economyman

Could be a "datlash".

ysmisc

Hi Gal,
May I ask what made you change your mind and switch? You write in retrospect that it was a good move that you do not regret but what made you change your mind in the first place?
Also, do you choose LH/LX/CO etc over LY even on possibly direct flight with LY?
Best,
Yoav

joshwex90

Something tells me this is not the appropriate place to be discussing someone ELSE'S religious views!

ebzed

Hi Gal,
For my opinion is matching expectaions, I fly 80% of my flights with EL-AL,
Dont i have complains, I do, Will they change anything?, They wont...
Do i have better alternative for what i am searching? Not...
So depends on your profile, moving to others might be a perfect solution,
for others its not...

- Pricing, I dont understand you all..., EL-AL have competitive prices in many of the cases, If they are not, you can disucss with them and get a discount.
Trying to go TLV -> SYD -> TLV for 5 days in BA Economy is 6700$, in EL-AL C Class (Including BKK to SYD in BA C!) its 5700$.
Believe me, i need to compare prices on every flight at my work...

- Service, Since i fly very often (you did as well) the personal touch of the FAs in EL-AL is missing at the other airlines (Even if i manage to fly by mistake BA 3 times with the same crew, still not the same).

- Planes, Well you are right here! 8-)

-Direct Flights and Modifications, I think EL-AL wins here, At least for me,
I need direct flights, I need to be super flexible (given the air-line schedule),
I need to know that if i landed at 10am, and took a 3 days ticket, but finished my work after 4 hours, i can appear in the airport same night for the flight back without telling anyone, And know i will be on the flight, overbooked or not, 95% with no need to add a single cent or give any excuse.

So yes, Flying other might be better for you, that doesnt say its better for everyone... I could be a HON if i would stick to LH, or BA Gold (Would say even Black) but i have done my decision based of what i need and not what i wish.

Ebzed...

damaxer91

Seriously? How good can Israeli salad be?

clubman

I disagree with you on this one.

LY's prices in many cases (of course, not all) are considerably higher than others, and often offering a lower fare bucket earning you very few points even when fares are extremely high.

Pricing is a matter of timing, how full the flights you are looking at are etc, but I still have no idea how you managed to price TLV-SYD-TLV in Y at $6700?

Every date I have played around with is coming up at around $2800 for Y, or $6300 for C.

In regards to calling LY and negotiating a price, I don't get this concept...
Are you telling me that when I see a price for say TLV-LHR-TLV on the website, I can just call them up and start negotiating?

ebzed

On the dates i needed that was the price (i have screenshots if you need, i keep it for the record), When our customer came with BA for 3 days visit from SYD, He paid 8,200AUD$ in Y.
Again its all about when you book, and what is going on in the world...

No... First, Open a business account in LY, If you fly in average 30 to 50k$ a year you entitled to have such one (they will open even if you are a smaller one), Then you negotiate your discounts, Can be from 5% to 20% on S Class
and from 1% to 8% on Q class, you can also negotiate than on K/V classes you want pay ticket changes and etc...
After that, If you have a specific route, where even with the discount, the competitors offer cheaper fare on similar ticket (compare D to D and not D to W for example), you can discuss with your account manager which will work on getting you better prices if possible.

jspira

that video is hyterical!

jspira

i am not orthodox (also not a datlash) and almost always say daven (thank you Rabbi Cohen for a very good religious education.

economyman

1. I won't comment on your first point regarding pricing to Australia as I never fly there and have never checked it but BA are consistently, and I mean consistently cheaper than LY on almost all flights I price up and I like you always make comparisons.

2. Regarding negotiating, I have a business account with LY. I put north of $35K LY's way every year and negotiated discounts with them on S, Y, Q, C, D. However, they are not always flexible enough which has lost them my custom. For example I was flying monthly to TLV-BOD-TLV with LY and I tried to negotiate a better price for that route for flexible Y because BA (Premium Economy) and AF were much more competitive. They would not budge and I no longer fly with them. That lost them about $15K of business per year.

Furthermore, I don't need to negotiate anything when flying BA to the US, I consistently get lower pricing in business than with LY in business and with full points compared to LY's W class crappy points accumulation.

At the end of the day, for someone like you ebzed, I can certainly see the benefits and reasons for flying LY but in discussions with several regular flying friends and from information on this board I would say LY are generally not competitive. Whether this is causing them to lose market share, particularly of lucrative business travelling customers like me I have no idea. They have lost my business but may have gained someone else at the same time. That's for their bean counters to work out, not for me.

2035

Re TLV-SYD-TLV - can you do it on BA (via LHR) in business class (R) for $5200 including taxes. I did it last year. You may need to call BA call center to book it.

joshwex90

For me, it's the fact that they have a large and true salad, as opposed to 2 pieces of lettuce and 3 halves of cherry tomatoes.

sn1ke

Where did the fourth half go?

ELAL

3 go for the business class salad, and the fourth is for the cattle class salad.

joshwex90

Guy next to me had 5 halves...go figure