El Al's Cacophony of "Musical Chairs," Women Can't Be Moved!

Just under a year ago, when I rushed to New York from Israel to attend my brother's funeral, I was given a "sympathy upgrade" from Economy to First Class. But before I got my seat belt buckled a man sat down in the nearby seat and complained to the flight attendant.

Now, you should know that El Al's First Class offers a lot of privacy, and the seats are pretty much separated from each other.  But as it was explained to me, the man had bought his ticket with a promise that no woman would be next to him. So I was moved a row back to Business Class, which had the same sort of seat that fully opened to a bed but was closer to the other seats. There may have been other differences in terms of service, but for me Business Class was very luxurious, and I hadn't paid the exorbitant price. And since this was a free upgrade dependant on availability, as a special favor, I didn't complain.

My situation was totally different from the woman who sued El Al. She had paid for her Business Class seat, and the attendants should have told the man who demanded that she be moved that he would be moved. That would have made sense!

Instead, she sued them, and now men can't demand that women lose their seats.

If El Al would have made their policy to downgrade men who complained, then the men would have stopped making these demands a long time ago!

Here I am in the airport on a different trip.