Update: Ends Today!
El Al has a fairly terrible frequent flyer program.
Points from flights expire after 3 years, redemption rates are pretty awful, and they charge a huge fuel surcharge (At least $350 in fees for JFK-TLV) on redemptions to boot. Plus you can’t use El Al points for travel on any other airline, so you’re limited to just the award availability of 1 airline. As opposed to a program like Continental/United where you can search for avaialbility and redeem miles on over 40 partner airlines!
Adding insult to injury: They also charge $25 to join the program.
However you can signup through KosherKouponz here through Monday and you will get a code to join the program for free!
A passport number is required for signup, but I just signed up my newborn son who doesn’t yet have a passport with the help of 9 random numbers…
Why do you want to join if the program is so terrible, you ask?
Primarily because if you are a member you are able to check award availability online. You can use AA miles to book El Al flights, but that must be done by calling AA. It’s much easier though to do the research first on El Al’s site and know which flights are available before calling AA to book them. Best of all AA allows you to even book one-way awards on El Al AND they don’t charge a fuel surcharge for redeeming miles to fly on El Al! You can use AA miles to book coach or business class El Al tickets, but not first class tickets.
Another benefit is for flights that aren’t to/from North America that Matmid members get an extra 11 pounds of free checked luggage.
Need AA miles? You can always transfer 20,000 Starwood points easily earned with the Starwood Consumer AMEX or the Starwood Business AMEX for 25,000 AA miles or sign up for some of the best AA card offers ever (they don’t expire until the links stop working).
For a limited time you can also get 30,000 Starwood points on both the consumer and business Starwood cards.
Here is the AA partner award chart.
You can book a one-way between Israel and the following zones for the following amounts:
-North America : 45K coach, 67.5K business.
(North America includes Hawaii, as AA bizarrely counts Hawaii as part of North America for intercontinental awards which can make a Buenos Aires-Honolulu ticket in May be fewer miles (20K) than Los Angeles-Honolulu (22.5K)!)
-Europe: 20K coach, 30K business.
-Asia: 22.5K coach, 30K business.
-India/Middle East: 17.5K coach, 25K business.
-Africa: 30K coach, 45K business.
-South Pacific: 30K coach, 45K business.
-South America Zone 1: 60K coach, 82.5K business.
-South America Zone 2: 67.5K coach, 90K business.
Because the way the chart is set up, sometimes it is cheaper to book a flight like US-Europe-Israel during off peak periods for 40K instead of 45K from the US-Israel. You won’t be able to go nonstop from the US to Israel for 40K…but you can check out any European city for as short or long as you want, or just use it as a connection point.
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17 Comments On "HURRY! Join El Al’s Matmid Frequent Flyer Program For Free!"
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What, no HT for me, Dan?! LOL.
Thanks Dan. Now we’re even from the Vegas deal. LOL. Just kidding, it’s gonna take me quite some time to repay that favor. I only paid $16.82 (Canadian Dollars) for my wife and I, RT on JetBlue, and 2 nights at the Golden Nugget. I can’t thank you enough!
can you use British Airways points to book through AA
@kishmich:
The Vegas deal was indeed, awesome.
@a:
Nope.
why does it keep telling me invalid code
It says on kosherkouponz.com that the deal expires 10/31/2011. Does that mean if I sign up for the free membership in the program, my membership will expire on 10/31? If not, any idea how long the free membership lasts for?
@leeboy:
Worked for me.
@Yossi:
Once you signup for free you will have the account for free forever.
They must mean you need to signup by 10/31 I guess.
I signed up for KosherKouponz, “purchased” the El Al deal, then viewed my coupon. I copied and pasted the URL from the coupon and went to it. I filled in my info on the first page of the El Al Matmid registration page. The URL pre-filled the “Campaign Code” box, however, whenever I hit Continue it gives the error “Invalid Campaign Code”.
@Hans:
Just tried it again and it still works for me.
Are you registering with a US address?
Are you sure you copied/pasted the entire URL correctly? If you miss a letter it won’t work.
Argh! That was my mistake! Sorry for the trouble! I missed the last “1” on the URL. Schlemiel.
Well, I got to step 4. That’s progress for me! But now when I click Continue for Step 4, Payment, I get “General problem in the registration process. Please Try again”.
said invalid code for me too
also through amex membership rewards you can sign up for free
@Dan Do i need two matmid accounts for me and my wife or can we just share one?
Hey, why is everyone missing the main point here that you even get 30 matmid points, worth at least $15?
It’s a shame I already have a code from last time.
Dang, looks like I missed this :/
If anyone has an extra code Id love if they can PM me with it on the forums.
Shkoyach! 🙂
Is this going to be available again?