Can I help you

Or is it people are leaving and few are visiting?

orbitmic

I honestly don't think that this convincingly shows anything about using short haul vs long haul aircrafts.

- BA fly only one flight a day with horrid times, LY fly many (I think 3 to LHR only these days?) with a choice of schedules. Obviously, people will prefer better schedules and more choice to bad schedules and no choice;

- In particular, BA flights to TLV have always been split between o/d and connecting pax, but the flight times chosen make them completely useless for any connection;

- You know Israeli as well as I do: in times of crisis, many people simply trust LY safety more than they do foreign airlines. I know plenty of people who would find LY the safe choice at the best of times but could deviate in normal circumstances - those are not, however, normal circumstances;

- BA only just restarted flights 10 days ago. There is always a bit of a gap in bookings when airlines start a flight because normally a plane is full of both people going and returning, but for the first few days, you can't "return". I also suspect many people will have not been quite certain BA would resume flights when they said they would (I certainly wasn't sure they would myself I have to say).

- The stop in LCA lengthens the BA flight making it, as you point out, even more unattractive. On that front, when people compare to LX, etc, I would point out that even though differences in distance are small in principle, in this specific context, they are significant because they can make the difference between something on which you can send a crew to serve both outbound and inbound flight and those that need a change of crew between outbound and inbound.

All in all, I daresay that the aircraft (or for that matter the avios) are most likely th eleast of people's worries. I share your conclusion that BA might have been better off waiting till it was ready to give the route a fair shot, but I personally don't think that would have involved a return to long haul aircrafts any time soon anyway.

tmac100

Amen to that!

jmd

El Al are currently very busy in both directions so it�s probably not this. Contrary to appearances in the media, TLV isn�t some sort of war zone that people are fleeing from. My guess is that it�s more that the outbound with the LCA stop is really unappealing (which is not surprising).

corporate-wage-slave

I would say the early departure time from LHR and less than daily service is problematic here - if you don't operate daily some of fare comparison sites won't work very well. Accepting that Fridays would be different, I wonder if BA would do better with something like a 10:00 hrs departure from LHR so that some on-carriage traffic could happen, but it's revealing that BA hasn't done that, they are not actively trying to link into early shorthauls and East Coast arrivals. I'm told the route is performing OK in money terms.

davidcamp6

Approx 79K entered Israel on a tourist visa in March ( a quarter of the figure for March 2023); approx 420K Israelis left TLV in the same month ( about 50% fewer than March 2023).
There will be a spike this month in both categories reflecting those coming to spend Passover in Israel and those Israelis using the festival period to take a holiday abroad.

testycal

well...taking a stab at the route but mighty unappealing.....depart 1620 arrive 1950...early departure to DFW on onwards or transfer to Gatwick to connect with Vancouver in order to purchase more reasonably priced economy tickets.

testycal

Is this not a..s...s backwards? I was aware of the Lanarca stop but I assumed it was already baked into the timetable..apparently not.

purchase ticket
24 hour cooling off period expires
receive email below today
original itinerary had me landing about 90 minutes before original flight time..my return itinerary has me landing from DFW at the same time this flight leaves..I have not responded yet....how to respond? I do not believe there are any YVR LHR or YVR DFW LHR flights that will get me to LHR early enough to catch this flight meaning? I now have an obligatory day before overnight? Who is that on? Me or BA? Comments appreciated thank you.

And...just notice MB ...return flights have disappeared from booking.

salut0

This time change is because they put back the technical stop in LCA which is what extends the flight time: 0800 is without the LCA stop, 0640 is with it.

Maybe the change (since it’s BA- rather than customer-initiated) gives you some leeway on arguing for a better solution or the ability to cancel without penalty?

EDDLEGLL

Does anyone here know what the "FCDO advice against all but essential travel" means in practice? Does it automatically and generally invalidate normal travel insurance such as HSBC Premier/Amex Platinum insurance, or other "normal" OTC UK travel insurance? My policy documents aren't very clear and I'd like to go to TLV for a few days later this month.

testycal

The issue is that the LCA stopover has been in place since Apr 1 when BA started flying again so that sold itineraries should reflect what BA is offering to sell.

BA advises my options are to overnight LHR and will re book YVR to LHR directly and overnight or remain with YVR DFW LHR flight and overnight LHR. I guess this can become tricky because first bus of day from T4 Premier Inn is at 432 am which is cutting close the time I need to get through security (Elizabeth Line opens even later as I understand from schedule) unless I do taxi or would I be advised to take Sofitel but the price difference is far more although more convenient? I can also stay at Thistle or PI Terminal 5 area and take pods in or walk in (which I have done in the past for fun although crossing the non pedestrian bridge in the dark may not be fun or safe). Pods start at 4 am which gets me into T5 within 15 minutes max if staying at Thistle.

I was also offered option of between 24 and 48 hours travelling Air France between Vancouver and Tel Aviv through Paris.

I prefer to be able to use my benefits however.

Would BA refuse reimbursement under this scenario?

salut0

I believe that BA intended the LCA stop to be temporary and had timetabled the LHR-TLV flight to go back to nonstop after an initial period with the stop. Then they extended the time during which they�re still doing the stop. So you must have booked after the first iteration of the timetable and before the second.

testycal

Booked May 6 and email received May 8.

golfmad

It's just unfortunate timing. I booked to TLV several weeks ago for a wedding in July and also received the unhelpful news this morning that our trip in July is going to incur the extra stop in LCA on the way out.

testycal

BA still selling the 8 am departure as we speak. Surely their IT is smarter than this?

The stop does not concern me..for my connection is the overnight required and whether BA will reimburse me. I already made other plans that commit me to the itinerary. I am assuming BA will pick up duty of care costs which should apply but not compensation. Having said that as I was told, I could be offered Air France to Tel Aviv from Vancouver through CDG but that costs BA more money...hotel and a meal and a pod charge would be less?