a large Borough Park Yeshiva in New York and someone who works closely with renowned Rabbi Firer.

At first, he said, I was "correct" to say that women are able to put on tefillin and that he would have accepted my challenge if he had been the one speaking to me.  He noted the example of Rashi's daughter.  However, he then began to speak about "Masoret" (tradition) and "Tzniut" (modesty).  He explained that women are exempted from many of these Mitzvot and that was simply the tradition. He noted that his own daughter is a physician - so he is not against educating women or limiting them  - however Jewish tradition is something different.

So we began discussing the issue of gender equality and Judaism more seriously.  All three of the other passengers near me were also involved in the conversation as well as some others.  It became quite animated.  The Rabbi's wife made her way across the aisle to run interference with the only other woman involved in the conversation (i.e. to take her away from participating directly with the Rabbi).

So I asked the senior Rabbi to explain, where in the Torah it is written that women cannot read Torah or that a man cannot hear a woman's voice singing in public.  He said "well that has always been part of our tradition, for thousands of years."  I said "can you point to anything that says that?"  He said - "well, the Rambam codified it."  I asked him when that was....(sometime in the 12th century, CE).  He argued that the Rambam was only codifying something that had been around for thousands of years.

So I said to him - "well - you just said it was part of our tradition for thousands of years.  But doesn't it say, in the Torah, that Miriam took a tambourine and began to sing when the Israelites were crossing the Reed Sea?"  He said - "well she took all the women and went to an area that was women only and then started to sing."  I said "where does it say that?"  He said "that is how it has always been interpreted..."  He said that everyone knows that when it says "b'nai Yisrael" ("children of Israel") in the Torah, it is referring to males only...I challenged him on that.

This discussion became even more heated - with more passengers joining in - including a discussion about the latest controversy over access to the Kotel and the Israeli government's recent decision to give in to the Ultra-Orthodox and roll back access to the Kotel for pluralistic prayer and for the Women of the Wall.

At some point, this Rabbi decided to call it a day and returned to his area, with his entourage.  Neither side claimed victory and no one was convinced of the other's position.

But with only two hours remaining in the flight - the former army officer sitting to the right of me decided to agree to put on tefillin and to take a bunch of selfies with the Chabad emissaries.  So despite all that he had said, he was either eventually convinced - or became tired of resisting.  I found it quite surprising especially after all he had said about Chabad, the Ultra-Orthodox and religious coercion generally.  The guy to the left of me opened up and explained how he was very active in a Chabad shul in Ottawa and that most of his family members in Israel were involved in Chabad.  So he was quite supportive of everything Chabad was doing, even though he didn't tell us during our initial discussions.

Speaking with these two "secular" Israelis on either side of me, I thought to myself, that is exactly what happens in Israel when it comes to issues of state and religion.  The secular majority becomes weary or disinterested and simply gives in on many issues including those relating to funding of Yeshiva students, mandatory military service or access to the Kotel for non-Orthodox groups.  The Ultra-Orthodox keep pushing and they eventually get their way on so many of these issues.

With all of these conversations, the flight went by fairly quickly.  I did not manage to sleep very much and only watched one movie.

I had ordered an Asian vegetarian meal.  It was quite lame compared to what I usually get on Air Canada or Lufthansa - just a bunch of noodles with some onion and mushrooms.  I also had one glass of wine, which was also nothing great.

Overall, the flight was fine.  Comparable to other airlines.  It was not as nice as flying Air Canada or Lufthansa but was probably better than flying El Al or United.  And the price was fantastic.  The layover in Montreal was a bit inconvenient but, overall, I would probably do this again.  I would try to sit in a different section of the plane - away from the mass congregation area.  Even if this meant missing out on the opportunity to debate important issues with a few rows of fellow passengers...