clubman

Whilst I can understand your excitement, new airlines, routes etc (and that includes discussion re the new CX route) is discussed here : http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/el-al...rlines-33.html

benberg2013

In a way, this deserves its own thread.

joshwex90

The same people who pay a few hundred USD more to fly LY C over UA/DL C to NYC

clubman

I just don't get it.

gordo6

Well, most of my LY flights (to the US at-least) are now part of an AA ticket as it usually comes out much, much cheaper...

gordo6

For discussions about the route itself - I think not. We have the master thread since 2010, to avoid having a separate thread about each route (well, that's at least why I opened it, and while there was some debate at first most have seemed to agree with me or at least get in-line with it Then again, I'm a bit biased).

Still, if we were to broad the discussion to topics such as how this route might impact LY, etc. - that itself may justify a separate thread.

Ditto

I don't get it either
Some PAX seems to be ok with paying more because they have extra security, or Hebrew speaking FAs, or I really can't think of any good reason why.

NYTA

Just tried booking an award on AA.com but it's not showing up there. It did show up on Kayak when I tried to purchase a ticket.

damaxer91

AA.com doesnt show CX awards

NYTA

hmm. news to me. Thanks!

mkilmo

First of all - an apology. Yes, it should have been in the master thread.
I even contributed in the past to the above thread.

However, its first message (where the information is gathered) is highly outdated (not pointing fingers, just mentioning a fact). It may be useful to make it a wiki-like and possibly defining when a new route stops being new.

Second of all - CX is big news beyond the master thread. It's not just a world-class airline (the first one to arrive to Israel), or the first to introduce A350 to TLV. It's actually a big thing.
For example, AI hinting that they are planning to fly to TLV (also appeared today on ynet) is no game changer. It's not an airline. It's AI. So even if people who want to fly cheaply to India can now do it with an airline which is well... AI, they could probably do the same with TK/RJ/... for roughly same price/better service, so it does not really affect LY. Even the Hanian route to China that affects BJS/PEK traffic is not too big of an issue for LY. LY usually uses this route for O&D traffic (AFAIK).

HKG (and BKK) are LY's "hubs" in SE Asia. This is where you fly to when you need to get down under. This is where you fly to when you go to various places in China (HKG), etc. This is a direct competition on LY's east-/south-east operation. Now you can enjoy CX business with the same transition ease (if not better connection given CX/HKG relations).

Finally, for OW people who up until now used to redeem via RJ (or some weird combinations) to exploit the fact that Israel is in Asia (well, at least AA people), now they can use ... CX.

So, while this is a new route for TLV, it is a game changer for LY. IMHO.

clubman

Not arguing anything you said (except perhaps that CX is the first "world class" airline in Israel") especially the above (at least until LY receive their Dreamliners), but we need to decide where this is to be discussed, as at the moment we're discussing one subject in two separate threads which makes no sense.

I think the idea of the master thread was to avoid that, but if everyone feels this deserves it's own thread, perhaps our mod can move the messages discussing it over there (17 so far...) to here.

clubman

Indeed, aa.com will only find you award availbility on the following airlines:

British Airways
Air Berlin
Qantas
Royal Jordanian
Finnair

ysmisc

I agree even for the simple reason that I have quoted C class TLV<->HKG for ~2700 USD!!!

joshwex90

On the scale of the "uber world class airlines," such as the ME 3, not too many are in Israel.

I've heard some include BA or LX, but not too many. Most are Middle Eastern or Asian