US airlines continue to stay away from Israel. United CEO Scott Kirby has been quoted as saying that he has “no interest in returning to Tel Aviv only to pull out for a third time.”
That’s not illogical. Airlines have to plan their schedule months in advance, and holding planes in hopes of resuming service to Israel that can otherwise be used for new routes is costly indeed if it doesn’t pan out. As long as rockets fall on Israel, it will be tough for US airlines to make their way back.
Unions have been a major obstacle for airlines returning to Israel. Understandably, flight attendants don’t want to fly into, and overnight in a place where they may need to find a bomb shelter in the middle of the night. However, it’s not just about safety, after all, unions like the Association of Flight Attendants called for a ceasefire in Gaza just weeks after October 7th.
Sen. Ted Cruz and Rep. Ritchie Torres have accused airlines of politically boycotting Israel and point to union statements. I’m not convinced that it’s all politically motivated as there are certainly safety and financial reasons not to keep starting and stopping a route as United had to do multiple times in 2024.
However, American’s latest actions have made me wonder what’s going on. The airline hasn’t flown to Israel since 10/6/23 and service remains suspended indefinitely.
While United has also suspended service to Israel indefinitely, you can still book partner travel or use your United miles to fly to Israel on partner airlines:
Delta plans on resuming service to Tel Aviv in April, and is happy to sell flights on partners like El Al and Air France.
However, AA.com is blocking all flight sales to Tel Aviv, even on dates when American partners are selling flights or have mileage ticket award space.
Other OneWorld airlines, like Alaska and Qantas, are happy to book travel using their miles on British Airlines flights to Tel Aviv:
But when you search for flights to Tel Aviv on AA.com, it just returns an error:
Oddly enough, on the very same dates as above, AA.com is willing to book flights from London to Abu Dhabi that connect in Tel Aviv:
However, if you just search for the London to Tel Aviv flight on AA.com, it will return an error saying, “Something went wrong.”
Surely, this had to be a bug, right? Why would American block the booking of partner flights to Tel Aviv, but allow the same flight to be booked if connecting through Tel Aviv to another city?
DansDeals reached out to American to ask why they are blocking tickets to Tel Aviv, but allowing flights through Tel Aviv to other cities, with the examples above.
The airline responded that,
“Due to partner airlines’ evolving flight schedules and operations to Tel Aviv, American has suspended new ticket sales on aa.com for tickets on partner airlines to and from Tel Aviv.”
Honestly, that’s a really lousy excuse.
If American’s partners are selling flights to Israel, American shouldn’t block them. I have never heard of airlines blocking the ticketing of all flights to a country unless the law requires it. If the partner airline does wind up canceling the flights, American can always just provide a refund, no harm, no foul.
While Israel’s aviation services law requires compensation for canceled flights, that onus falls on the operating carrier, not the airline that sold you the ticket. Additionally, no compensation is owed if flights are canceled more than 2 weeks in advance or in the case of extraordinary circumstances not under the airline’s control.
American’s policy when they were canceling their own flights to Israel has been to just provide a refund and nothing else.
Why should AA passengers and mileage loyalists not even have a chance to book these flights?
Do you think American Airlines is boycotting Israel?
Like and share to ask American what they are doing:
Is @AmericanAir Boycotting Israel?
American no longer flies to Israel, but now they also won't even sell partner award space to Israel!
If you try to book an award flight from London to Abu Dhabi on British Airways, you can do so with a stop in Tel Aviv.
But if you try to… pic.twitter.com/RIFNIV7XNC
— DansDeals (@DansDeals) January 13, 2025
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59 Comments On "Is American Airlines Boycotting Israel?"
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Is the Pope Catholic?
No, but for real. Honest question totally divorced from this topic.
100%. They don’t want to be bothered. I think the LHR-AUH through TLV is a glitch. They programmed NO flights to TLV, but didn’t think about the connection issue
#DansDealsEffect when AA starts purging the system of flights with connections through TLV now that Dan told them about it!
I would think they block..
I thought I was crazy when I brought this up a couple of months ago. They’re definitely boycotting. They should at least have the guts to admit it so they can score the brownie points from the anti-Israel left and right.
Both American and UA Unions are forcing the boycott, only difference is that American is incompetent and couldn’t figure out the partner redemption option that UA corporate still allows.
When I was trying to change a booking with them they told me it’s for “safety reasons” – maybe their insurance company told them that they can’t sell TLV seats because in case something happens on a flight they sold they’d be legally liable?
No. There is no insurance for passengers on other airlines.
So if AA sold a codeshare ticket on BA, and the BA flight crashed, AA couldn’t be named in the lawsuit?
No.
But either way, these aren’t codeshare flights. And if AA didn’t want to sell tickets on the flight for “insurance reasons”, they wouldn’t have a codeshare on it either.
Airlines have insurance for their own planes and flights, not for umbrella coverage for the entire industry that they sell tickets for.
interesting. thanks!
I want to take this post seriously, but the rage-bait headline is just absurd. The notion that American Airlines, a for-profit company headquartered in Texas (of all places), is somehow “woke” and leaving money on the table because they have a secret anti-Israel agenda is ridiculous. A beancounter, somewhere, made the call for financial and/or risk reasons.
Instead of this post title, you could have gone with “Why doesn’t American Airlines have award space to Israel?” which would have been a much more reasonable (and less incendiary) title. Not everything needs to be left/right politics.
Read the post again. This isn’t asking why they don’t have award space.
They are actively blocking available award space, though only if your destination is TLV. If you want to transit TLV to other destinations, they will sell you that award space.
I read the post. The issue — availability parity in their booking system with One World airlines likes Qantas or Alaska — is not indicative of a BDS style boycott or conspiracy. I think we both know this.
Then by all means, why will they sell the BA flight in question from LHR-TLV-AUH but not LHR-TLV?
It is clearly not a question of OW award space or married segments, so yes, I do think this is a legitimate boycott question.
Did you check other flights from BA or other partner airlines on the AA portal? We have to be much more thorough before throwing out claims like this
I searched extensively. Feel free to disprove me.
Thant is not a question because it is obviously a glitch.
The real question here is
Why doesn’t American Airlines have award space to Israel?”
No, read the post.
The airline confirmed they are blocking all bookings to Tel Aviv.
@Eli, the answer to your “real question” may have been implied in the title of this article. To give AA a fair chance Dan did reach out to them for an explanation, but that really didn’t sum up.
I don’t think you understand the meaning of the term “boycott”, Dan: https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/boycott
What objective do you think American Airline has? Is the company trying punish Israel due to Gaza, antisemitism etc? Do they not have a profit motive like every other American corporation?
As I wrote in the post, the Association of Flight Attendants union has indeed explicitly called for punishing Israel due to Gaza.
I have no idea what American’s motive is, hence the question in the title. I asked them the reason and got a non-answer from them.
But the facts are plain and clear, they are the only airline that won’t allow any ticketing to Tel Aviv.
Chaim, I hate to break it to you, but you are running in circles. You are clearly not reading @Dan’s post in it’s entirety. It would even seem plausible that you are a c-level exec at AA…
chaim say’s he read the post but chaim didn’t read the post.
Add to that the never explained withdrawal from the very well booked MIA-TLV route even before October 7
Pull out the Magic 8 ball – what do you think the chances are of delta actually starting their tlv flights on April 1? And if they do cancel how far before April 1 do you think that would happen?
Better chances than the Jets making the playoffs next year.
Dude. Josh Allen doesn’t touch Lamar’s toenails.
Against a top defense I’ll take Josh Allan every day and twice on Sunday!
Unions have no brains. There was certainly no difference in days in terms of war when united started to fly vs when they did not. It’s all BS.
Book a ticket to Abu Dhabi and then skip the last leg??
What about if there’s only availability to TLV?
been discussed on DDF one point ton consider: israeli passport control can see your flight info and may question /find concerning a skipped connection.
Is Dan against AA as always? I got two awards using aadvantage miles Jfk mad tlv on IB.
I’m not for or against any company. I call each shot as I see it.
Please post which dates are currently bookable. As far as I can tell, they have blocked all bookings to TLV.
If you booked these in the past, I don’t know what your point is. If you just booked these, please share how.
I booked on Jan 03 25, I called the executive platinum desk. I am a 5 million miler
Feb 19
IB ORD MAD BCN TLV
Mar 10
IB TLV BCN LHR
Mar 12
BA LHR ORD
You called because it wasn’t showing online, correct?
Please confirm. Is it possible to book flights to TLV by phone?
Absurd. Absolutely a boycott. Noticed it weeks ago.
I guess we’ll have a better picture soon if the just-announced ceasefire agreement actually passes. If they don’t restart TLV bookings, then Dan will be proven right.
Would be interesting to watch a DansDeals testifying in Congress against American Airlines L O L
To all the geniuses commenting before reading, just READ!
Date point:
My flight tlv to fco w/ ita was canceled by the airline (booked w/ Virgin) back in Aug. Rebooked w/ AA miles on BA to lhr. That was canceled as well by the airline. After some debating, an AA supervisor placed me on El Al Premium at no charge tlv to lhr. From there I flew w/ AA lhr to nyc.
AA eventually compensated me & companion each of us close to $500 even though the operating airline was BA.
mediarelations@aa.com
As the post says, we reached out to them before posting this article. Their quote is in the article.
I guess safety comes first
But why allow connections?
So one real legitimate reason would be that on an LHR-TLV-AUH ticket, if the LHR-TLV leg isn’t flying, AA would be able to rebook you on BA to AUH wiht a stopover in Amman or another city without having to try to reaccomodate on ElAl, since the final destination remains the same. I think this is a legitimate reason and is probably why AA is not allowing flights to be booked to/from TLV.
AA hasn’t been rebooking people to TLV, they just cancel and refund.
No reason they couldn’t continue doing this, just as United does.
Perhaps they just want to avoid having to deal with upset customers whose flights were cancelled and who they are unable to accomodate. This is a way to avoid having to do that.
But with LHR-TLV-AUH they have the same rebooking issues to deal with.
Clearly doesn’t smell well… AA should at least take the time to address this allegations.
The lack of a plausible explanation does not suddenly make a preposterous explanation plausible.
Facts.
As I wrote in the post, the Association of Flight Attendants union has indeed explicitly called for punishing Israel due to Gaza.
I have no idea what American’s motive is, hence the question in the title.
I asked them the reason and got a non-answer from them.
But the facts are plain and clear, they are the only airline that won’t allow any ticketing to Tel Aviv.
The facts you uncovered are certainly true, and their non answer is pathetic, but that in no way implies a boycott. The AFA has entirely different incentives, as they are not a profit generating enterprise for the benefit of shareholders in the same way AA is. If AA intended to boycott Israel, they’d at least be transparent about it and not attempt to hide it.
And if they were transparent, searching for TLV would return “We no longer sell any tickets to TLV” instead of “Something went wrong.”
But here we are.
I think the title asks a fair question given the facts and their non-answer, but I’m open to other possibilities.
Maybe someone could tell us why the British Airways website, always dysfunctional, hasn’t been working properly in weeks.
Delta is returning in April or they just didn’t cancel yet for april