Israel Flight Change Fee Waiver Roundup

What about American Airlines?

@Jacob:
They don’t fly to TLV. Their USAirways subsidiary does.

How about Turkish Air?

Turkish Air any info

What if you bought the ticket through orbitz, expedia, cheapoair, etc? What can you do then?

What if u booked with points?

Is anyone travelling with transaero airlines on July/13 to TLV
Did you try to cancel your flight with them?

@yitz:
Not aware of a waiver.

@Lkwder:
Call the airline.

@arik:
Typically you can cancel a points reservation for free when there’s a waiver.

I have an award flight next week from JFK-TLV on Delta (booked using Flying Blue miles) and the return is on Air Canada (booked using United miles). I don’t have any elite status. Any way to cancel or reschedule without incurring huge change/cancellation fees?

Thank you for the quick response. Is there anything to do if there is also a ticket on the same reservation with different airlines-one from Montreal to Toronto, the other from LGA to YUL? i.e. is there anything that can be done to refund those parts?

With people changing their flights are their any deals now to go to Israel?

Lufthansa also has a waiver policy

I booked with Membership Rewards points for a trip last night on Delta to TLV, and then cancelled last night.

The fine print is that I can rebook for one year for the VALUE of the points (membership rewards will tell you what the total is – you do not get your points back). You can only book ONE reservation in YOUR NAME only, and it can only be for Delta flights.

In my case, the total dollar value was $2,114, so I was told I can make one reservation only (multiple stops are ok), and if the total cost is more than my credit I pay the difference, but if it’s lower – I lose the remaining money…

You also have to COMPLETE your travel by one year from the purchase date of your ticket – not a year from the original travel date.

Air France ?? im flying with my whole family this monday (atleast planning on it )

I’m finding some discrepancies with this post:
According to what I’ve seen on Delta’s website passengers are reponsible for the fare differential.

“If new travel originates July 9, 2014 through August 15, 2014, book in same class of service as originally ticketed. (class to class) If same class is not available, any difference in fare between original ticket and the new ticket must be collected.”

Additionally Delta will not waive the fee for passengers that reschedule after Aug 15.

“Change fee may be waived if customers reissue tickets on or before August 15, 2014, provided ticket is reissued within policy guidelines.Please note for tickets reissued after August 15, 2014, change fees will apply”

Elal allows for full refunds for passengers scheduled to depart from nyc to tlv from Jul 9-18

Folks, you can call your airline for their policy, I’m just staying on top of the nonstops.

@Waiver:
I’m looking at this page for Delta, not sure what you’re looking at: http://www.delta.com/content/www/en_US/traveling-with-us/advisories/israel-unrest.html

As for El Al I’m looking here that says that cancellations will incur a penalty: http://www.elal.com/ELAL/English/AboutElAl/ELAL_News_En_items/En_tzuk_eitan_080714.htm

I booked August 24 with air france 5 passengers and they denied cancellation and I will lose the money if I don’t fly what should I do in case it is still unstable to go erez Yisroel.

Does anyone know what’s the story with Transaero Airlines?
Is anyone travelling with them next week to TLV??

I had a business class stop-over flight on Alitalia that had been booked with Delta miles for tonight to Israel.

I called Delta and they changed me to a direct business class flight in two weeks for free.

Super kudos to Delta for being so flexible and allowing me to still go IY”H after things calm down without losing any money. And now I’m going direct instead of stop-over! Fantastic.

May Hashem protect all of K’lal Yisroel across the globe from any and all harm.

@Dan
I pulled the info from the TA tab on the bottom of Delta’s website, but looking at the link you posted the same rules are indicated there as well.

If your flight is canceled or significantly delayed, you are entitled to a refund. Even if your flight is not canceled, you may make a one-time change to your ticket without fee if you are scheduled to travel to, from, or through the following destination(s) on Delta, Delta Connection®, or Delta-coded flights during the specified time periods listed below.

You can now edit your itinerary here at delta.com, or you may contact Reservation Sales to make changes to your itinerary. ADDITIONAL COLLECTION IN FARES MAY APPLY. See Conditions & Restrictions below.

When rescheduled travel occurs beyond August 15, 2014, the change fee will be waived. However, a difference in fare may apply. Final travel must be completed by end of ticket validity, one year from date of original issue. If travel is not able to be rescheduled within these guidelines, customers may cancel their reservation and apply any unused value of the ticket toward the purchase of a new ticket for a period of one year from the original ticket issuance. APPLICABLE CHANGE FEE AND FARE DIFFERENCE WILL APPLY FOR NEW TRAVEL DATES. Final travel must be completed by end of ticket validity.

I heard from a few Elal reps that they are offering full refunds. We’ll have to double check on that one.

@Joe:
Very nice of them!

@Waiver:
No need to post 3 times. All comments have to be approved before they’re published.

The link I posted implies that through 08/15 no fare difference is due, only travel after 08/15 would have to pay a fare difference.
Either way my link shows change fee waived, which your language contradicted.
And otherwise what would be the difference between travel schedule before 08/15 or after?

Airfrance us the worse. They charge me $368.00 each ticket plus they only give me 30 days to fly. What should I do. ***help***

@deals?:
kol ha kavod!! Bless you

Let’s just pray that everything calms down and no one needs to change anything. I’m planning on going on the week after next and have no intention of making any changes unless the airline does.

@Dan
I will wait patiently for my message to post this time.
Fare rules and Travel exception policies do seem ambiguous at times, but I interpreted the info as follows.
*For flights departing from Jul 9-31 they are allowing passengers to reissue their tickets by Aug 15, 2014 and rebooked travel must begin no later than Aug 15. Change fee is waived but additional collection in fares (aka fare difference) may apply.
*Passengers may reschedule travel for later than the Aug 15th, but if they reissue their tickets by Aug 15th the change fee will still be waived but not the fare difference. (Seems a bit odd that they worded the policy the way they did instead of writing that passengers traveling from Jul 9-31 must reissue their tickets by Aug 15 to include travel within ticket validity in for the change fee to be waived. If you check the TA tab you’ll see they divided it as well)
*If the ticket is not reissued by the Aug 15, the change fee and fare differential will be collected.

Had a ticket booked on AC using UA miles ex-TLV, needed to make a change a few days ago (before this war began) for $100. Today had to cancel for unrelated reasons. Called UA now and they reimbursed the change fee and cancelled the ticket redeposited the miles free of charge.

You all… Stop being so scarred. I’m in yerushalaim now and everything is fine! Just stay away from the south and ull b Ok!!!
Of course we need to daven for the rest of ey, I’m just saying that u shud just take ur trip to the Holy Land and Njoy urself!
May hashem bring mashiach ASAP!!

If anyone sees cheap tickets for next week, I’m taking my family for a Support Israel Surprise Vacation.

@Eli
Yes I am flying Transearo on the 13th via Moscow. Not attempting to cancel. Not concerned about being in Israel at this time. My only concern would be that they could cancel the leg to Israel

@Eli
If they would cancel or delay that leg, we would be stranded in the airport, as a Visa is needed to exit the airport

@Yaakov: so wonderful to hear!! I am travelling to isreal for the 2nd time with my entire family of 6 & I am also NOT planning to cancel at all I spoke to relatives in bnei berak & they are saying that it would be silly to cancel at this point, everything is under the normal the only place that I should not visit at this point would be Ashdod,I spoke earlier today with transaero & they are planning to give out a statement tomorrow morning

@Yaakov: from where are you taking this info that they are planning to cancel that leg??
I can not believe that they would even start our 1st leg if we can not take the next leg

Israel today, as always, is the safest place in the world for a Jew to find himself. Where else in the world do you have a promise from G-D himself?
ארץ אשר ×”’ אלוקיך דרש אותה, תמיד ×¢×™× ×™ ×”’ אלוקיך בה מראשית השנה ועד אחרית שנה?

This isn’t just spiritual, it’s literally, the safest place on earth.

I do not have any info about a cancelation. All I was saying was that that would be the only concern I would have about traveling to Israel now.
They definitely would not cancel the first leg to Moscow, as most of the flight is not heading to Israel. It is a regular flight to their hub in Moscow. I was just notifying those concerned that one needs a visa to leave the airport

@Yaakov: with how many children are you travelling??

@Yaakov: BTW I just spoke to transaero in moskow & they told me that they have no plan cancelling anything as of now , so for the time being I am keeping my schedule for 7/13

are there any cheaper tickets deals now, due to the war?

@Yaakov: Unless you’re Eric Snowdon (or have any other intelligance for the “former” kgb) 🙂

@azulay: It doesn’t look like it? I wish there was a fuel surchage “glitch” now. I might a book a $300 ticket now to TLV.

@Dan’s the Man: would you be travelling to tlv at this time??

@Eli
If you had a brother in Jerusalem right now, would you be fearful for his life? I don’t think so. It’s not like there’s a foreign army staged at the border ready to in invade… The are just hosting dinner tuna can like projectiles which have a 1 in a billion chance to actually land on someone and injure him ch”v… I don’t think that is considered a “danger”. The only concern again would be some technical issues concerning the airport situation, which is something I’m willing to risk

I have 3 award tickets on united trough Newark nonstop for 07/29
What is united policy for change or refund policy due to the current situation?

AS YOU DIDNT ADDRESS EL-ALS POLICY REGARDING CANCELLATION
I CUT ND PASTE ROM ELALS WEBSITE
Due to the current security situation, EL AL would like to inform its customers who purchased tickets for EL AL or UP flights departing Israel no later than Friday, July 18th 2014, that it will allow these customers to cancel their ticket or reschedule their flight for a period of up to 6 months, with no extra charge of cancelation fee or additional payment (in case of changes in flight schedule, in accordance with class availability).

1. Passengers who are currently staying abroad and wish to reschedule their flight to Israel for an earlier date in light of the current security situation, will not be requested to pay any additional fee
2. Tourist currently visiting Israel, would not be asked to pay any additional fee when rescheduling their flight to an earlier date or postponing it, up to one month time
3. Passengers holding flight tickets to Israel, issued in Israel, could postpone their flight for up to 6 months with no change fees. Cancelation of the ticket will involve a cancelation fee, according to the ticket’s conditions

To be noted:
· No change fees will be charged as long as the booking made to the original class
· New booking to a higher class will include the price difference alone
· No show fees will occur according to tickets conditions

I have a return to TLV on the 23rd with Austrian Airlines, any waiver with them?

@Yaakov: haha I actually have a brother living in Jerusalem in gaula area everything is fine I will stay in bnei berak & I was told by my families there that it’s perfectly fine there no issues at all . I also spoke to transaero before & with your concern that we will be stranded in moskow sit hey told me that if they will not be able to take the next leg they will return us back to NY but we will NOT be locked in moskow like that spy…

any news with turkish??

@Yael:

Support means so much right now! Kol hakavod

You are incorrect as I wrote to you earlier this week and you decided not to publish (for whatever reason).

Air Canada does have a waiver for travel to TLV – check their web site.

Emma

Chutzpah. United’s waiver info classifies the reason as “civil unrest.” And they can’t even spell the country correctly, they posted “Isreal.” Was 9/11 also “civil unrest”?

https://www.united.com/CMS/en-US/travel/news/Pages/travelnotices.aspx

I contacted Austrian Airlines on Friday and the answer was:
For reservations through 07/18 you can change the date to fly anytime through 10/18

So I just switched my flight with Turkish and they waved the change fee but still had to pay the flight difference

El al back stepped as of today and now say they are not waiving cancellation fees at all. Shame on them. Today is July 13 and the situation is no better than 10 days ago. Last week they said they were having rolling waivers ie waive more and more dates of travel as situation continues. They changed their policy now. When everyone else is waiving. El al shame shame shame.

Austrian Airlines update:
For reservations through 07/31 you can change the date to fly anytime through 10/31

I am scheduled to fly back to israel August 6th on usair as the return of a round trip ticket.
I want to
Return earlier due to the war.
Will usair let me change my ticket and how do they determine if there’s a price difference in the tickets since I have already flown the first part of the round trip.

Elal will not let me cancel without charging me 500 per ticket. They are taking advantage of a bad situation for their own personal gain.

Very upset that airlines are not allowing cancellations on non-refundable tickets into Israel – now that they have been ordered to cease flights as of July22 its absurd that theyre conspiring to hurt customers