Had an interesting conversation with someone I know who flies TLV-NYC roundtrip in business class on El Al at least three times a year.

I suggested they explore switching to BA: with 560 tier points per round trip via LHR they could earn and keep BA Gold every year. I thought the lounges and general experience are so good that they’d be tempted but they were not tempted and said the following:

1. They like the kosher food on El Al business class and the ability to drink kosher wine and wonder if BA kosher food would be as good?

2. They like the kosher food in the TLV LY lounge although they concede that LY has closed most of its international lounges and so they don’t get the benefit of kosher food in lounges elsewhere and can’t eat anything elsewhere.

3. The schedule is better for LY than connecting through LHR.

What do people think here? Is the experience that much better on El Al?

Obviously airline choice is a personal thing, but would be interesting to hear from people who keep kosher strictly enough that they would not eat or drink food/wine without kosher certification (“hekhsher”) as to whether these points really make LY that much more attractive. I know there are flyers on FT who are based in Israel but prefer other airlines than LY and would be interested to hear what factors sway their own decision making.

I would have thought as long as you don’t mind connecting, the numerous BA options for NYC-LHR outweigh the limitation of the handful of flights from LHR-TLV, and the benefit of BA’s lounges and general experience trumps LY (as well as presumably the value of the Avios, which don’t expire as long as you have continued activity — unlike LY’s points).