Posting this in case it saves someone else some stress.
I was trying to do online check‑in with EL AL for a flight to the US. I’m a UK passport holder, resident in Israel, traveling on a valid ESTA (Visa Waiver). On the EL AL app “Passenger’s Details” screen, it only gave me two options for US documents:
- Visa
- Permanent resident card
No ESTA option anywhere, and it wouldn’t let me continue without choosing one of those and entering a number. Since ESTA is not a visa or a green card, I had no idea what to put.
The non‑intuitive solution that actually works:
Open the document type dropdown.
Select **“Permanent resident card”** (yes, even if you don’t have a US green card).
In the fields that appear, enter your **ESTA authorization number** and **expiry date**.
The system validates the real ESTA details and, once they check out, it lets you complete online check‑in.
So EL AL is basically using the “permanent resident card” section as the place to input ESTA information, but the app wording gives zero hint of that. If you’re stuck on that screen with only Visa / Permanent resident card as choices and you’re traveling on ESTA, this workaround should get you through.
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