EL AL Matmid - Matmid and status: how does it compare to what it used to be?

With all the talk about Matmid not being what it used to be, and with even the biggest LY advocats on here being more and more dissapointed, I was thinking back to the days when Gold was the highest status and actually seemed to offer more perks than I seem to get today as a PL.

A few things that I can think of are:

1. I know this isnt very specific, but Golds were treated very very well, and it just seemed like they cared about us far more then they do today even as a PL (even though I need more than double the points for PL then I needed for GL).

2. Upgrades from Y to C based on space even from lower fare classes (usually done 48 hours before the flight), and the upgrades were not dependent on number of points in your account etc.
I had something like 90% upgrade success rate in those days.

3. Anytime access to all (not just TLV) KD lounges regardless of which airline I'm traveling with on the day.

4. None of the seating nonsens they have these days, if I was traveling with someone and I wanted an exit seat they could sit there with me without having to pay for it.

There are more things I'm sure I'll remember, but in the meantime, would be interesting to hear how others here feel about about how they're treated today, and how they compare the Matmid club today to what it used to be, or in other words, what do you most miss?

Maybe the ElAl rep will answer.
(I have nothing to say, up until 3 years ago I used to fly as a none rev...)

I'm hoping the ElAl rep will respond (and prove to use it's not just positive feedback they react to here...) but I was also hoping others would contribute their own thoughts on the subject beforehand.

The lack of response here means either people are happy with Matmid, don't have status, or perhaps relatively new to LY so can't compare...

On the other hand this is the LY foum after all, so I guess I'll wait patiently... :)

In the days before July 2001 when PL was started (if i remember correctly) GL was equivalent to king.

Calling the "upgrade line" 2 days before the flight almost assured an upgrade 2 days before departure ("shidrugim shalom medaberet...." ), it was never an issue to get special sitting for a co worker flying with you and calling any of the lounge guys directly (Lxxx comes to mind... ah, the farrah faucet hair style never got old) - and most of the time if an upgrade did not clear on the phone it cleared at the airport. (there was no better felling compared to walking from the C class lounge to the F area in the 'original' lounge).

PL was better. Literally, calling sherut shalom saying "Hi, this is Daniel, one of your PL's) would instantly cause most of what you needed, as long as reasonable (including special treats, like arranging C/class checkin for a family member flying without you) happen easily.

Not to mention very nice wines we used to receive several times a year on major Jewish holidays.

then, it went down hill.. and down hill.. and down hill until i stopped flying LY completely in 2006 and switched to LH (HON until the end of this month..) and after LH announced major changes to HON last august, i switched to BA.

sigh, the good old days.

p.s. - anyone remembers the very very very old F class lounge in JFK (old pre terminal 4 days) with no attendants and lots of old pictures hanging around of glory days? would love to find a picture of that.

In the days before July 2001 when PL was started (if i remember correctly) GL was equivalent to king.
It certainly was, and that's what's so frustrating about the club the way it is today.

You need to be at the highest level (TPL) to get any sort of proper recognition, and that requires exactly 5 times the number of points one used to need for being at the top status level (Gold).

Has no one else here got anything to add? I thought this would be a good thread for people to post their frustrations, discuss how mat mid has changed over the years (for better? for worse?) and even use it to post their wishes as far as Matmid is concerned, but apparently everyone is really happy with things as they are... :rolleyes:

Or nobody's here . . . .

I've got no opinion on it.

I don't know what Matmid used to be like to compare. I'm on the younger side on this (as well as most) forum(s). At the time of "what Matmid used to be," I would've been an unaccompanied minor!

Or nobody's here . . . .

I am here...

I am here...
:confused: On so many levels

:confused: On so many levels

Well...not in an official capacity...

Well...not in an official capacity...
You are just exacerbating the confusion. In what capacity are you here? And since when are "you here?"

You are just exacerbating the confusion. In what capacity are you here? And since when are "you here?"

I read these boards and wish that I could comment but don't really have an answer regarding some of the issues that people discuss here (I assume that the official rep here doesn't either). Personally, in this thread I have understood and agree that SL and GL aren't what they used to be. I am campaigning within the company to my fellow co-workers that they should bend over backwards for an SL because to achieve SL status is very hard, especially if the passenger is not a local Israeli. Hope that some people may benefit from these efforts in the future.

Dash,

Insider

I Believe that most people don't have status or don't care, i stopped a long time ago to care about airlines FF Programs do to the limits of these programs when flying out of TLV.
today i care more about price ,schedule & hard product comfort then Miles & status,

To put it simply, the benefits I get as a TP are no better than what I got as a PL 5 years ago and no better than what I got as a GL 10 years ago. The only nice things, though i can't call them benfits, about being a TP is that:
1) On half of my flights one of the FA's comes to me and asks if there is anything special they can do for me. What can I possibly ask for besides a glass of wine or an extra pillow?
2) You have access to Gala, Yonit and crew - who try very hard to be helpful and often do come through with a change here or there - but there is an extreme limit to what the are capable of. Basically, they exist in order to run interference on behalf of a TP who runs into often idiotic El Al policies - but even they (Gala, et al) are limited in what they can do when the companies business culture is so rotten at the core.

That just about sums it up: El Al runs Matmid not to generate business and reward loyalty, but rather because they are forced to keep up with what has become an industry standard. They still relate to each flight on a cost-revenue basis, instead of approaching the long-term customer relationship on in cost-revenue analysis. Hence, they'll squeeze juice out of a TP on a not-fully-booked flight, forcing him into a higher fare bucket (thus generating more revenue in the vaccum that is a particualr flight) instead of giving him a lower (his usual) fare bucket and earning his loyalty (which will generate 10 times the added revenue.

El Al has gone through great transformations over the past 10 years - and their soft product, especially in the air, has become world class. However, the underlying corporate culture and business sense is still stuck in 1972, regardless of Shkedi, Romano and Shapira. No macro-economic outlook whatsoever at this airline.