I wrote last week about El Al offering vouchers worth 125% of the price paid for a flight. At the time, you had to email El Al to make a request, but El Al now has a form in English and in Hebrew to make your selection. Currently they are only accepting requests for vouchers on flights cancelled through April 30th, but that will be expanded.
El Al’s offer is surprisingly generous.
You can select between:
- A full refund and 30 Matmid points. You can even request that the points be given to someone else. If you want to donate your 30 bonus points to Miles For Life, their Matmid number is 110348109 and the last name is Mendlovic.
- A voucher worth 125% of the price paid. The voucher is valid for bookings through 12/31/21 for travel through 11/30/22. You can request a cash refund of the voucher in January 2022 after it expires, though you’ll only get a refund for the actual amount paid and not the bonus value. You can get a whole refund or a partial refund if you used some of the voucher, though it’s unclear how exactly a partial refund will be calculated. You won’t get the 30 Matmid points if you request a refund after getting the voucher.
I’m surprised to see El Al offering a point incentive for taking a cash refund, but they can certainly use the goodwill after holding onto funds for this long.
I’m also surprised that El Al didn’t lobby to change the law so that if people accepted the 125% voucher, they wouldn’t be able to choose a refund later on. I think it would have been fair if El Al offered a 125% non-expiring voucher that didn’t have a refund option, in addition to offering an upfront cash refund option.
I also would have liked to see an option to convert the ticket into a more flexible ticket that could be used on the same route without paying a fare difference, perhaps with some limited blackout dates. That could have been a win-win for El Al and consumers as consumers would have the peace of mind knowing they won’t have to pay more for a ticket and El Al wouldn’t have to issue as many upfront cash refunds.
At any rate, here is some of the fine print:
- The 125% voucher offer will be valid for tickets purchased through 9/21/20 for cancelled flights until 10/24/20.
- Group tickets of 10 or more are not eligible for the voucher offer.
- Partially used tickets are not eligible for the voucher offer.
- Matmid tickets are not eligible for the voucher offer or bonus point offer.
- The voucher can be used for El Al or Sun d’Or flights, upgrades, baggage fees, and seat selection fees.
- The voucher can be used for “select products” on the El Al site, otherwise you’ll need to call El Al or ask a travel agent for items not supported by the website.
- The voucher can be used by anyone and is transferrable.
- If the ticket was issued in US dollars, Euros, Canadian dollars, Australian dollars, South African rand, or British pound sterling, the voucher will be issued in that currency. If the ticket was issued in another currency, a US dollar voucher will be issued.
- You can only use 2 forms of payment for an El Al ticket, so you can use 2 vouchers, or 1 voucher and a credit card number when you want to buy a new ticket.
The actual voucher will be a 15 digit UATP virtual credit card number that is only valid for use with El Al. This is great news for travel agents, as they will earn a commission when they sell new tickets that are paid for with a voucher. Other airlines have issued bonus vouchers that don’t give travel agents any credit for new bookings.
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32 Comments On "El Al Opens Form To Choose Between A Refund Or 125% Voucher, Which Will You Choose?"
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I would take the money and run
I thought the HT was mines: https://forums.dansdeals.com/index.php?topic=119886.0
and surely that TA comment…
did someone post this before me? am I missing something?
Are the new owners calling the shots already?
Is this their offer,
Quite sure this is nothing they took part in.
How do you know that?
I have a partially used ticket and they offered me to change the flight to any day I choose free. This is the email I contacted all the others didnt respond:salesus@elal.co.il
Elal states that for right now this only applies to flights to have departed prior to April 30 2020
What about if you booked your El Al tickets via Chase points
Same Q. anyone?
You have to remove the last digit to donate,
The correct information is:
Matmid #11034810
Name: Mendlovic Mayer
Is there a Heter Iskah on the 125% option….?
Why would there be? This isn’t a question of receiving interest. Do you ask the same questions regarding Chinese lunch specials and Buy One Get One Free promotions too?
You make a point. However it’s not the same.
Over here you are lending El Al (with significant Jewish ownership) your ticket price for a 25% premium to be paid at a later date. It’s made worse by the fact that you can’t redeem it now because they are currently shut down.
What are they doing for bookings cancelled by the customer due to covid concerns? They are supposed to refund with a penalty
they are offering the voucher for these tickets as well, for the full value of the ticket plus 25%
So if I don’t do anything, I will automatically get a refund back to my cc?
Taking the 125% is a gamble until EL-Al solidifies what the future will be.
what if you have a ticket purchased with matmid points and money
what about refunds/credits to tickets that had one segment flown ?
what happens if i put in the info and it says “info does not match”or “not eligible” but all the info is correct
in the same boat
What if we’ve already requested a refund when our flight was cancelled in June? Do we have to submit a second request now?
The form is now working for flights cancelled through 7/20/2020.
Maybe you can update the post.
We had applied through ElAl form for a refund for June flights that had been cancelled. When will ElAl be issuing those refunds or do we need to submit request again?
Any idea HOW to apply for the refund. On the ELAL page the only option is “Choose Credit”.????
In your post you write:
“You can request a cash refund of the voucher in January 2022 after it expires etc.”
However, here is a copy of the text from El Al’s website:
“If the customer has selected the credit voucher, and the customer has not redeemed the credit voucher, in whole or in part, by the expiration date of the voucher31.12.2021, the amount of the voucher remaining can be converted into a refund by contacting EL AL’s Customer Service Center at least 21 days prior to the expiration of the voucher.”
It seems pretty clear that if you wait until January 2022 to request a cash refund of the voucher – the request WILL BE DENIED.
You must request the cash refund 21 days BEFORE January 2022.
Please update your post accordingly, as this can cause a loss to lots of people.
Or please show me how I misunderstood El Al’s terms.
Thank you.
You are misreading what they are saying.
Can you please explain?
Thanks for all your help.
I’m not interested in the voucher. Is a group ticket eligible for a cash REFUND via this form/process?
Still have not received refund. On November 5, 2020, received email that refund will be credited back to means of payment – that is our credit card. We had purchased tickets through El Al website in January for June flight. As of today, Dec 7, still no refund. Is there anyway to talk to person to find out status? We filed DOT complaint but don’t know if that will help.
Has anyone actually received their refund yet? I still have not received mine yet despite repeated requests and affirmations from El Al that I would receive it soon. Does anyone have any suggestions of courses of action I can take besides just nagging El Al through Whatsapp and waiting for a supposed refund? Thank you for any help! Below is my experience so far:
1. On November 14, 2019, I purchased two roundtrip tickets to Israel, departing on June 14, 2020 and returning on July 2, 2020.
2. Months later, in response to the Covid-19 crisis, El Al offered to refund my tickets in exchange for me requesting to cancel my tickets to receive a refund. On May 13, 2020, I accepted that offer from El Al by requesting to cancel the tickets on their website to receive a refund. El Al then confirmed my cancellation request and that my “refund will be made when the request is processed.”
3. On May 21, 2020, El Al sent me an automated SMS text message confirming that our flight has been “cancelled” due to the Covid-19 situation and that we will receive a “refund” when El Al returns to full operations.
4. On June 24, 2020, El Al sent me an automated email again confirming that our flight has been “cancelled” due to the Covid-19 situation and that we will receive a “refund” when El Al returns to full operations.
5. Finally, on September 21, 2020, after still not receiving any updates from El Al on receiving my refund, I formally disputed my El Al credit card charge with my bank because El Al did not provide me with the flights I purchased or my promised refund. The bank will likely deny my dispute because the dispute is more than 90 days from the purchase of the flight tickets in November 2019. That policy is absurd since most often a flight will be more than 90 days from its purchase.
6. Since October 2020, I have been periodically inquiring with El Al’s customer service through their Whatsapp application chat feature since that is the only way El Al is providing customer service. They just keep telling me they are working on processing refunds, and it is taking a long time since they are low staffed, and do not provide me with any expected refund dates or timeline. I’m not even convinced they have the money to refund at this point. El Al is essentially using our money as an interest-free loan to continue their operations until they can and choose to refund me; meanwhile, I have to carry the charge on my credit card with substantial interest. This is so wrong.
A. File a formal DOT complaint.
B. Get the 125% voucher and sell it to a travel agent.