80-year-old passenger: El Al charged extra for disabled seat

A disabled longtime El Al passenger is saying that the airline recently charged him a $50 fee for assigning him a roomier seat that accommodates his needs.

Eighty-year-old Zvi, who is confined to a wheelchair, has been flying to Germany regularly for years to visit his older sister, who lives in Frankfurt. He always requests to be seated in row 21, which has extra legroom and is more suitable for a disabled person. But last week, for the first time, the airline charged him an extra $50 each way, and tacked the same surcharge on to the tickets Zvi purchased for his wife and his aide, who were traveling with him.

As if that was not enough, after the reservation was made, Zvi and his wife discovered they had not been assigned the seats they requested and had been given places in rows where Zvi could not sit. Zvi contacted El Al, but was told the airline's regulations had recently changed and he would have to pay the surcharge.

"The cost of one return ticket is $428. Now El Al is asking for an additional $100 for a round-trip ticket, and that's ridiculous," Zvi's wife, Levia, said. "We tried to talk to them, but their response was dispiriting. They said the regulations had only recently been changed and there was nothing they could do. We had to pay, and that was that."

According to Levia: "We saw on the order summary that we'd been seated in different rows [from the one we requested]. We contacted them again and they stressed that even if they could arrange a place for us in row 21, and assuming Zvi paid the surcharge, we couldn't sit next to him without paying extra. Not even his aide. It's a procedure, pressure, uncertainty, and great anger in the face of injustice.

"I certainly understand that there are many people with problems who ask for those places, but to impose $50 on someone who is already suffering -- that's greedy and not professional. My husband needs someone to sit next to him, and we help him eat and do everything. He's a person who needs help all the time. Our flight to Frankfurt is supposed to be on July 12, and now we're praying that someone will help us."

Zvi and Levia's daughter, Shirli, said the couple had found a cheaper flight on Turkish Airways, which did not charge an extra fee for the spaces they wanted, but that "Dad insists on flying El Al only. They run attractive commercials, but when it comes to the disabled, they work differently."

El Al said in response to the reports that "a fee is not charged for disabled [passengers] whose disability requires them to extend their legs, or for anyone with a special need that requires him to be seated in a roomy seat. The passengers accompanying him pay like any other passengers. We operate in accordance with strict American guidelines, and of course individual cases are looked into, and decisions made accordingly."