El Al Matmid - Price negotiations

In the recent weeks I had some complicated travel around Europe and in the USA, I found ELAL uncompetitive price wise. I called my Customer service Rep (no names as requested) and she escalated this through the system and at the end we met in the middle and got to fly the airline I like and ELAL kept me as a passenger. When I used to fly LH or BA neither me nor my travel agent were able to negotiate a price it was always this is the price take it or leave it. ELAL here have yet again proven that they are Home Away From Home by giving the possibility to negotiate.:-:

In the recent weeks I had some complicated travel around Europe and in the USA, I found ELAL uncompetitive price wise. I called my Customer service Rep (no names as requested) and she escalated this through the system and at the end we met in the middle and got to fly the airline I like and ELAL kept me as a passenger. When I used to fly LH or BA neither me nor my travel agent were able to negotiate a price it was always this is the price take it or leave it. ELAL here have yet again proven that they are Home Away From Home by giving the possibility to negotiate.:-:
Hold on. I have to call the call center to negotiate over my upcoming V class ticket. :roll:

While you have great experiences, you consistently leave out the bits that enable you to have them. Primarliy flying premium classes very frequently.

I suspect this also has to do with the times we are in.

Business class travel is now cheaper than over the last few years. For example, I can get to NYC with BA for under $2500 or Vegas for about $3000 (both without a saturday night stay) whereas with LY it's more expensive. Of course LY is direct (to NY) but on the other hand BA's business is superior in all aspects except sometimes the friendliness of the team. When going to a non-LY destination which BA do fly to, it's becoming quite an appealing option.

No doubt LY will be happy to bend the rules and pricing to keep your business under these circumstances, especially as you are, as yosithezet correctly points out, a high value customer.

I'm not sure everyone could do that, not least because most LY flyers do not have a personal customer rep.

I do however agree with your sentiment gal that other airlines probably don't or would not bend as much as LY do under such circumstances and that does stand in LY's favour.

In the recent weeks I had some complicated travel around Europe and in the USA, I found ELAL uncompetitive price wise. I called my Customer service Rep (no names as requested) and she escalated this through the system and at the end we met in the middle and got to fly the airline I like and ELAL kept me as a passenger. When I used to fly LH or BA neither me nor my travel agent were able to negotiate a price it was always this is the price take it or leave it. ELAL here have yet again proven that they are Home Away From Home by giving the possibility to negotiate.:-:

I have actually found LH in TLV very open to negotiation re price, esp in business class. Even as a self-employed person they have given me quite generous discounts, and I know others who have also benefitted.
I have also negotiated discounts with LY, but these are not huge unless it is from very expensive fare classes. I find that LH almost always works out cheaper.
BA have also reduced their general prices considerably.

I Normally do this lately due to the high prices of EL-AL,
I Negotiate both the Travel Agency and EL-AL, You can easily get up 7% discount if not more.

If you are a part of a company which have a commercial agreement with
EL-AL you have a dedicated Sales Representative, Contacting this one with
a better price from another company will lead to "Price Compare" if not cheaper price. (I usually ask for additional discount over Z class).

And Yes, Yosithezet (One day you will explain me how you got to this nickname!), If you have a commercial account in EL-AL you can get discount
for V class!.

(We get x% on S Class, So at the final calculation, sometimes it cheaper
to take the S Class than Q/K class due to the discount and the fact that
changing the tickets have a fee...)

ELAL here have yet again proven that they are Home Away From Home by giving the possibility to negotiate.:-:

This reminds me of a sunglasses store in Tel Aviv that has list price that is double from normal and they are always on a 50% off sale ... :D

When you admit yourself that the regular price is not competitive, you give them a well done for their will to negotiate? give me a break! :td:

Lets keep it in perspective:
- They are simply trying to adapt to the market, They don't want to loose business, especially with existing customers.

- They wont compare prices for everyone, only for loyal customers.

- In Gal's case they didnt compare, but it something in the middle, so they dont commit suicide

- DL / CO / LH and everyone else knocking twice a year on our door saying they
will beat any price of EL-AL even if its lower than the regular price of DL/CO/LH

This is called competition and i am very happy EL-AL play the game.

A year ago, if you would go to an official Samsonite store in the US, The
price was fixed, They might had a deal of buy one get the other in 50% (they
still have it) - You couldnt argue on the price.
Today if you step to the same store, You can negotiate the prices...

Even worse, on 30 Rock (the building not the series...), in the Tumy store
they do negotiate.

(Now i admit, My fetish is luggage! the flights are just a poor excuse to have
many and replace them often!)

Thanks,
Ebzed.

EBZED, you are a king!

Well positioned.


(Now i admit, My fetish is luggage! the flights are just a poor excuse to have
many and replace them often!)
I'm just wondering if I might inherit your hand-me-downs. ;)