After spending 10 days in Israel this summer - mostly in J'lem - Mrs CO FF and I decided that our (us + 2 teenagers) next family trip to Israel will deliberately skip J'lem. (OK, except maybe for a shabbat to daven with our favorite Masorti kehillot) Since neither of us have been to Eilat, or spent any serious time in the Negev, the plan is to either start in the north and work our way to Eilat, or start in Eilat and work our way to the north.

My preference would be to fly trans-Atlantic on AA metal, so I can use my Executive Platinum SWUs to upgrade everyone to J on the longhaul leg. Then, if I connect to LY, I can earn AA RDMs on the LY leg, even if it doesn't have an AA codeshare b/c of the ongoing dispute re the Israeli civil aviation authority.

Is there anyplace in Europe where I can get a nonstop flight to Eilat? If not, how difficult is the domestic connection @ Ben-Gurion?

(And, while I'm sure I don't need to say it, if you have any better ideas, I'd love to hear them!)