Hello There,
I am LY gold. I recently matched my BD status to GOLD, as I had a bad connection experience with LY to AA at JFK, and I decided to be BD*G so I will have *G benefits flying with LH or US.

Some information
1. I am located 25KM from TLV airport.
2. I fly to the US at least 2 times a year - one in April/May (for INTA conference) and one in November (for INTA management meeting - usually in MIA, MCO or PHX) - always in BUSINESS
3. I fly to London at least 1-2 times a year - PREMIUM ECONOMY or BUSINESS CLASS.
4. I fly to many other european destinations (at least 1 time a year) - BUSINESS class

EL AL - advantages

• EL AL fly to many direct destinations out of Israel
• EL AL has codeshare agreement with AA to some US destinations
• EL AL IFE systen is in Hebrew

EL AL - disadvantages

• EL AL does not have codeshare agreement for connections within Europe and Asia
• Most of the connections with AA requires terminal changes
• Most of the AA codeshare flights leave from JFK, so there will be long queues at the immigration and at the passport control
• PHX is excluded from AA-LY codeshare
• EL AL flies only 5+1/2 days a week..

BMI - advantages

• BMI gold gives me all STAR gold benefits
• Many of BMI partners fly out of TLV - to Europe and to the US
• I will get points also for my connecting flights
• I can fly to many US destinations with Europe connection
• I can also do the connection in PHL. The US TLV-PHL flight arrive when there are no other flights who use immigrations and passport control
• BMI and its partners fly 7 days a week
• Arrivals lounge in LHR
• 4 upgrade vouchers for BMI flights, so I can seat in PREMIUM ECONOMY for regular ECONOMY price

BMI - disadvantages

• TLV is not a hub of BD or of one of its partners
• BD or its partners IFE system is not in Hebrew...
• EDIT:When Diamond Club will become part of M&M I will not be able to gain enought miles in order to requalify SENATOR, so I will have to match my status to another airline.

I think I will choose BD, but I also ask you to advise me which program I should choose. Thanks in advance...