What have people received as VDB or IDB from Elal?
Please specify route, date and amount.

To be honest in 17 years on flying LY...i've never been bumped or denied boarding (touch wood), though maybe because of flying 'C' they never do it?

Has never happened to me personally (a ground staff person told me that a PL cannot be bumped even if he wants to since we have the guaranteed Y option where they bump somebody else for us).

As far as I know, they have been offering $400 in cash plus a free future El Al flight. They then put you either on the next LY flight out, or an LY flight the next day or through Europe within 24 hours. No overnight accomodation as far as I know.

Note, this info could be way off.

About a year ago I was called by El-Al one day before leaving to Bangkok, and was offered $100 for using an indirect flight (using Air France, if I recall correctly), instead of El-Al's direct one.

I didn't take it, of course, and left on my original flight.

offered, and accepted, a free RT ticket on LY to bump off of a Tel-Aviv to JFK flight. I could have taken that OR $300. Also paid for a hotel in JFK as the flight caused me to misconnect.

A friend of mine travelling back to TLV from LHR was asked to downgrade from Business to Coach, when he checked in at LHR (I was standing next to him at the time). He received a r/t business flight from TLV->anywhere in Europe in exchange.

A friend of mine travelling back to TLV from LHR was asked to downgrade from Business to Coach, when he checked in at LHR (I was standing next to him at the time). He received a r/t business flight from TLV->anywhere in Europe in exchange.

This makes me wonder what would have happened if I had been flying in Biz on my last MXP-TLV flight.

There was an equipment change to a Sun d'Or plane which is configured for 100% coach and there was no Biz service on the flight.

This makes me wonder what would have happened if I had been flying in Biz on my last MXP-TLV flight.

There was an equipment change to a Sun d'Or plane which is configured for 100% coach and there was no Biz service on the flight.

I had that once on a flight from Sofia to TLV, We only got a special note that our plane (I think it was EBU) went to Sri Lanka (Tsunami Relief) and that's the reason why the plane was a Sun Dor plane, and I couldn't get anything from El Al. I was flying in biz.

Not even a partial refund?

It seems ridiculous that you paid for Biz and wound up flying Coach.

Not even a partial refund?

It seems ridiculous that you paid for Biz and wound up flying Coach.

Oh yes, a refund of course, but nothing else...

Generally the normal compensation for flights to/from Europe is $200 cash or a free return flight within Europe valid for one year.
Even though they do sometimes try and get away with less.
Not sure about the compensation for other routes though.
Seems like in general one is much better off taking the free flight offer then the cash, even though it’s a little harder using the free flight option now, since they changed the policy of these tickets being booked in M/S class and now book them in N I think, so you need to be more flexible with your dates.

Flying from TLV to LHR a couple of years ago at the end of Pesach.
As a Gold member I knew they would not offer to bump me off the flight, but I thought I would call up and ask, see what happens (knowing of course how LY always massively over book flights this time of year)
Our flight was on Sunday morning, and I called Thursday afternoon.
I asked whether they were looking for volunteers and they said not at the moment no, but they would take my details and call me back if needed.
I don't think 5 minutes past before I got a phone call from the relevant department asking me if I was still willing to do that.

Anyway I said it depends on what they could offer me as alternate flights.
They gave me a few options and I decided on flying vie Rome with a connection with BA which would get us into London just a couple of hours behind out scheduled direct flight anyway.
I also asked them for an upgrade to Business on the flight to Rome which they agreed to (was booked in Economy on the original flight).

Once in Rome I walked to the ELAL desk and told them I had just arrived on one of their flights after being bumped off another, and had a connection with BA but would it be ok to use their lounge.
They gave me a couple of lounge invitations on the spot.

When arriving at LHR we met the 315 which was our original flight, as they were 2 hours late, so after all we arrived at the same time (we did have an earlier start then them though...)

We used our free flights the following year for Pesach again and saved ourselves an average of about £450 a ticket.

A few of my friends returning from Pesach this year, did the same and called up a few days before the flight, got bumped off with the free flight option (flew vie BRU).

I think that as long as you are not in a hurry, and it doesn't make much of a difference to you if you arrive at your destination a few hours late, its well worth it. ^

Last night coming back from HKG they had a big sign looking for volunteers to take a different route back to Israel as the LY flight was severely overbooked. They were offering routing through FRA on CX/LH and then FRA-TLV I think on LY. The offer was either USD 400 OR 1 round-trip ticket to any destination open for a year. I would have taken it but couldn't get confirmation as to whether I could use the free ticket for my wife since all my travel is paid for by my company. By the time I'd decided to take it anyway they no longer needed additional voluntters. :( Anyone know if you can use the free ticket for a spouse?