It’s also possible that TLV is indeed higher yield than other longhaul routes and yet BA - facing a longhaul aircraft shortage - have decided that they don’t want to shrink their network elsewhere when TLV can be served by shorthaul - even if they leave some profit on the table. Most longhaul routes cannot be similarly served.

The last two years have also been extremely unpredictable and despite the Americans Bibisitting, regional conflict may not all be in the rearview mirror. I assume BA takes on significantly less financial risk assigning a A321 to the route. We’ll see what happens to the route as time goes on and the fleet stabilizes.

But the terrible outbound flight time should be addressed.

Timely discussion. Looking to revive a long postponed trip this January. It appears BA is the only OneWorld option available, but the very long flight time in Club Europe (even though we'd be in row 1) and the horrible departure times are giving me pause. We have a big credit on El Al from flights booked on October 5, 2023, so perhaps we'll just fly in and out of London on BA/AA and use El Al to TLV. Maybe also an opportunity to finally try AF's TATL product. I guess BA should be credited with actually providing service, but they certainly make it hard to choose them.

Just to add, El Al now has 3 daily widebody flights (Mon-Thu) for the winter season, with 2 out of the 3 being daytime flights. There's also a morning departure from Luton on a 737, which still offers a better business class than BA.

That's wonderful news. No-one need put up with the dreadful BA service then.

Check your voucher expiry date, I had some vouchers which expired this December.

Fully agree with most of this. However, I suspect the terrible flight time is also part of BA's risk minimisation strategy. Given the unpredictable nature of this route, BA certainly doesn't want to waste a long-haul airframe serving a route that could be suspended at any time. I think this also applies even to an A321. These are mostly utilised during European day/evenings. Rarely used overnight. So by scheduling this as an overnight A321 service, there is minimal risk (since BA is only missing out on a few hours of potential airframe usage in the mornings).

Maybe if the situation remains stable for 9-12 months and the commercials justify it, BA might reconsider, but I doubt there is a huge incentive for BA to dedicate any airframe to this route right now.

We are flying on this flight tlv to lhr tomorrow. Flew Lhr to tlv last week on El Al. The J BA ticket..yes I know it's Club Europe was about a quarter of the cost of our PE ticket to TLV. Hope more competition will affect pricing on this route snd others to tlv in general. Flew in an out of London on AA. Separate tickets.

Ah, so great minds think alike. In my case I want to use my El Al credit, but don't want to use them all the way from, say, New York. I want to stick with AA/BA for as much of the trip as possible. How long was/were your layovers in LHR between AA and El Al?

BA cancelled my flight LHR- TLV for end of November. It was booked in May, BA cancelled in June. Original flight was leaving LHR at 7am and they are only offering me to change to the evening flight later that day or day before. 20:55- 03:25 does not work for me at all.
What are my rights? Should BA put me on another airline? I do realise they have not extended their policy of moving passengers to LY

I don't know the answer to your question whether BA are fulfilling UK261 by offering those flights.

Perhaps they would agree to put you on one of the options via Europe with the second leg on ELAL, which are now bookable on BA.com. Obviously, this won't work for you if you don't want a stopover, or if the timings of those don't work either.

I have been wanting to go back to Israel for a while next spring and even with the awful flight time i would have flown BA if it wasn't for prices!!!, i could just about cope with a 3.30am arrival!
So booked with Easy jet , they restart in March.
Not an easy flight as its a long flight and last time i did on the way so many people were just standing up talking even with me being at the front row
Getting to Luton is a different matter altogether

Edit - i then looked at direct from Heathrow and the prices are not so bad and seems to be 2 flights a day, i wouldnt have paid extra to fly business to Israel tbf

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We didn't really fly to/from Israel as connections. We arrived in Lindon on Friday too late for the El Al flight so we stayed in London until Sunday. On the return Since it was the second day of BA flight we arrived in London today and are returning to the states on Thursday. We left a buffer in case BA didn't actually start up and we would have had made other flight arrangements. It was a nice breakup of the flight home and always lots to do in London.

Some dp on the flight. At checkin the staff is making sure everyone in J knows this is not a wide body and there is no in flight entertainment. There is a J security line at Ben Gurion and fast track through security. You can use the Dan Lounge. The overhead bins are large and got most rollerblading and there was empty space overhead after full boarding and not much checking of size of suitcases. Co pilot spoke fluent Hebrew today. Blankets and pillows provided but no amenity kit so bring your toothbrush! All in all a pleasant flight if expectations are properly set. The timing of the morning flight is in line with most European bound flights. Im not sure I'd want to take the lhr to tlv flight given its 3 am arrival.

For anyone who has flown recently please let me know what the legroom is like on

Exit Row=16

thank you

any updates pls.