This past Monday there were some pretty incredible mistake fares from the US to Israel through EL AL airline. Fortunately, I was able to grab one for $400 round-trip, although some were abe to pay as low as $336 RT. With mistake fares it is always hard to know whether or not they will actually be honored. The following day on Tuesday, EL AL posted that they’d honor the mistake fare! However, just a day later on Wednesday they semi went back on their word saying that no final decision has been made and they’ll let us know the next day.
So of course I was anxious all last night and today to find out whether or not my ticket would still be honored. Well I am happy to say that EL AL is honoring all mistake fares!!!! There are a few news articles confirming this and I received the following tweet from the social media person at EL AL.
The one interesting thing is EL AL is actually giving its customers the option to fly direct for an additional $75 instead. Currently all the flights had layover through Europe (Zurich, London, and Paris) and were with partner airlines (American, SWISS Air). Them offering this is ultimately saving them money as they will no longer have to pay American and SWISS for the flights. It’s a great tactic by them.
I will most likely be sticking to my original itinerary and not pay the additional $150 per ticket. I also prefer 100% AA miles over the 50% miles I’ll earn on EL AL. If you are looking to take advantage of this option, keep the following things in mind:
- Direct flight options out of Newark:
- Depart at 1:15pm and arrive at TLV at 6:45am the following day
- Direct flight options out of JFK:
- Depart at 6:00pm and arrive at TLV at 11:40am the following day
- Depart at 11:50pm and arrive at TLV at 5:20pm the following day
- Direct flight options out of TLV:
- Depart at 1:00am and arrive at JFK at 6:00am
- Depart at 9:40am and arrive at JFK at 2:50pm
- Depart at 12:35am and arrive at Newark at 6:05am
- Flights DO NOT depart JFK or EWR on Friday or Saturdays
- Flights DO NOT depart TLV on Saturdays
Now, if you are looking to change your dates a day or two in either direction, taking the direct option might help you do this. For example, if you are currently departing on a Saturday, but would prefer to get a few more days out of your trip and depart Thursday, you might be able to change your flight for $75 for the direct option. If you have any questions or want to take advantage of the nonstop flight you must email email EL AL between Aug. 14 – 31, 2012 via email to flydirect@elalusa.com.
If any of you got on this, enjoy Israel! I know I did the first time around and am thoroughly looking forward to experiencing it again. Stay tuned to a “Help a Reader Travel to Israel” post on Monday!
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You’re the first to announce. I’m sticking with AA via Zurich.
@dhammer53 – Me too. I also want my AA miles!
hang on, were the flights not booked under the code of el-al and not on AA code?
@AJ – they were, and you will thus only earn 50% AA miles
And they won’t be EQMs either, hence why I passed on this, 50% RDMs was not worth it, made the flight more expensive to me
@Unhappy 1K – Passed on the deal or passed on the direct flight option?
They should have offered free direct flights if they wanted more people to change their flight (that might not be worth it if you really wanted the AA miles tho)
@Grant Thomas – I agree, I am actually surprised they did not require this for you them to honor the ticket.
I’d sacrifice my AA miles if El Al bumped me up front and waived the fee. Maybe they’re listening.
I’m just curious…. Did they really have a choice? If the DOT made the airlines reinstate the F fares from Myanmar to the US at the price paid, isn’t this a similar scenario?
since the AA flights are LYs code-share flight #s I believe , will AA still give 100% miles on its metal since you arent flying on AAs flight #s?
from AAs website,”earn miles when flying on ElAl marketed & operated flights for travel on ‘eligible published fare tkt’. Miles also earned on ElAl codeshare flights operated by AA.
G,L,N,V 50%
seems if I remember correctly when looking at the flights the AA flights had LY flight #s to them and not AAS reg #s. So unless people find a way to get it changed to AAs #s = NO EQMs and only 50% RDMs
The way things currently are, these fares were booked into El Al G class and earn 50% AA RDMs, whether on LY or AA metal. No AA miles can be earned on LX metal. Unless something goes horribly wrong, there will be no EQMs whatsoever. It does not matter what class AA.com is showing for the AA segments. The system knows they were booked at LY codeshares.
It remains to be seen what class they will be booking people who switch to the nonstop option. At best, you’ll earn 100% RDMs. Most likely, it’ll remain 50% RDMs.
In any case, there will not be any EQMs, at least according to the rules.
In my case, I’ll likely be keeping my original itinerary in hope that I can convince somebody to allow me to use my SWUs, even though it’s not allowed by rule.
Passed on the deal completely, not earning EQMs and only earning 50% RDM could just bot be justified as I need EQMs on every trip I take time to take
@barelyelite – i’m with ya buddy…. will try to see if an agent can process my SWU 😉
when I booked the flights, I was told by AA it was Class G, and only 50%. so, it’s the same if I switch to the non-stop, or different?
@Kathy K – I really am not sure. I am getting a different answer every time I call.
The word is out – the new booking class for the rebooked direct flights will be “W” , which actually will get you 100% base miles!!!
https://www.aa.com/i18n/AAdvantage/earnMiles/travel/airlines/elAl.jsp
@B.H – Has there been any confirmation on what the stop over flight is? I’ve heard 100% and 50%!
Nice! Enjoy your visit. Great blog btw.
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