Update, 10/16 at 4:30pm: El Al has now added a seat availability on all of their routes departing Tel Aviv over the next week here.
Update, 10/16 at 11:45am: El Al has added several additional flights and is now publishing seat availability on all of their routes flying to Tel Aviv over the next week here.
I wrote about how to find availability on all flights from Tel Aviv here.
I also wrote about El Al’s first Shabbos flights in over 4 decades as they worked to bring reservists to the front lines.
Impressively, the airline jam-packed these flights, with reservists allowed to sit in crew seats and even on the floor of the galleys.
That’s something El Al hasn’t had to do since Operation Solomon set the record for the number of people on a plane.
https://twitter.com/haivri/status/1713511171838345490
Update, 10/15:
- A rescue flight to Nashville still has seats available, you can signup here.
- Rep. Cory Mills writes that there are 219 available seats to fly from Israel to the US, free of charge. You can signup here.
- A charter flight organized by Ron DeSantis has landed in Florida.
- Beware that there are charter scams with no recourse for funds paid for a flight, so think twice before paying cash for a charter flight.
- Delta is operating a 2nd daily Athens-JFK flights for the next 2 weeks to help people travel to and from Israel. Changes for Israel tickets can be made free of charge. You can fly on Arkia, El Al, Israir, Ryanair, Bluebird, or on US rescue flights between Tel Aviv and Athens.
While most of the Athens flights are quite expensive with cash or points, you can also book the Delta flight from Athens to JFK for 30,000 Virgin Atlantic points+$210 for travel on Monday, Tuesday or Wednesday on VirginAtlantic.com. You can get a 30% bonus for transfers from Chase to Virgin or transfer at a 1:1 ratio from AMEX, Capital One, or Citi. Use the “full airport list” trick to search for award flights on the Virgin site.
Update, 10/12 at 5:40pm: The US rescue operation begins tomorrow morning with flights to Athens. The US sent an email at 12:30am local time to be at Ben Gurion by 8:15am to make this flight. If you will be in Athens for Shabbos, be sure to contact Chabad for meal arrangements. You will have to pay back the US at a “full fare economy rate” which will be determined at a later date. United is operating several additional flights from Athens to Newark as described below, which you can change to for free if you had tickets on United from Israel.
In other news, Governer DeSantis says he is arranging for charter flights from Israel to Florida for US residents.
Today I signed an executive order authorizing rescue operations in Israel to bring Floridians home and transport supplies to our allies.
We will not leave our residents behind.
To the many Floridians who are stuck in Israel, trying to get home — help is on the way.
— Ron DeSantis (@GovRonDeSantis) October 12, 2023
Apparently, they will be free of charge, though no details have been released about these flights. You can signup for more details about these flights here. Impressively, the Florida form asks if you are able to travel on the Sabbath or not.
https://twitter.com/MarinaMedvin/status/1712558689775976495
Update, 10/12 at 12:40pm: United has added even more additional flights to Athens to help people get to and from Israel, as follows:
- United has been allowing free flight changes to Amman, Athens, and Dubai and will be adding additional Newark-Athens and Athens-Newark flights. Passengers will still have to get between Tel Aviv and Athens on their own.
- United will fly from Newark to Athens at 9:45pm on October 12th in addition to the normally scheduled 5:50pm departure.
- United will fly from Athens to Newark at 6pm Friday, October 13th in addition to the normally scheduled (and sold out) 12:25pm departure.
- United will fly from Newark to Athens at 10:45pm Saturday, October 14th in addition to the normally scheduled 5:50pm departure.
- United will fly from Athens to Newark at 6pm Sunday, October 15th in addition to the normally scheduled (and sold out) 12:25pm departure.
- United will fly from Newark to Athens at 10:15pm Monday, October 16th in addition to the normally scheduled 5:50pm departure.
- United will fly from Athens to Newark at 5pm Tuesday, October 17th in addition to the normally scheduled (and sold out) 12:25pm departure.
- United also flies nonstop between Athens and Washington DC.
Update, 10/12 at 12pm: DDF members who requested US state department assistance to depart Israel report that rescue flights and ships will begin to operate tomorrow, 10/13.
- There will be rescue flights from Tel Aviv to Athens or Frankfurt.
- There will also be rescue boat operations from Haifa to Cyprus.
- The state department will assign your destination, you won’t be able to select which option to take.
- You will have to be ready to depart within 8-12 hours of notification.
- Travelers will be allowed 1 carry-on up to 22 pounds and a suitcase up to 35 pounds.
- No pets are allowed.
- You will have to sign an agreement to pay the US for the cost of the rescue flight or boat.
- You will have to arrange your own way back to the US. US Embassy officials will be available to help upon arrival.
There’s no word on whether there will be religious accommodations for Shabbos…
Update, 10/11:
- DDF members who requested US state department assistance to depart Israel report that flights will be offered if requested and you reply to the state department, but they will only be from Israel to a 3rd party country. You’ll have to pay the state department for the rescue flight out of Israel and you’ll still have to book onward travel to the US.
- A Canadian rescue flight will take passengers from Tel Aviv to Athens.
- It’s unlikely that US carriers will fly to Israel anytime soon. United’s flights are suspended indefinitely, Delta’s Atlanta and Boston flights are suspended indefinitely while their JFK flights are suspended until the end of October, and American’s JFK flight is suspended through December 4th. Additional updated suspensions can be found below.
Originally posted on 10/10:
All Amazon commission earned on Prime Big Deals Days will be donated to the charities supporting Israel listed here.
With many people trying to fly in and out of Israel, I figured I’d try to round up which flights have been operating this week.
I wrote about my strategy to find flights with available seats on Sunday night, and dozens of readers have reached reporting that that strategy worked for them to get on flights. I helped lots of friends and family who were visiting Israel get back home with those methods as well. Other readers have reached out saying they saw posts from people who weren’t using tickets on El Al and I’ve worked with the airline to help move their tickets over to people who will use them.
On the other hand, DDF members are reporting about flights on airlines like Turkish that are sold out, but have gone out nearly empty due to last minute cancellations and people holding seats they didn’t cancel.
Unsurprisingly, Turkish just announced that they are halting all flights to Israel.
Tel Aviv to Istanbul on Turkish Airlines yesterday (Photo credit DDF member @DYMD):
Demand is likely to further plummet, which will cause most carriers to pause their flights to Israel.
Delta has confirmed that they have canceled all their October flights to Israel and American and United have suspended flying for the time being as well.
Clearly, the most reliable flights have been from the Israeli carriers Arkia, El Al, and Israir. The Knesset is planning on providing insurance funding for those airlines to keep flying. But here are most of the flights that have flown this week:
Arkia: Amsterdam, Athens, Dubai, Larnaca, Marrakech, Tbilisi, Thessaloniki, Tivat
El Al: Amsterdam, Athens, Bangkok, Barcelona, Bucharest, Berlin, Boston, Bucharest, Dubai, Dublin, Fort Lauderdale, Frankfurt, Istanbul/IST, JFK, Johannesburg, Larnaca, Liege, Lisbon, London/LHR, London/LTN, Los Angeles, Madrid, Marrakech, Marseille, Miami, Milan, Moscow, Munich, Newark, Nice, Paris, Phuket, Prague, Rome, Sofia, Tbilisi, Thessaloniki, Tokyo, Venice, Vienna, Zurich
Israir: Athens, Baku, Batumi, Berlin, Larnaca
Air Montenegro: Podgorica
Air Serbia: Belgrade
Air Seychelles: Seychelles
Blue Bird Airways: Athens, Heraklion, Larnaca, Rhodes
British Airways: London/LHR Service suspended
Cyprus Airways: Larnaca Service suspended
Emirates: Dubai Service suspended
Etihad: Abu Dhabi
Ethiopian: Addis Ababa
FlyDubai: Dubai
FlyOne: Chisinau
Hainan: Beijing, Shenzhen
HiSky: Bucharest
Iberia: Madrid
Pegasus: Antalya, Bodrum, Istanbul/SAW, Izmir Service suspended
Red Wings Airlines: Sochi
Smartwings: Prague, Tbilisi
Swiss: Zurich Service suspended
Tarom: Bucharest Service suspended
Turkish: Antalya, Istanbul/IST, Istanbul/SAW Service suspended
Tus: Athens, Larnaca, Paphos
Virgin Atlantic: London/LHR Service suspended
Service on Air Canada, Air France, Cathay Pacific, Finnair, Icelandair, ITA, Iberia, KLM, Korean, Lufthansa, Norwegian, Royal Jordanian, TAP, Vueling, Wizz Air, and other airlines are also suspended.
Of course it isn’t just flights from Israel, many incredible organizations are also flying to Israel with supplies:
My friends are incredible.
Just got a WhatsApp message from my friend that he just landed in Tel Aviv.
“We couldn’t just send the supplies. We have to help give it out”
Hashem, your children truly love each other. pic.twitter.com/qDBvkjGnEE
— Yaakov Langer (@jacklanger) October 10, 2023
Which flights have you taken to or from Israel this week?
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204 Comments On "[El Al Adds Flights, Publishes Seat Availability Tool, Loads Up Planes With Reservists On The Floors] Roundup Of Which Flights Have Been Operating To/From Israel This Week"
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Tk is not flying anymore
That’s what the post says.
It didn’t say when first posted. Was updated
It most certainly did, but I added it later on in the post as well as people don’t seem to read the full post.
I guess I read it to early. Still have the tab open of the original post.
So then you would see what I’ve highlighted here in this pre-publication draft?
Now we can finally see some inside glimpse of how your side of the website looks maybe one day Dan can give us a inside insight of the day to day operations
“Insiders” say the Gvmnt of Israel halted TK from flying since they announced that the Gvmnt of TK sides with/support the PA in this war.
When is Turkish halting until?
No more Turkish
If I booked a ticket with CHASE UR is there a way to get points back or only airline credit / voucher ?
Anyone had any luck ?
Also want to know this
Iberia to Madrid on Monday October 9th. Delayed but finally took off.
LX and IB aren’t flying
I have heard that the TLV airport is a complete mess. I have a 6AM flight to Venice on El Al on Thursday. Anyone who has flown these past few days, I would love to hear your thoughts on navigating the airport.
Thanks
I left Sunday. Airport is very quiet as there are fewer flights. Everything went smoothly.
Sunday was still Yom Tov for the Chutznikim. I was there last night and the lines were over three hours to check in.
All the staff are with their units.
My grandmother had a UA flight to TLV for this Thursday. UA were willing to change her flight to DXB, ATH or AMM but not to ZRH, where I found a great LY connection.
I ended up booking IZ from DXB.
Nice!
Just searched again and LY just opened up EWR-TLV
dL is not selling any flights (on their metal) to TLV indefinitely
Is there a chance you can post the best deals available from European cities round trip to Tel Aviv now with Israeli carriers. This way anyone fyling from the States can look for tickets to those European cities so we can get over there to help volunteering with the civilians.
How did you get LY to transfer tickets?! I had 2 canceling passengers and 2 others who were trying desperately to get those tickets. The TA said it’ll go back to LY with no way of securing them for me.
El Al is also flying to Japan
Airlines that are still flying, is it safe to assume that they will continue to fly to Israel next week?
Carrier insurance in a declared war zone is the unknown.
Seems like viegin only canceled half
Virgin only cancelled the morning flights.
@dan what makes you say flights going forward are suspended?
Was booked on a Virgin Atlantic Sunday (15-Otc-23) morning flight, TLV-LHR – JFK.
Flight was canceled at noon on Tues 10-Oct.
Unable to get onto other Virgin Atlantic flight, even though their website states its still flying the afternoon service. Cap One refunded the ticket automatically, an hour after the Virgin email about the flight cancellation was sent.
My children took El Al to Thessaloniki This morning. Flight was about 5 hours late which reduced their 12 hour layover to London on EZ jet. (Chabad delivered meals to them at SKG) Then after an overnight layover they will fly back to US on United from there. A long trip but there were few options left until after shabbos.
BH all is going well.
I flew from tlv to ist with Israir on Sunday. Flight was completely sold out but at least half empty.
Neos flew out today and im really hoping they fly tmrw!
Swiss isn’t flying either they canceled my flight a few days ago .
There r no charter flights it’s a lie ! Nobody got approved charter to USA . And there is nobody helping anyone out !!!!
All LH group including LX isn’t flying:
https://www.swiss.com/ch/en/customer-support/breaking-news/entry-switzerland.html
I have used a method in the past to get onto a flight with empty seats. You need to book a flight with the airline you are trying to fly with for a one way flight to the destination you are looking to fly to for more than 7 days from today. Then you can go to the airport and ask to be added to the stand-by list for todays flight. They will not charge you any more if you have a flight in the near future with their airline. If they don’t let you on/ don’t have space, you can always cancel within 24 hours of the booking with no extra fees being that the flight is more than 7 days away. I have used this method successfully for my family of 4 during Corona when there was only two flights out of Israel on ElAl that day.
Sounds like a very helpful technique. Thank you for sharing.
I think I saw some Wizz air flights too.
Got 12 seats today with one stop
Nice, which airline/route?
LY to IST and TK to EWR
My company got me on an arkia charter to Athens tomorrow morning. Then I’m flying KLM to Amsterdam, then KLM to Heathrow, then Virgin to JFK. Anyone know about food availability in any of those airports?
https://forums.dansdeals.com/index.php?topic=47400.0
https://forums.dansdeals.com/index.php?topic=10590.0
The arkia charter didn’t materialize so I had to cancel the rest of the itinerary. But thank you, Dan, for the quick response, as I didn’t have the bandwidth (mental or speed of loading on my phone) to look on the forums myself.
My company is still trying to find a charter, but I’ve got a smart wings booked for next week to Prague, then AerLingus to Dublin and AerLingus again to JFK. Unfortunately neither Prague nor Dublin are on either of these lists, but I was able to request a KSML for the Dublin to JFK leg. And hopefully these lists are useful to someone else.
I’m trying to get my son to Israel. I see there are flights on Royal Air Morocco and Emirates through Dubai still listed. How can I know if they’re actually still running? Is there a reason to question the safety of flying through Dubai or Morocco?
Emirates through Dubai is an excellent option and is running.
I believe RAM has canceled their flights so far.
I book a Morocco flight for next week and it was cancelled within minutes.
Any recommendations how to get on an ELAL flight TO TLV from NYC for my family of 6 this week? (was originally booked on United and they are not willing to rebook me on ELAL)
going to TLV with a stop would risk getting stuck in connecting city.
Any help is greatly appreciated.
Trying to get a bochur to Israel, booked on United but they don’t seem to be going soon.
If I get a one way on elal through Chase, can that be cancelled if need be for a voucher for him? For anyone?
Am booked on ElAl flight tomorrow from EWR bought one tkt thru Chase with points and one tkt with cash. Trying to cancel the tkts but ElAl wants $270 per tkt to cancel . Any suggestions how to get them to waive the fee? Have been working thru Chase
We booked a flight on sun express 207 it seems Turkish, does anyone know if it will/has been flying?
Does elal allow to cancel a ticket booked today? I found a better route and want to rebook?
Delta cancelled my son and granddaughter’s flight. They tried to reschedule them for Friday or Sat this week. Besides not being able because of shabbos we knew it would only be cancelled again. Can we get a refund from Delta?
Yes, you can request a full refund.
Delta won’t be flying to Israel anytime soon.
Been trying to find tickets for days with no luck. Every time I found something I would either get an error or it would be gone by the time I input the payment information. I sent the family I was trying to help to the airport and after a relatively short amount of time they were put onto the next available flight by Israir Airlines to Rhodes without almost any issue.
So my advice – go to the airport. It was also not as crazy as it has been the last few days.
Headlines: US State Department is in talks with airlines to encourage travel to Israel
does anyone have any ideas for a family of 9 to get back from Israel to CLE or DTW or Chicago the sooner the better? They were originally booked on Delta for yesterday- Monday, rebooked on a Turkish air for tomorrow but obviously that got canceled.
They are pretty desperate, stuck with a bunch of little kids, if anyone has any ideas…
We are not “flight/travel-savvy” so if you do have a technique can you spell out the steps clearly?
thank you for all your help!
mi keamcha yisrael!
Umacha Hashem dimaa mei al kol panim.
besuros tovos!
Fly to Dubai and from the fly to Chicago. Good luck!
Dan, Can you provide further reporting on how El Al has managed to continue operations this week in the immediate aftermath of the terrorist attacks while other airlines have abruptly cancelled all flights?
If the issue is merely a drop in demand, I would have expected a more tapered and measured cessation of operations.
el al planes have anti-missile defenses called sky shield מגן רקיע
Last I heard, El Al’s 787s do not have skyshield.
I’d assume other airlines had trouble finding crew willing to fly to TLV or insuring their planes for flying to TLV.
The issue are with risk management, and finding flight crews willing to fly in to a war zone.
With the current range of the hamas rockets its not inconsivable for a plane to be hit on take off or landing.
Isreal has a national interest to keep the planes flying…so the provide the airlines with economic guarentees ….
Though how elal has any pilots, if everyone is at war I have no idea.
My delta flight was canceled and rebooked on Air France through CDG. for Wednesday the 18th Any chance it will actually take off?
Dan, we just flew out of tlv on Turkish. Our flight was for Thursday but we showed up today, even though their website said all flights were fully booked as well as their call center. At the check in counter the woman told us there were still a few seats left. We took off with well over 50 empty seats. Something seems off.
my sons goign to his friends wedding in USA, was meant to go tom (wed) on polish now is going Monday with them, wedding Tuesday. think it will cancel too?
I have a flight to Israel via IST on Turkish airlines this Saturday night but now Turkish canceled. I can switch the last leg to Pesgasus but have no way of knowing if Pegasus will cancel next 🙁
Pegasus being a subsidiary of Turkish, it likely will be canceled.
Pegasus has been operating most flights. I wouldn’t assume that yet.
I rebooked on to an elal flight instead
Booked Elal to Athens Wednesday evening
But can’t find flight to us yet
should i book through israir? i see on ben gurion site that a bunch of their flights canceled.
Your safest bet is to get on an ElAl flight to ANYWHERE and then find needed additional connections.
i know just wasnt succesful in finding el al to anywhere for next while. but if isair is anyways israeli whys it not good? i saw somewhere that knesset funding it
My husband and 3 kids are booked to fly home to Montreal with LOT on Monday. Should I safely assume it’s going to cancelled and pray sends their planes soon?
@Dan – i may have 5 seats on Elal flight to transfer to somebody else. I need some help with this
Try calling El Al for help?
Sorry i didnt see you responded. I waited for 2 hours and the rep said they cant help since it was booked through amex
It is 5 or 6 seats from TLV-MIA on motzei shabbos
I know of a family that fan use it !! Is there any way to contact you ?
Flew yesterday from TLV 1pm on Tus Airlines to Athens, Greece. Today from Athens to Tirana,Albania to Munich,Germany to Washington D.C.
Anyone heading to Chabad of Athens make sure you book online a reservation for the restaurant well before you go. They’re overwhelmed with the hundreds of yidden that flew there. Regular waiting times can take up to 4 hours
We were supposed to fly out on United tonight but they are not flying. They did however rebook us on Lufthansa due to leave Monday morning. Am still hunting some of Uniteds other partners to see if I can move it back on more day – Sunday
I doubt Lufthansa will resume service that soon.
We flew out on Monday LY TLV-BER 6:20 AM flight, Norse BER-JFK
Few other familles did the same.
Now the TLV-BER doesnt have availability for a week at least.
3 hours check in line at TLV
Hi Dan
I have an El Al flight this Thursday morning to JFK. The flights 7 are leaving. I travel business because of a health concern. Is the business check in running as usual
Anyone can help on finding flights from Cyprus to PHX 2 young Shabbat keepers that are trying to go back home from Israel ?
Do step by step.
Get to a frum kehlla for shabbos…
lalechet tours is chartering a flight Direct Charter Flight JFK_TLV OCT 12
all sold out!
@Dan “Other readers have reached out saying they saw posts from people who weren’t using tickets on El Al and I’ve worked with the airline to help move their tickets over to people who will use them.”
I have a bunch if tickets on elal to miami on motzei shabbos that i would be happy to move over to someone who can use them.
How can someone reach out to you?
How can I pay I would take the tickets right now can give you info. I need 5 tickets please get back to me asap
2482056885
We can use two tickets, 773-520-0501. Thank you!
We can use two tickets, contact 773-520-0501. Thank you!
Hi, Do you still have 1 ticket available on El Al from Israel to Miami on Motzei Shabbos please?
If you have 1 ticket on El Al direct from Israel to Miami on Motzei Shabbos I’d appreciate it please! Please call or text me at 862-200-7899. Thank you!
Dan – on this topic…… Why isn’t the US State Department offering repatriation flights for US citizens? Other countries have or are doing this on military transports. This specific topic is being discussed elsewhere, e.g.
https://x.com/mcccanm/status/1711916985196659063?s=61&t=_GZeoiyvKPNtUjMPyoUQLw
On what basis are they not flying to Israel, while other airlines do?
flew TLV to Athens and Athens to Newark with emirates. Beware many tourists in Athens are having luggage robbed. never leave luggage unattended even for 1 moment.
Thank you, Dan.
Just curious…
Isn’t the additional 6pm United flight from Athens to Newark on Friday, Oct 13, a little close to Shabbos? With sunset being at 6:50pm, it looks like there is no room for any delay at all.
sunset is at 6:19 october 13
Sunset in NYC is 6:19pm. Sunset in Athens, Greece is 6:50pm. I was thinking about delays causing takeoff to be on Shabbos, but you are right, the flight would be scheduled to land in Newark on Shabbos — even after taking the benefit of timezone changes into consideration.
I have 1 ticket TLV-LAX for October 31st that I will not be using (and will have trouble using the credit on El Al while it is valid). If you think a name change is possible, please reach out to me and we can work with El Al so you can use it instead of me. The ticket was only $449 (El Al recent special), one way.
Still doesn’t show the 6 pm flight ATH-EWR on Tuesday 17th, is it already added and sold out or it’s going to be added.
The added flights are through Sunday.
@Dan is there added rescue flight at 9:45 p.m. from Athens-Newark?
No, the added flights are in this post.
After a delay I Landed 9:30pm in Athens, was to late for my Lufthansa ATH-CDG flight, (was refunded because it was within 24 hours of booking) and had no other way to make my CDG-NYC flight 1:30pm on the 12th, in the end United gave me a ATH-ZRH ZRH-EWR flight for Friday 7:05am, hopefully I’ll arrive as scheduled for Friday 1:15pm.
Pegasus is not flying anymore
Heard from someone who got booked on this flight Lufthansa is flying three flights from Tel Aviv Onbehalf of the German government to bring German citizens bank and United customers could get on these flights. they should call united and speak to a supervisor
KLM canceled the return portion of our TLV-LAX-TLV trip. They said we can either submit for a refund (no additional details on what the refund would be) or wait until they are able to reschedule. Does anyone know if they will refund the entire price of the round trip ticket? Half? Other amount?
It would be some portion of the ticket, based on the fare classes.
I booked El Al through Chase ultimate rewards and am having trouble getting a refund or even a credit. Chase said they would contact El Al and call me back and failed to do. That was already my second attempt contacting them with no success. Any tips?
Dan will there be additional “rescue” united Athens to Washington after the 18th?
honest question: why can’t charters fly into/out of Ramon airport? is the ferry to cyprus a viable option?
I have a TLV-EWR ticket on El-Al for Mon 10/16 (LY1) that I probably will not be using. Who can I reach out to about transferring that to someone else?
So let me get this straight, the Biden admin provides the Palestinians with almost a billion dollars, but can’t find some money to assist American citizens in times of serious crisis!
I have reservations on Delta in December, and I just got an email today saying that I could change my reservation until September 2024 or get a refund. But they did not flat out say that my flights have been canceled.
I’m trying to get my seminary daughter home for a wedding. I booked her return flight with AA (TLV-JFK) on October 18th. I’m trying to change it to LHR-JFK or FCO-JFK and AA wants me to pay an up-charge. Is there a way to avoid that charge? I’m already paying for the ELAL flight to those cities.
Ezras Yakov packages food to families all year long, espec. war time.Yesterday we packed 750 packs of groceries. Money is needed. Please Zelle ezrasyakov@gmail.com or email ezrasyakov for other options and volunteering opport.
Anyone know how TLV airport?
How many hours before ( a hopeful) flight should I show up?
Does anyone have updated information on wait times at Ben Gurion? We’re flying with two kids on El-Al on Friday at 640AM to Vienna. Trying to gauge how early to get to the airport to make sure we can get our bags checked.
Had a 01:00 AM flight early this AM. Waited a total of 4 hours in line
Was your flight delayed as well?
Emirates Cancels all TLV flights.
Remove Emirates: Dubai from list. they canceled
so if we have a united flight from tlv to ewr on oct 31 should we assume its cancelled? we have a grandchild wedding that we would like to come to should we book a back up flight? is anyone flying then ? ELAL?
THNX
I would assume it will be canceled.
El Al is the best option by far.
We flew out on Tuesday on Neos airline to Portugal, flight was half empty. Not sure if they are continuing to fly.
Any idea how much the government is charging for the ship or flight? They want us to sign a promissory note with an agreement to repay without stating what the charge is going to be.
I don’t, but usually it’s fairly reasonable.
@Dan, can you please post the details for Canadians?
Also, anyone have ideas of a Frum community in Athens in case people get there too close to.Shabbos to get home?
Thanks for all you do!!
I’m sorry, but no Jew ever needs to be “rescued” from Israel nor should they feel “stuck” here or “lucky that they ‘got out ‘ “. There needs to be a paradigm shift among some of our bretheren, even if there is a war going on.
There are still many Americans stuck from the chag.
My issue is with use of the word ‘stuck’ in israel, not that people have responsibilities they need to get to in America or anywhere else in the world. It’s a galus mentality that needs a reboot if you really believe in Moshiach and thst Israel is where the Jewish people are meant to live. If you don’t believe that, the discussion ends there.
American families that visited for the chag are still stuck.
I know a Rabbi that believed in Moshiach more than anyone that stayed with his kehilla in NYC…so no. The discussion doesn’t get to end there.
People are “stuck” or “got out” because they have a life out of Israel too! People do have jobs, school, commitments, simchas, responsiblities to elderly parents etc., etc., etc., which they can not get to right now. Hence the terms used “stuck” etc.
It puzzles me that people are quick to assume that everyone can stay in Israel indefinately, (I am sure they surely would love too!!!). War does not scare people, we need siyata dishmaya all over the world, every minute of our lives!
Hope you now undsertand your brethren trying to get “back” to their present ” temporary” home.
May we be zoche to hear the shofar of mashiach NOW!
When Yidden are truly stuck in galus, they will wish they could get back to Israel at any cost. Just think back a couple short years to the Covid epidemic.
Uh. If we learned anything this week it’s that Israel is also very much in golus.
honest question: why can’t charters fly into/out of Ramon airport? is the ferry to cyprus a viable option?
TIA
Insurance companies don’t differentiate between Ramon and Natbag. Same war zone country now.
TY! that makes sense
Thanks for the info. If I am trying to get back to Israel from Chicago and currently have a ticket on united – is the only option to fly to Athens etc and get a flight from there? I heard rumors that united will put you in El al… Any truth to that? Any other options? Thanks in advance
You can ask for them to put you on El Al, but that’s a long shot.
Athens is the best option for United.
You can also get a refund from United and buy a ticket on El Al.
Thanks!
I heard from many that called united ad asked them to rebbok you on elal which is a codeshare airline with united and they changed it for them so I recommend to give it a try
Does LH also allow changes to ATH? or only UA?
Call and ask?
Do the cancelled flights from Israel qualify for the usual compensation under Israel law?
Why would a religious accommodations for Shabbos be needed? These are rescue flights, so if you need a rescue flight, it should qualify for the Shabbos exception for emergencies.
If you want to get on a rescue flight, but don’t think this qualifies as an emergency, then you probably don’t need the rescue flight.
There are rescues that are life or death and there are rescues because you need to get home and there are no available commercial flights.
United “Newark to Athens at 9:45pm Saturday, October 14th” pushed to 10:45pm
Hi Dan!
First thanks so much for being always a mezakeh as harabim, as flying from Israel to NY the ita matrix came in good use while searching for flights.
Would like to share in a few words my way from Israel to NY, was in Bnei brak for Simchas torah, woke up 6:30 from a massive boom, did not know how serious it was until the afternoon, as I keep only one day of Yom tov, right away went home to Yerushalayim on Motzei shabbos, of course had to stop the car in middle of the way and run to a shelter because of a siren, anyways was busy the entire sunday and monday packing and searching for flights out of Israel, finally got a ticket with Arkia airlines to Athens, left to the airport at monday evening, the airport itself
was not so full just by check in people were literally fighting with staff to get standby tickets etc., arrived to Greece spent literally 8-9 hours figuring out how to get to NY, finally found a ticket thorough Expedia for the next day from Athens to London Gatwick airport, slept overnight in a Airstay hotel overthere, continued to london we had a yiddishe driver pick us up from gatwick to heathrow and from there we flew to NY.
One thing I would like to point out for those in Europe searching for flights to NY, is to search on Expedia, many times the airlines website shows full or extremely expensive, but on expedia still selling for normal prices!
Also can please continue to have posts for items like supplies needed to send overseas that are on sale
(Have been sending items not on sale as well)
Tried to order some items on sale
Ty for all you do!
Y’k!
Not sure what these Gov flights will help, I needed to book a flight and found easily EL AL to Zurich, if they only take you to Europe, aren’t there many flight available
@Dan, If I recall correctly, you had (previously) suggested that one should not cancel a flight if there is a reasonable possibility that the airlines might cancel it themselves, like during covid. Would that hold now concerning ElAl flights to Israel early next week? How far in advance of such a flight should one cancel? And, if paid for with (Chase) points, how does one get the points back? TIA.
Just outrageous, if there are 20,000 Americans stranded and it would cost $1,000 per person that would be a total of 20 million dollars, that is not even a fraction of the US budget. The US spends trillions of dollars a year and they can’t find 20 million dollars to help rescue citizens of the country?!?!
2 days ago people were complaining that Dan was helping people leave. Now people are complaining that Americans who leave have to pay for the ticket and should come out of the US budget. That’s after two weeks ago the Neo-nazi’s tried to shut down the government over the budget. Stop being mad at people who are trying to help.
Why should all US citizens fund your ticket?
I have 2 children in schools in eretz yisroel who are not planning on leaving, however I am getting updates from the consulate. If I want them to leave, I have to sign a promissory note for the flight out, provide lodging and travel back to USA. My issue is this: If they can give millions of dollars for illegal migrants (paid for with my money) and forgive student loan debt (with my money) and send billions to the Palestinians over the years (with my money) and send billions to Ukraine (again, your tax dollars at work) then yes, they can fly American citizens (who were NOT warned not to go there) back home for free.
Is royal jordanian still flying out of Tel Aviv to Amman?
No.
Any guidance if one can get reimbursed for flights home from Israel if your carrier cancelled? My tickets were booked on Chase ink Businesses and I was told that would provide coverage
If the flight didn’t operate the airline must provide a cash refund.
Does the cc travel insurance cover the cost to get home -in my case 2700x 5 for the way home with emirates
I wouldn’t count on that, especially in war times.
Even if we booked with points?
Sure, you should get the points back.
United: United let me change my flight to any city in Europe for free, not just to the 3 airports listed above.
Had to get through to a supervisor though to get it done.
Consider yourself lucky. I had been on phone and chat with a number of United reps, including 2 supervisors, over the past week, and not one would change my son’s ticket to originate from Bucharest instead of TLV. They all told me that their guidelines only allowed changes to the 3 airports
Im very confused why this is such a to do….El Al / Arkia are are operating daily flights to Paris, Madrid, Athens, Frankfurt, etc…
If people want out why have they not booked a ticket on one of those flights and be done with it. The “rescue plane” is only getting you to that destination anyway
Seats are available on the regular commercial flights within a couple days
https://baltimorejewishlife.com/news/news-detail.php?SECTION_ID=1&ARTICLE_ID=167250
Some useful info from the office of Senator Christopher Murphy (CT)
This afternoon the White House announced that the U.S. government will begin providing charter flights for American citizens and their immediate family members who seek to leave Israel. At this time, flights are expected to begin departing Friday, October 13th, and will travel to either Frankfurt, Germany or Athens, Greece. Individuals evacuating on either flight will be responsible for their onward travel to the United States. If you or your friends and family are interested in taking one of these flights, you can register to receive more information from the U.S. Department of State at this link.
Additionally, limited commercial flights are still available. You may check the status of flights here.
As a reminder, the State Department has offered a number of resources for those in Israel, the West Bank, and Gaza seeking more information. We encourage you to review and share with others who may need it.
The State Department has a 24/7 coordinating group communicating with U.S. citizens and providing them assistance through phone calls and an online form. U.S. citizens seeking to be in touch with the U.S. Embassy in Israel can fill out this online form or call 1-833-890-9595 or 1-606-641-0131.
For the latest updates from the Department of State, please monitor the messages to U.S. citizens from the U.S. Embassy in Israel here.
The State Department has asked that any U.S. citizens in Israel enroll their contact information in the Smart Traveler Enrollment Program (STEP). You can complete enrollment online here. Enrolling in STEP allows you receive important information about safety conditions and assists the Embassy, family, and friends in contacting you during an emergency.
The State Department is continuously updating its international travel advisory for Israel, the West Bank, and Gaza. Those updates can be found online here.
UK arranging airlifts to England for British citizens
If anyone wants to buy tickets on El Al from TLV to Miami on motzei shabbos, you can email me at dan@dansdeals.com.
How much do they cost?
FYI state department offered us a flight leaving late tonight (Shabbos). We responded back asking for a flight on Sunday and haven’t heard back. Someone else was also placed on a Shabbos flight and was told to take a regular commercial flight if they choose to not fly on Shabbos. Really disappointed that they are saying that they are “helping” while also not accommodating religious practices at all.
Flew out Wednesday afternoon on BlueBird to Athens. Stayed at hotel for about 7 hrs. Flew Agean to Edinburgh, then United Edinburg to Newark. Total time 33 hrs.
Isn’t it said that we must break Shabbat to preserve life? So, if you feel as if you’re not preserving life, then why are you taking a rescue flight?
@Dan any details about the first US evacuation flight to ATH like what kind of plane and which airline flew…?
I think it was this?
https://www.flightaware.com/live/flight/OAE342/history/20231013/1327Z/LLBG/LGAV
@dan Anyupdate on flights via Virgin Atlantic after the 72 hr mark?
United no longer allowing free flight changes to DXB only AMM and ATH
anyone in ben gurion right now? How long is the wait in the security lines?
Thank you for all your efforts on everyone’s behalf. B”H my mother got on LY9 on Oct 11, TLV to JFK. She still has a reservation TLV to EWR, business class Oct 18. No one answers at El AL. How do we cancel, etc?
how busy was the airport?
how long before my flight should i show up?
Ws it luck this morning or it is just much quieter already? It took all of 1.5 hours to get passed security and check-in.
+972039771111 that’s elal number you can text them at whatsapp and they will take a few hours to respond
Thanks, have been doing so. Just got an AI response, and no help. Then they complained that they haven’t heard from me recently, so I resubmitted.
Any update if there will be some compensation for the ones that had to pay hefty prices to get out safely from israel. (Young kids or elderly) for the people who complain why does the US tax dollar have to pay for this. I think as a US citizen we have the right to expect our government to take out its citizens right away. No one knew/knows what the next minute could’ve bought. The kids were petrified to say the least. Why is ok that our tax dollars are being used for illegal immigrants storming into our country and having them charted on flights and sent to states they prefer plus providing them with spending money.
I wouldn’t hold my breath, but you can always write to your representative.
Tarom don’t fly anymore they suspended their flight from Bucharest
Yes my family was on the last flight out with Tarom
https://www.romania-insider.com/tarom-suspends-tel-aviv-flights-october-2023?amp
Hi Dans,
How can I get someone’s ElAl ticket that they are not using ? Can I change the name ???
Can you please make a post about the options for getting from the US to EY? For those who aren’t soldiers or doctors. People that live there are stranded here and some bachurim learning there were advised to go back.
I’m seeing plenty of El Al space.
EL AL seat availability tool only showing me flights TO TLV. Will they be publishing same for outbound from TLV?
I asked about that, but in the meantime this works for flights from TLV:
https://www.dansdeals.com/points-travel/israel/quick-thoughts-shocking-simchat-torah-war-israel-strategy-helping-family-find-flights-tel-aviv/
They have both now:
From TLV: https://www.elal.com/AvailabilityOnFlightsWeb?lang=en&direction=1
To TLV: https://www.elal.com/AvailabilityOnFlightsWeb?lang=en&direction=2
Last week, I was able to book a seat for my son on El Al’s Sunday morning Oct 15 flight from TLV to Bucharest (using Dan’s ITA Metrix method — thanks Dan!). My son said the flight was only 3/4 full. What a pity! El Al needs a tool with real time availability of flights *from* TLV.
If anyone needs help getting out of Israel can Text/Whatsapp me I can get you on the free flights to Florida +1267-225-1491
You don’t have to be Florida resident to be on the free flights to Tampa
Who would have that that Nashville would get a nonstop TLV flight before Cleveland. Unfortunately, it’s due to these trying circumstances