Lehava, my idea would be to give Israelis this benefit no matter what Delta flights they are taking. If they are in Miami and want to take a side trip to Las Vegas, that, too, would get the double MQMs.

I get an e-mail regularly from a travel agent here in Israel. The deeply discounted tickets r/t to NYC currently being offered are:

El Al: $763
AZ: $779
AF: $749
Delta: $839

If you take Delta you are either going to be on El Al all the way or else on a local airline (El Al or another) to a European connection. The choice is up to you.

Why should anyone pay out the extra money for Delta? In most cases, even if you prefer DL you can get on Delta metal from the connection city.

The only reason I could see is if Delta makes it easier to get status.

I don't know how much of a reduction Delta gets but I am going to presume that on codeshare flights it pays 20% less than I would and on non codeshare tickets it saves 10%.

This means that it would pay El Al $610 for the ticket to NY and charge me $839. That is $229 for doing absolutely nothing other than handing me a ticket. Additionally, if I want to continue on -- say to FLL -- it gets all of the fare from NY.

If I decide to fly AZ, Delta makes no money from my TLV-MXP flights. Obviously, if I continue the rest of the way on AZ, Delta also makes nothing. If I fly on a Delta-operated AZ codeshare flight, Delta has to shell out to AZ.

In all of these cases, Delta would be much better off giving me double MQMs and keeping the money now going to other airlines.