Firstly, El Al Rep, let me welcome you to FlyerTalk. It is great for both El Al and FlyerTalkers to have an official spokesman here.

Now, having welcomed you I will immediately start to give you problems -- as any good Israeli would.

Are you certain about that 5 extra kilos? The reason that I ask is that on the El Al website, it says that Silver gets 5 kilos while Gold and Platinum get 10 kilos.

I tried to see what an ordinary Matmid member is allowed. I did get to one spot which said we are given "Benefits for baggage stored in the hold of the plane to EL AL destinations in the Middle East, Europe, South Africa and the Far East for all the Classes (exclusive of code share or continuation flights to other destinations)."

It then provided a link to "more details" but when I tried it, I was informed that the page no longer exists.

Also, can you tell me how much extra I will be charged if I bring my laptop computer with me in a separate case?

Although I have been a Matmid member for a number of years, it has been a long time since I took an El Al flight. Generally, I fly either Delta to the US or a SkyTeam partner to Europe. The reason is made clear immediately when you consider the upcoming trip that I have: TLV-MXP-TLV.

If I wanted to use Matmid points for the trip, it would cost me 900 points plus $491 r/t. By not taking it as an award ticket, it cost me 10 cents less and no points at all. That has to make you wonder about the value of getting points with El Al, doesn't it?