Update, 8/8 at 10pm: United has provided DansDeals with the following statement,
“Our flights to Tel Aviv remain suspended – we look forward to resuming flights as soon as it’s safe for our customers and crew.”
The airline also confirmed with DansDeals that they have indeed removed all Tel Aviv flights from their schedule. United also says that customers can rebook their Tel Aviv flights to any United flight into any city in Europe or the Middle East.
That means people can now choose to switch their flight to cities like Amman, Amsterdam, Athens, Barcelona, Berlin, Brussels, Dubai, Dublin, Dubrovnik, Edinburgh, Faro, Frankfurt, Geneva, Lisbon, London, Madrid, Malaga, Manchester, Milan, Munich, Naples, Nice, Palma de Mollorca, Paris, Ponta Delgada, Porto, Reykjavík, Rome, Stockholm, Tenerife, Venice, Vienna, Zurich, and many more, but passengers will still need to buy their own way from there to Tel Aviv and back.
You can also choose to fly to one city on the outbound and return from another city on the return.
Update, 8/8 at 7:40pm: As I predicted on Tuesday in the original post below, United has now suspended all service to Israel indefinitely. No flights are available for sale on any date and existing flights will be canceled shortly. Clearly, the uncertainly has proved too costly for United to continue trying to fly to Israel.
Passengers with existing reservations to Israel can ask to be rebooked to Amman, Athens, or Dubai, but will have to book their own way from there to Tel Aviv. Some agents have also been rebooking on other airlines, though that is against United’s official policy.
Iran has managed to do immense harm to Israel’s tourism industry without even firing a missile this month. Of course, this will also be a huge boon for El Al’s bottom line as it was earlier this year with limited competition.
We have once again reached out to United for comment and will update this post if the airline responds. The airline’s last statement provided to DansDeals at 2:39pm ET on 7/31 after flights were canceled through 8/6 said,
“Beginning with this evening’s flight from Newark Liberty to Tel Aviv, we are suspending for security reasons our daily Tel Aviv service as we evaluate our next steps. We continue to closely monitor the situation and will make decisions on resuming service with a focus on the safety of our customers and crews.”
HT: chff
Originally posted on 8/6:
United has zeroed out all inventory to Israel through the end of scheduling in July 2025, except for very expensive full-fare Y (Economy ), O (Premium Economy), and J (Business) tickets from Newark to Tel Aviv.
If you’re departing Tel Aviv to the US, you can’t even buy a full fare economy seat, the only fares United will sell are full-fare Premium Economy or Business class.
Airlines typically do this when they’re unsure if they will operate flights, or as a sign that a flight will be canceled. Doing so depresses sales to close to nil.
In February, American suspended service to Israel until late October. I’d expect that to be further extended. Several other airlines have also made extended suspensions of Israel service.
Is this United change indicative that it too will make an extended suspension?
When Delta stopped selling discounted fares from Portland to Tokyo Haneda, United made a fascinating formal complaint to the DOT. In that objection letter, United said that only selling full fares “is pricing to limit an influx of bookings and suggestive of a forthcoming service reduction:”
In the end, United’s strong objections helped push Delta to cede its Portland-Haneda slot, though much to United’s chagrin, the DOT gave the slot to American for JFK to Haneda service instead of its proposed Houston to Haneda service.
DansDeals reached out to United yesterday to inquire about the airline only selling full fares to Israel, but the airline hasn’t yet responded. This article will be updated if United responds to our inquiry.
It’s hard to imagine that United would have an extended suspension of service on what was one of their most profitable routes, but perhaps the airline has had enough of on again and off again service that have been the case since October 7th?
Or United is just tired of rebooking people and taking a pause to reassess what its flight schedule will look like until the end of the war?
But then why wouldn’t it just zero out the regular inventory for the short-term instead of long-term unless it expects to sit on the sidelines until it sees things being resolved?
Hopefully this is a short term pause and sales will resume in the near future. However, United currently has one of the least friendly Israel rebooking policies. Clearly, it is done spending money to accommodate loyal passengers on the Israel route.
This all hints at a larger evaluation going on of what the airline should do going forward, which may be a suspension of the route indefinitely.
It’s a surprising fall from grace for an airline that was the only one to continuously operate flights to Israel during COVID and that has made strides to offer some of the best in-flight kosher meals around for Newark departures.
For now, if you want to book a United flight to Israel for any date, expect to pay nearly $4,000 one-way or more than $5,600 round-trip. Clearly the airline does not want to sell seats to or from Israel now:
For flights departing Israel, United won’t sell any seats in Economy for any price on any date:
Using miles won’t help either. No dates have any saver award space or upgrade space and rates are sky-high:
What do you make of United only selling full fares to Israel through July 2025? Do you think United will announce an extended suspension of service to Israel?
HT: chff
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103 Comments On "[United Confirms Indefinite Suspension, Expands Rebooking Policy] Is United Thinking About Suspending Israel Service Through July 2025?"
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whats the best way to get a compensation from united if they cancelled my tickets?
Dispute with your credit card and file a DOT complaint
would chase refund me?
If United cancelled the tickets , why dispute?
Shouldn’t they just refund you?
Don’t understand the speculation, it was the exact same a few months ago where they restricted up until a specific class in economy and o class in PE
I don’t recall them ever restricting sales to YOJ from the US and OJ from TLV through EOS.
I tried searching for flights to TLV for Jan ’25 and was getting the same pricing over 1 month ago. I usually try to book 6 months in advance so to me it doesn’t seem unusual.
Nope. It is unprecedented.
And it just started yesterday.
They should give up their slots and lease their planes to Elal.
Leased planes also aren’t flying to Israel now. Israair had to cancel their flights that were operating with leased aircraft
wet lease and dry lease are different
Probably just to avoid rebooking people now and they will restart once the war is really over.
Wow extremely interesting… Hope they won’t do that cause then elal will take even more advantage then they already are
I was once a loyal United customer because EWR is close to me but now after this not anymore
I’m with you!! Who have you switched over to?
I think American is never coming back. They have a history of doing this with all their routes/airline acquisitions. They also never came close to stating service post 10/7.
They’ll use this as an excuse to stop
Certainly a possibility.
Despite this being a profitable route , one has to wonder how the constant war disruptions play a role for the route planning team . perhaps they think its better if they allocate the aircraft and resources to a area that’s not under constant threat .
Correct, the opportunity cost has to be massive.
plus the costs of rebooking on other airlines can possibly be turning the route unprofitable?
plus the reputation hit when they get draged through the mud for not being willing to open their wallet wide open to rebook passangers…
If it was me, I would walk away from the market until the war is over.
Don’t understand this. why not simply continue to operate flights to Athens and contract with an israeli airline to fulfill the connection to israel whilst they are too scared to go. That way flights could operate until they decide to restart. could do it on a rolling monthly contract. anyway when there is a will there’s a way.
@dan, this is a brilliant idea!
In addition they can do it at LCA
There’s no Israeli carrier with Dreamliner sized planes except El Al and El Al is already partnered with Delta.
could be done with 2 (or more) narrow-body for each connecting flight
LCA runway is not built to accomodate wide body, just saying. ATH could work
This 100%
Ouch! Second best option for ORD>TLV?
ITA Airways, excellent (recent) experience via Rome!
Iran has won this round, without even firing a shot.
Elal is the winner here.
Elal doesn’t have the capacity needed to transport everyone traveling between the US and Israel.
By my calculation, each cancelled flight costs them $500,000 exclusive of freight revenue. A pretty costly move
does this have any bearing on flights booked on partner airlines (lufthansa) using united miles?
No
They rebooked me in September, hope they don’t cancel again
They canceled my 20K promo award tickets during the pandemic when Israel closed for tourism, promising that it could be reinstated and rebooked for the same price. Then they promised that as long as I find a saver award, they will honor it, then they said that it can’t be done and I have to pay the difference. This was a gift from my boss on his account, and I don’t work there anymore, so I couldn’t ask him to top-off the miles, and I couldn’t do it on my account either, so end up losing these tickets for 2 people.
Did you file a complaint with th DOT?
Thanks, I didn’t know I had a shot. Basically, the (“canceled”) ticket was going to expire on Dec 31, 2023, and I called and told them to deposit the miles back, otherwise, they told me it would lose the value (I didn’t verify if 80K miles went back to my boss’s account, but I assume it did). They gave me lots of conflicting information, but on average, they were saying since it wasn’t their fault that the government of Israel decided to close for tourism and since the promotion is over, they can’t help. Also, since the ticket was purchased under somebody else’s MileagePlus account, I can’t top it off with my miles, tech won’t allow it. You think I have a chance with the DOT?
What do you think will happen to me?
I purchased tickets from Newark to TLV on August 18 and back on sept 4.
So far they rebooked me only on the way there via Athens with Aegian Airlines
And we’re still booked direct with United on the way back.
I’d like to rebook with another airline for the way back but idk if they’ll help me…
Ask them for a refund. Tell them you only want to fly nonstop
I have a UA flight booked TLV EWR for September. I want to book an ElAl ticket as a backup but their refund options are horrendous. Suggestions?
https://www.dansdeals.com/airfare-deals/israel-flights/will-take-advantage-el-als-new-flex-fares/
When you book the el Al tickets add ‘el Al protect’. $29 per reservation, it allows you to cancel and receive a credit voucher for the full amount that is good for at least a year. Voucher can be used to pay for el Al tickets for any traveler.
Can this be added after booking if booked with Chase points
No. That option only available at time of booking on ElAl site.
spoke to El Al call center in the US and in Israel and both said it can be added within 24 hours of purchase of ticket
I believe it’s $29 per seat, not per reservation.
Flights on el al only really get expensive by last minute if you book couple months out prices are the same
sukkos lax-tlv was 1400 per ticket which was exact amount i paid 3 years ago
Pesach 2025 is $2500 from chicago. 2000+ from NY. Nuts.
If they leave people stranded it’s better that they don’t sell seats in the first place. They left me stranded and now even on a domestic ticket i went with aa over united because i have a bitter taste of united. Selling seats that is reasonably possible they won’t be in a situation to fly is probably not good for long term customer loyalty.
Also do you have any idea if their bookings until now to TLV were hurt by all the nonsense they put people through or were they going with full planes?
So why bother selling anything at all?
Because at that price, they can rebook you even on Elal and ot loose their pants.
Would love to star this conversation so I can get pinged when we hear an update. I have tentative flights booked from October to November. It’s part of a work trip that I am continuing on to Australia. Last time they rebooked us through Athens and we had to pay for the connecting flights each way! As a status member with united this is ridiculous already. What can be done?
I booked a United ticket for Oct 9 TLV-EWR direct and back Oct 30. Should/can we request a refund and get try to get with another airline?
Dan what are the chances of this changing?
How do you make a formal complaint with the DOT against United airlines? Is there a link? Is it complicated? And what’s the difference between formal and informal DOT complaint regarding getting results which is more likely to get results?
Thnx in advance
https://www.dansdeals.com/more/news/airline-news/informal-dot-complaint-not-helping-dansdeals-reader-won-case-airline-formal-dot-complaint/
This is why I am not taking advantage of all the good United credit card deals Dan is offering.
Is it confirmed now?
United just canceled ewr to tlv flights till July 2025
They only sell flights with a stop
however depending on what you paid for your original ticket you can often change to another star alliance partner for no fare difference. i paid $5 to change to austrian
No, the official policy is specifically no partner rebookings.
You might get lucky though with some agents.
He is referring to a difference in fare not an involuntary rebooking
At some point people will realize that United and Delta are no match for El Al. I was loyal to both for many years and tired of El Al’s shenanigans and garbage service. After flying El Al for the first time a few years ago, it was clear that their new ownership is a different story. Their planes were clean and new, service was great, and the experience was miles ahead of where it had once been. When the war broke out and only El Al kept flying, I made myself a promise that it’s only El Al from now on. This approach of United and Delta is further confirmation of that decision.
Just tried 3 reps, all said immediately that they can’t rebook on to other airlines, they must have clear instructions this time. Elal from Athens is stupid expensive.
Yup, this is the awful official policy.
Should be a flat $283.
They canceled return flight EWR-TLV (I already flew the TLV-EWR leg). Will they refund me for the canceled flight, or do I have to request it / complain?
Waiting to see if Delta does the same
I have a return flight on August 27 from TLV to EWR on Lufthansa via Frankfurt (booked through United — I am happy now that I didn’t choose the direct flight). I need some advice, what’s my best bet now?
It is possible Lufthansa will be flying be then, no?
Maybe I’m missing something but, they don’t even fly to Athens in the winter so not sure what they would offer instead. Don’t think I want to fly thru Amman or Dubai these days
Anyway to force them to rebook on another airline?
No. But if they cancel your flight, they owe you a cash refund.
If I have flights on September 3rd ewr-tlv u think it’s for sure getting cancelled? Also if I have status u think they will rebook me onto a stopover flight
Like they did after peasach
United has gotten unimaginably bad
was speaking to many reps tonight and they were reading off Internal notes
“TLV is not safe so we cant book anyone there”
“flights keep getting cancelled so we arent booking on other airlines like LH”
“There is an embargo to TLV, we can book you to anywhere in EU, but NOT TLV”
finally, after arguing a bit, a rep just refunded my ticket unilaterally without me asking!
Once the European airlines start flying to tlv again (like Austrian and with lufthansa), will they let us switch our ewr-tlv non-stop to a code share flights that stop in Europe and do fly to TLV?
Amman and Dubai are both safe International airports. You can come across some crazy wherever you are, even JFK or EWR!
1. What made United change their cancellation strategy? Till now they held on to peoples money until close to the departure date. Why give back money for flights booked months from now?
2. Is now Elal’s chance to jump into ORD & SFO?
Thanx for the warning. United doesn’t even have the decency to send you an email that your TLV flights were cancelled. I went online to see all my Israel flights were cancelled. Took a chance to reschedule some flights on Lufthansa (if they begin flying again). Dan, how do you calculate PQP for United on flights on Start Alliance members. I tried contacting United but I got the run around.
See earning Premier credit:
https://www.united.com/en/us/fly/mileageplus/earn-miles/airline-partners.html
So, I had a rt UA flight to TA, I am now making a stop in Athens and the return is still direct in March.
They charged me the fare difference, based on what you wrote can I get that refunded?
Yes, though you shouldn’t have agreed to pay in the first place.
@Dan what’s your best guess as to when they might resume? We booked very expensive open jaw for Sukkot. (EWR –> TLV right before sukkot on United, TLV –> ZRH on ElAl via chase UR, ZRH –> EWR on United). Trying to figure out what to do.
I don’t think they will resume anytime soon. Probably will wait for the war to end.
Lets say there is a ceasefire tom for whatever reason will my flights in October still be honored? if I do not call for a refund now?
I believe they are going to refund everyone within the next week, so no.
But you can wait and see.
take the 747 out of retirement unless the sold them already? may help short term with capacity?
Only on UA metal? What about Lufthansa group to FRA-MUC-ZRH-VIE?
I have round trip tickets right after sukkos. On my reservation it now says that the trip is cancelled/not confirmed and I can ask for a refund. Does it make sense to wait and they might reinstate my tickets if they feel it’s safe again?
Attn Delta passengers: I managed to rebook on ELAL direct for a booking starting in the end of Oct. I didn’t see that to be their official policy but Delta didn’t give me a hard time when I asked them to rebook on a partner airline. They also rebooked me on the return which is in Nov.
Was you Delta ticket from points or cash.
Chase points – I called Delta direct
Just checked my united app regarding my flight for Sep 1 EWR to TLV. Reservation disappeared, I put in details again and saw Reservation w a s canceled and they were kind enough to issue a travel certificate instead of a refund. No email. No nothing. I called them and told them to give me a refund and they complied immediately.
Thinking about going for 2 weeks in September, what’s the best European city to TRF from a UA to an EL AL flight and back?
Will my flight on Lufthansa on September 3 be cancelled
No way to know for sure at this point. The currently announced cancellations are only through the 13th.
According to a google search of “Israeli Regulation On Air Passenger Rights”
it seems like they are required to offer a “replacement ticket to your final destination under equivalent transport circumstances”. I’m not 100% sure I’m reading this correctly, but is there any way to force them to follow this regulation?
Can you please post if you find anything out?
Got the emails from United that my flights were cancelled and will be indefinitely and I could do one of 3 things. 1. get a refund 2. change destinations 3. get a voucher/credit that is good for five years.
We have flights from Tel Aviv to San Fransico the end of January 2025 – and back later on. Should we wait maybe the flights will resume by then?
Will be be able to get a refund or change then ?
Will United extend status again like they did last year?
When will United restart? there is no reason for them to continue the suspension.