Much as I get annoyed with EL AL, and especially the pathetic hard product, and much as I am annoyed by the recent harsh devaluation (although my calculations seem to indicate that status-wise I may be a little better off than before), and much as I am tempted to 'jump ship' to BA (as most of my travel is to London) ... I don't see it happening. Why?
I recently requalified as a PL with EL AL. I have almost two months before my new 'year' starts. I may need to travel to London between now and then so I thought I could give BA a try without risking my EL AL status. I recently had a very pleasant flight with them on their 787 from EWR to LHR, so let's see what they have to offer from TLV. We have many Avios points in our family shared BA account (I am a lowly 'blue' card holder) so why not use them? After all, they haven't 'timed out' like EL AL's do!
But: I cannot find any availability of flights on the days and flights I may want to travel between now and the end of December to London - whether as a pure bonus ticket, or as an upgrade. That's SIX WEEKS AHEAD! NOTHING! So what's the point of holding all of those Avios?
I ought to add that I was looking to do the same for the EWR-LHR flight, which I had wanted to book 2 months ahead, not in a particularly busy period either, but NOTHING. In the end I paid for business class, but the cabin was half empty when I flew. When I booked I reckon I was probably one of the first to book. On EL AL there would have been a few seats available in that sort of situation.
Maybe the EL AL system is bad, and maybe it is worse than ever, but at least they have a degree of availability - maybe not a week ahead, but certainly 6 weeks ahead.
So I don't see it as being all that bad, even if it could be better.