Lots of news coming out of El Al.
1. El Al will buy Israir, which will fly under El Al’s Sun d’Or subsidiary.
Airline mergers are never good for consumers.
2. As reported previously, El Al will start 787 service from Newark-Tel Aviv on 10/29/17.
Effective 3/25/18 they will increase their Newark service from 6 to 11 flights per week. It will operate twice daily from Newark to Tel Aviv with a 1:30PM and a 9PM departure from Newark and a 1:15AM and a 1:50PM departure from Tel Aviv. The flight won’t operate on Friday or Saturday afternoon from Newark or on Friday afternoon or Saturday from Tel Aviv.
Oddly enough, the Thursday 787 flights from Newark to Tel Aviv from November through March are being shifted to the evening, so that they only arrive into Tel Aviv on Friday afternoon. If you are currently booked from Newark to Tel Aviv on a Thursday you may want to reschedule your flight.
El Al 787 service from Tel Aviv to Hong Kong begins 3/18/18.
Clearly, El Al is feeling the most pressure right now from United’s twice daily Newark flights and Cathay Pacific’s Hong Kong flight. They are deploying their 787s to help compete against those airlines rather than using them to open new route possibilities like Chicago-Tel Aviv.
3. El Al has started selling Premium Economy on their 787 flights.
Round-trips from Newark to Tel Aviv will start from $938 in Economy, $1,598 in Premium Economy, and $3,841 in business class.
4. El Al will increase the amount of points you need for a business class award ticket on 10/29/17.
El Al offers 2 award charts, one for executives and one for regular members. Luckily it’s very easy to become an executive. A transfer of just 5,000 AMEX points from the US AMEX Membership Rewards program to El Al’s Matmid program will earn you executive status for a year. Points transfer instantly from AMEX to El Al, though it takes about a day after the transfer for the executive status to take effect on your El Al Matmid account.
Currently, a round-trip from NYC to Tel Aviv for Executives costs:
Coach Winter: 1,400 Matmid points (70K AMEX points) plus $345
Coach Summer: 1,600 Matmid points (80K AMEX points) plus $345
Premium Economy Winter: 2,200 Matmid points (110K AMEX points) plus $345
Premium Economy Summer: 2,600 Matmid points (130K AMEX points) plus $345
Business: 4,000 Matmid points (200K AMEX points) plus $345
First: 6,500 Matmid points (325K AMEX points) plus $345
The price for business class will increase to 4,500 Matmid points (225K AMEX points) plus $345
Currently, a round-trip from LA to Tel Aviv for Executives costs:
Coach Winter: 1,800 Matmid points (90K AMEX points) plus $345
Coach Summer: 2,000 Matmid points (100K AMEX points) plus $345
Business: 4,500 Matmid points (225K AMEX points) plus $345
First: 7,000 Matmid points (350K AMEX points) plus $345
The price for business class will increase to 5,500 Matmid points (275K AMEX points) plus $345
Other rates to North America will stay the same.
A round-trip from Miami to Tel Aviv for Executives costs:
Coach Winter: 1,600 Matmid points (80K AMEX points) plus $345
Coach Summer: 1,900 Matmid points (95K AMEX points) plus $345
Business: 5,200 Matmid points (260K AMEX points) plus $345
First: 6,750 Matmid points (337.5K AMEX points) plus $345
A round-trip from Boston to Tel Aviv for Executives costs:
Coach Winter: 1,400 Matmid points (70K AMEX points) plus $345
Coach Summer: 1,600 Matmid points (80K AMEX points) plus $345
Business: 4,000 Matmid points (200K AMEX points) plus $345
First: 6,500 Matmid points (325K AMEX points) plus $345
A round-trip from Toronto to Tel Aviv for Executives costs:
Coach Winter: 1,400 Matmid points (70K AMEX points) plus $217
Coach Summer: 1,600 Matmid points (80K AMEX points) plus $217
Business: 4,000 Matmid points (200K AMEX points) plus $217
Will you fly El Al from Newark to try out their new Premium Economy or Business class offering? Share a Trip Report on DDF or on DDFB!
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15 Comments On "El Al News: Another Mileage Devaluation, New 787 Flights, Premium Economy Now Bookable, And More"
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whats the booking code for premium award?
also whats the booking code for first class on the jfk flights i see they removed the P CLASS
Any idea if both Newark flights will be for Kohanim? Currently the afternoon flights out of Newark do not take Maisem.
so it seems like the best way to book LY flights is using Chase Ultimate Reward points if you have a card that gives you 1.25 or 1.5 cents per point.
@yanky:
P class was only award until now. They removed that option starting Sep 1
Clueless El Al. The flight will arrive in EWR at 6.15 AM and unlike United you will hit major traffic into the city. After 91 arrives you can get get your luggage and be in the city less than an hour after you land. You’ll be lucky to get there with El Al until after 9 AM. Flight needs to leave no later than midnight.
I would never subject my family or myself to the abuse that is flying El Al. They have no respect for their customers and awful customer service and zero business sense. If not for the fact that they are heavily subsidized by the Israeli government they would have been out of business years ago. But because they have the financial backing of the government they have no motivation to do anything right. Shame.
I think many travelers fail to take that into consideration.
Comment:
I don’t think this article was tweeted out.
@michael:
Elal has a few other flights flying out of TLV at midnight, they probably can’t handle so much at the same time.
so leave at 11
besides that they’l usually miss the 2:00 deadline (if that rule still exists)
Anyone known the pitch on the ElAl 787 for the 3 classes?
http://www.dansdeals.com/points-travel/airlines/airline-news/el-al-will-take-united-polaris-head-on-with-their-first-787-route-we-had-a-dream-now-we-have-a-dreamliner/
When I opened the window shade during day time, on a flight from Tel Aviv to NY , the steward came running to close it. But when I rang for water no body showed up. They close all the lights and shades so people should stay put and not move. For my coming trip next month I bought a ticket to Israel with a different airline
Hi Dan and thanks for all great work!
The new daily El Al route LY 25 & LY 26 is currently running as you reported , however looking ahead in 2019 its only showing up on El-AL thru March not in April, do you have info why that is and if they will be discontinuing this route?