EL AL Matmid - Canceled Flight - No Room Till Thursday

My brother-in-law was (and still is thanks to the evacuation of the Lower East Side) with us for Shabbat. His parents are in Israel, and were scheduled to fly back tonight, I believe LY001. Now that it's been canceled, they contacted LY, and were told no room until Thursday morning. I know they are sending out an extra plane to NYC to accomodate all the Yeshivot flying this week, (at least they claimed they are.) Why can't they get a seat until Thursday morning?

Only first class seats are still being sold for flights on Aug. 29 and 30. All other seats are sold out. Economy seats are being sold for TLV-JFK LY0007 departing on Wed. Aug. 31. If tix were in first class, try calling again and ask for Aug. 29/30 flight. If tix were in economy, try calling again and aski for Aug. 31 flight.

I am flying LY/AA to LaGuardia on Monday night, land Tuesday before lunch.

A bit inconvenient, but I am booked TLV to Toronto then LGA.

There are some Business seats still listed as open on the LY flight,
the connecting AA flight has room as well.

Why can't they get a seat until Thursday morning?

Is your actual question why can't they get a direct flight? There have been 9000+ flight cancellations recorded to date as a result of the storm. You seem surprised it actually affected you.

Thumper, I'm not even close to surprised that their flight was canceled. My flight for tomorrow afternoon, EWR-TLV, was also canceled, and that happened Friday. Didn't surprise me in the least.

I'm not asking why they can't get a direct flight. I'm asking why they can't get one at all. CO re-booked me for Monday night. And that was after Shabbat, so I assume many of the people on the flight were already able to make changes. It's just crazy that it would take until then to re-book them.

CO, AA, and DL, who all have affected hubs, are bumping up status pax... to F/C to ensure each flight goes out full to maximize how many pax can be re-booked. If it's true that LY is allowing flights to go out with seats in F/C, that's a bit puzzling.

El Al is now selling economy seats from TLV to JFK departing Tue Aug 30 and Wed Aug 31. Your BIL's parents can try moving their flight up if they haven't already done so.

EL-AL Added 2 additional flights on the 29/8 (LY026) and the 30/8 (LY21),
The rules are very basic:
- Passangers that were on canceled flights will be redirect with no additional fee
to any possible (availble) flight
- Passanger will retain his original booking class, Means if your ticket is K you will get placed only on flights which have K availbile...
- If there is no availble seat in the class you ordered you move to waiting list.


If your parents still stucked here in Israel, PM me and i will try to help you finding them a flight asap...
(I am not a travel agent, Just a nice guy...)

Just a nice guy..

+1
very nice guy.

+1
very nice guy.

+2

Back in the US of A.

I took the 12:50AM ELAL flight this morning to Toronto, then to LaGuardia on AA. The 762 had eight empty seats up front. At least twenty in the back.

After arriving in Toronto at 6AM, luggage was very fast, and I was offered a seat on the 7:30AM Toronto LaGuardia run (instead of the 9AM). This flight too had empty seats. I was in New York by 8:30.

On the other hand, the midnight TLV JFK flight was delayed until an 8AM departure.

Back in the US of A.

I took the 12:50AM ELAL flight this morning to Toronto, then to LaGuardia on AA. The 762 had eight empty seats up front. At least twenty in the back.

After arriving in Toronto at 6AM, luggage was very fast, and I was offered a seat on the 7:30AM Toronto LaGuardia run (instead of the 9AM). This flight too had empty seats. I was in New York by 8:30.

On the other hand, the midnight TLV JFK flight was delayed until an 8AM departure.

Glad to hear. However, this is more of the question I had than what you suggested above. Why is LY allowing seats to fly empty, and then stranding pax in TLV saying they don't have room until next week? (They are booked for today, but friends of theirs who were supposed to fly with them are now booked next Monday.)

I can only guess that people want direct flights, or the LY staff is not anxious to be creative. After over a decade of travel back and forth, I know all the more obscure ways to TLV and back. While not my favorite, there is always room on Toronto flights.

Too bad we missed each. Never noticed your signature before, but a former exit 136er myself.

I can only guess that people want direct flights, or the LY staff is not anxious to be creative. After over a decade of travel back and forth, I know all the more obscure ways to TLV and back. While not my favorite, there is always room on Toronto flights.

Too bad we missed each. Never noticed your signature before, but a former exit 136er myself.

They may not be creative, but I must give them credit where due. My friend and her daughter were supposed to fly back last Thursday but couldn't because her daughter got pretty sick. After lots of talking, LY agreed to change the flight for free to Motzei Shabbat, and that flight ended up getting canceled because of Irene. They switched to Sunday, Sep 3, the first available flight, but really needed to get out sooner. EL AL ended up putting them on a flight Wednesday morning (yesterday) in F in order to get them out earlier (she's I believe may be SL, but her mother pays for tix and is TPL). That was unbelievable...bumping up to F to do a favor more so than anything else!

What's 136? Linden? And no worries, here till Oct 10 :p

Flights seem to be very full. My friend's daughter flew economy 004 arriving on the 31st. She was offered a free round trip to allow herself to be bounced. She declined--wanting to be in school for the beginning. (why doesn't that happen to me?)