I'm new here so maybe you already talked about it but I'm an El al member since 1999. After 3 flights from TLV to LAX I earned a flight (completely) for free from TLV to Toronto (this was in 2002).

Today, after a few flights (some to the us, a few to Europe) - I can't even get 1 flight to Europe (you still need to pay extra which is in some cases more expensive than a regular flight itself)

I find it quite ridiculous, feels like I need 20 flights in order to get 1 bonus flight to Athens or Prague.

What do you think? Is it just me?
Or is it something that happened to all of the airlines in the past few years?

Thanks.

How many flights did you take and in which fare bucket?
Point accumulation when you fly deeply discounted economy (T/O/G) is low (but better than nothing, some would say).

Many years ago it was possible to get upgrades for free very often.
Today even for points it's almost immpossible (unless you have a very expensive booking class)

Many years ago Taxes & Fuel Surchage were not collected on Bonus Tickets,
That's why it was free, But it seems when EL-AL gave it for free everyone else did collect money for it, So someone smart in EL-AL decide to be like everyone else.

As for the amount of flights, It really depends on the booking class you have made, Even in economy there are several levels which entitle you 25, 50, 75 and 100 points per flight, you will need 9 flights (legs) for a bonus ticket.

As for the Tax/Fuel prices, i dont agree with you, you can pay also half in points...

If you are gold then you get 25% more points per flight, if you are PL/TPL, 50%

Dont forget that it was not common to fly 15 years ago, so point system were much better, actually even PL didnt existed that time! when people started to fly more and more, everything was changed.

A pretty bad deal, as far as point value is concerned.

How's it a bad deal. Actually I believe you can pay not just half, but the complete surcharge which is not airport / government levied. On recent bonus tickets to Europe with the whole family and then with my wife I saved a lot of money doing this and the rate given I value my money more than my points - 1 point per $0.50 taxes cost. I saved $960 in taxes this summer by paying 1920 points - pretty good value in my eyes.