Update: El Al confirms via a financial filing in Hebrew that Delta has committed to “make reasonable efforts to assist the company” in joining SkyTeam.
Additionally,
“The parties agreed to commit to the agreement for a period not less than five years from the date of implementation of the code sharing agreement or the club sharing agreement, whichever is later, after which each party will have the option of terminating with a 6-month advance notice (for any reason).
The agreement establishes common principles that will apply to the relationship between the airlines in the commercial arrangements, as well as limitations on the company from being associated with similar arrangements with airlines based in the United States, all in accordance with the terms and deadlines that were agreed upon.“
That sounds like agreements with Alaska, American, and JetBlue may end when legally possible.
El Al and Delta announced they will launch a codeshare and mileage partnership.
That will include the ability to book connecting flights and have bags checked through to the final destination with Delta and El Al.
You will be able to earn and redeem Delta miles for El Al flights and El Al points for Delta flights. Unfortunately neither carrier is known for generous redemptions, so this is a worst case scenario for US partnerships as both American and United offer far more affordable partner redemption rates than Delta.
El Al’s partnerships will span across airlines from all 3 major airline alliances, including OneWorld’s Alaska and Qantas, Skyteam’s Delta, and Star Alliance’s ANA.
Frankly, I’m surprised that this happened with Delta over American. Delta has been rapidly growing in the Israeli market and is a strong competitor to El Al. They both offer service to Boston and JFK, though Delta also offers Atlanta service. Delta mentions being able to take advantage of connections to Atlanta, Boston, and JFK, though it’s always easier to stay on one airline for the entire journey when possible. The Atlanta flight has been very successful, but I’m not sure how Delta’s Atlanta connectivity is relevant here at all?
El Al also offers service to Miami and Newark, but Delta offers little connectivity there. El Al’s Los Angeles flight will gain some US connectivity thanks to Delta though.
On the other hand American has been weak in the Israeli market and had to cut back on their Miami-Tel Aviv flights. I figured that rejoining American would make sense as El Al would have access to connecting passengers in Boston, Los Angeles, and Miami. That would have also likely meant joining the OneWorld alliance, which is far stronger than SkyTeam. Alas, that seems impossible now and joining SkyTeam seems like it will be the path forward for El Al.
But Delta runs a very good operation and has many loyalists. My only question is how many of those people are looking to connect from a Delta flight to an El Al flight?
I’ve long said that El Al should enable secure connections in Tel Aviv and maybe that will be part of the play here?
What do you think of this new partnership?
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89 Comments On "[El Al To Work Towards Joining SkyTeam And Potentially End Other US Airline Partnerships] BREAKING: El Al And Delta To Launch Mileage And Codeshare Partnership!"
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I’m not looking to start a bashing thread. Please be respectful when answering: Delta vs united, which has wider seating in regular economy and better food? I likes delta seating more than elal but elal has better food. But never flew united so I can’t compare. Anyone know? Thank you.
United has much better food. Seats should be fairly similar in economy.
Biggest difference for most people is EWR vs JFK.
recently flew delta TLV-JFK in business..honestly some of the best food I have ever had on a plane(and really amazing in general) possible that delta is upping their food game as well!
I’m referring to NYC-Tel Aviv flights, where there’s a big difference between catering on Delta (frozen Regal), El Al (fresh Regal), and United (fresh Fresko).
I think everyone uses Hamasbia from Tel Aviv? Haven’t heard of anyone loving it, but please post pictures and review on DDF.
https://forums.dansdeals.com/index.php?topic=24510
I know others prefer JFK, but for me, EWR is WAAAAAAAAAYYY better. Just the savings in travel time from Monsey alone is worth it. EWR – 45 minutes, an hour tops unless there is a major accident. JFK – fuhgedaboudit!
+1
Delta is the only airline offering 18″ wide seats on economy in non-stop flights from North America to Israel.
I’ve found that almost all airlines serve the same (horrible) meals out of TLV – at least the glatt meals.
Dan, around how many delta sky pesos you think for mia-tlv on elal?
Probably a fortune. Their partner redemption rates are absurd.
For Delta (skypesos), you don’t use partners for redemption, you use them to earn large numbers of MQD to qualify for status.
Argh here goes another airlines charging 400k miles for a flight to Israel in J
Love it. Have status with both so this is a good moment.
Prove it.
will I get an upgrade on a elal flight if I am a diamond by Delta? and booked through Delta?
we don’t know any details yet
Upgrades are extremely unlikely to be part of any partnership.
Seems like average ppl will not gain anything from this
You don’t get an upgrade on an int’l DL flight so why would it be any different on LY?
Not the biggest fan of how El Al conducts its business but as a Delta Medallion this is great. I hope the earning rate with El Al will be similar to KLM/Air France. I don’t, however, see a world where people will use TLV as a connecting hub. I can’t even imagine how it will work.
It would take a logistics overhaul, but those are in the works.
What connections would make sense to go through Tel Aviv vs. existing routes? SE Asia & Australia/Oceana? For anyone who isn’t Jewish, how is this preferable over, say, Istanbul or Amman? (Or even Dubai, Abu Dhabi, Etc.?)
It’s not a bad connection point for Africa (Seychelles!) and other points. SE Asia can work as well.
Offering a free stopover like IcelandAir does would also be valuable.
But yes, those are minor factors.
Indian market is huge
even a tiny sliver is good
I fly to Israel often so personally it’s good for me but I think that having El Al for SkyTeam when the others have the ME3s (and Turkish) is kind of a downgrade when you see what the others are offering destination-wise.
I’ve done it. There is a connecting flights area. however when I used it they had to get someone to come open it up just for me lol. they eventually just escorted me out after checks to the main check in area and back in I went.
American has been flagging ever since the pandemic; even here in MIA Delta has built a stronger presence with their new partnership w/LATAM and now El Al.
I’ve been mulling shifting my spend away from AA and towards Delta. This adds more compelling ammunition.
problem is delta sky miles are worthless, AA is much better value… otherwise would agree with AA assessment in mia, very disappointing they cancelled mia-tlv
They’re actually more valuable if you use them to book partner codeshare fligths (vs Delta metal). I recently booked two RT main cabin flights on LATAM long-haul to Brazil for 106k (58k each); even on AA it’s hard to redeem for less than 60k.
Exciting, when will this take effect?
TBD
And delta flies to bwi!
Very small presence. Not going to change the math much on whether El Al should fly there.
My wife is flying El Al next week. Can she apply her skymiles number to get credit for this flight or is it too soon? Thanks as always for the great info!
Likely too soon, but I’ll update when this goes live.
This is fantastic
What happened to JetBlue-elal code share?
My guess is that it will end when legally possible.
I have Diamond status on Delta and Platinum with ElAl. I fly the JFK-TLV flight a few times a month. Will this give me ability to transfer between ElAl and Delta flights freely?
What do you mean by transfer?
I book a flight on the 11:50pm flight to TLV, and want to get on an earlier flight (such as the LY002 at 5pm)
That wouldn’t be possible.
@Dan, why would Oneworld be better for El Al?
At least to North America, SkyTeam has more carriers with connections to offer.
KLM, AF, VS and AZ vs BA and IB (Finnair rarely has normal connections)
I’d assume ITA is going to go to Star Alliance now that Lufthansa is buying them.
But mainly, SkyTeam is just a mess of an alliance. Lounge benefits, elite benefits, are all over the place.
I don’t see this as a competitive route strategy or a benefit to stand out in an airline market.
All I see is an opportunity to update stability, status, prestige and maybe even a hint of “I’d like to be thought of as too proud to actually be mileage conscious as we’re such a quality airline” fable.
This isn’t rocket science to know, but welcome to Israel where were smarter at selling lokshen.
I don’t see this as a “good thing for the Jews.” Isn’t this just going to ensure that direct flights from US to Israel Will continue to get more expensive?
It’s not a joint venture, so the airlines will still compete for passengers.
I don’t know SkyTeam well. Would this be in scope for the monthly flying blue promotions?
No, that’s for AF/KL metal only.
Will medallion members get access now to Elal lounge in TLV?
TBD.
How does this overlap with Flying Blue which I thought was a Delta partner and had great redemption rates?
TBD. Potentially joining SkyTeam is quite a ways off.
Their rates to TLV have also been massively devalued in recent years, though not as bad as Delta.
Virgin Atlantic may be more interesting if/when El Al joint SkyTeam.
Dan, sounds like there’s some unsaid big news: Saudia won’t be blocking El Al’s entry to the alliance! Surely Delta and El Al already have received assurance from Saudia OK’ing this?!?!
No, it says Delta will try to get El Al into SkyTeam.
I’d assume existing airlines can still veto that, though Delta should have the muscle to make it happen.
Saudi now lets Elal overfly, do I doubt they care to start a dumb fight with Elal.
That’s very different than being full partners with them.
Maybe a silly question. Assuming DL matches my LY status…
DL status doesn’t grant access to DL lounges right??
A partnership makes it less likely for status matches.
But no, generally not. Delta is the least generous when it comes to lounge access for their elites.
So how would lounge access reciprocity work?
TBD.
We are living in the age of AI and universal code sharing (at least for baggage) is not a thing yet?
Oh the irony of ‘Every Landing Always Late partnering with ‘Americas most on time Airline’
One benefit that I can see is the ability to select Delta as the preferred airline for Amex Platinum, and book a codeshared El Al flight (El Al is not an option for preferred airline).
will elal tickets be bookable through flying blue? 29k?
I like it for the potential connections from BWI.
@dan I am surprised you havent covered “EL AL Owner Accused Of Defrauding Nursing Homes To Buy Airline” – I’d be curious to read your take as insider of sorts.
When is Letitia James going to sue Cuomo for killing nursing home patients during COVID?
She never will for many reasons, she and Cuomo are buddies, and of course, she and other left wingers have a special hatred for Jews, especially religious Jews.
as plat member get comfort extra at no charge
what seating benefits would accrue on elal at various medallion levels
There’s no information about any elite reciprocal benefits.
Wasn’t their an update recently about TLV starting to allow airside connections?
Can we transfer Marriott points to Delta to then use for a flight on ELAL airlines ? Or Chase points? Or Citi points? Dan, hopefully you will discuss all of the above options. Thanks.
Highly unlikely to be worthwhile with Delta.
But you can do it today with Alaska, Etihad, and Qantas as I’ve posted in the past.
Thanks. Many of Dan’s readers are still looking forward when Dan will have time to write a post describing in detail all of the options for reservations with ELAL airlines by using Alaska, Etihad, and Qantas. And describing the options of using Marriott points, Chase points, Citi points, and using those points to transfer to Alaska, Etihad, and Qantas which would allow us to make reservations for airline tickets on ELAL airlines.
Why did you put up a banner with a Delta aircraft, when this is all about El Al? I almost skipped this post seeing that Delta logo
Lol, better now?
Love it! Although I would like El Al to get the bigger share
Can’t change the aspect ratio without making it look off.
I wish airlines would take customers so seriously
For NYC-TLV
from a points and miles
Is there any gain?
Delta will charge more than Alaska, so probably a loss there.
Easier to earn Delta miles though
LY flights to non US destinations could potentially still be a good deal thru skymiles, as that’s where delta pricing has largely been untouched.
Probably more to do with codeshare between air france and KLM. that would be huge for elal.
It seems that the agreement between AA & LY was spotty and weak. I once flew (on an AA ticket) TLV – LHR – JFK, where TLV – LHR was booked on LY (from the AA sight). I was just on the edge of losing my Platinum Status on AA at the time. Guess what, lost it. AA claimed I didn’t get the points from the LY flight. Of course I protested again and again and got nowhere. A letter of complaint – and got back my status. Stated that they should’ve stated on the site (like DL does) that I wasn’t going to get the points. Never figured out why LY flights were all over the sight if the weren’t really code sharing.
What is an enable secure connections in TLV mean?
Sigh. If only DL and El Al would’ve merged a year ago… I’ve been chasing Delta for over 3 months for scamming me out of $7,600 and they claim it was El Al’s fault.. Booked with DL, was denied boarding with wife and 2 little ones. Flight was for a Thursday night so I was forced to go back to our food bare apartment for Shabbos. I was okay at the time because they gave us $4k in DBC. But guess what? We lost it all. Bc they re-booked us MotzSH on an El Al Flight. We get there, hand El Al our Delta printed E-tickets. El Al scans them and says, these tickets aren’t valid you gotta talk to Delta. I frantically searched for a DL Rep. There are none bc it was the El Al 1am and DL’s last flight is 11. At this point they’re boarding in minutes. Call DL? No time. Stay behind with wife and little ones for a 3rd unplanned day? Not happening. I paid for 4 fresh one-way tickets TLV-LAX. $7,676 ECONOMY. After waiting for over 3 months (March 30-July 2nd a blatant breach of DL’s COC which states substantive response within 60 days) I get the reply. Pretty much “Not our problem. But here’s $1000 DL bucks in goodwill gesture. have a nice life.”
HI,
Do we know when this will start?
Thanks