April and May, respectively. Thanks for the correction.

...and not when your destination is not NYC but BOS, IAD, ORD, ATL, etc. Then flying BA is more comfortable without having to switch in the US after a long flight to a short haul pain-in-the-... flight with typical delays / cancellations. By flying BA you get all the way to your final destination (or near enough) in comfort.

I have flown three times with BA in the last 3 months in C for under $3K when the cheapest LY C fare has each time been $3.5K - and that's for W class which gives you the same points as Y and no upgrades. Any BA C fare including the cheap I (around $2500 return) and R fares (around $2800 return) give you full mileage and tier points plus the ability to u/g to first with miles if you like. Frankly BA's C is so good it really is not necessary to u/g whereas on LY the F hard product does not match even closely BA's C product.

There are times when flying direct to NYC makes much more sense and in that case the extra few hundred dollars may be worth it for some but I can't really justify it unless I need to be in NYC on a Sunday morning for example.

No doubt the biggest advantage of LY is last minute upgrades which as a PL you can be pretty sure to get on non-busy flights. I tend to fly however on the typical business flights leaving Sunday or Monday, returning Wednesday or Thursday which means I need to worry about the u/g and follow the loads in advance to see if I should upgrade prior to the flight with a full voucher or not. It's a pain and takes up too much of my time. I'd much rather pay for C in advance at about the same price as LY full S/Y fare and not be concerned about getting C.

I will be sorry to see my PL gone later this year but LY should be sorry to lose about $30K of annual business from me - all they had to do was offer C at similar prices to BA and they would have had my business - it's a shame.

Agreed that it's absurd, though some have claimed the soft product on LY is indeed better. IMO, the food on LY is better (at least the KSML,) and the service was on par. Obviously seat-wise, it's no question; CO clearly is better.

Valid point

BA has CW fares for under $3K?! Maybe I should consider taking BA in May instead of CO. An Israeli resident can get Silver, just by one round-trip, TLV-NYC, in CW, correct?

Also, you wrote that F on LY doesn't even compare to C on BA - to that I disagree. C on LY doesn't come close to CW, and F on LY doesn't come close to F on BA. LY's F though and CW are closer.

You need I or R to get a fare below $3K. Usually that's not a problem, especially if you book with good notice except for Sunday mornings TLV-LHR which is what I usually book. If you have 3 legs on I/R and just TLV-LHR not you can ask them to request it. They confirmed R for me when only J was available (order is J, C, D, R, I) but I am a Gold card holder which I suppose helps with such requests. Still the TLV office is interested in your business and will usually make an effort. There is a $150 fee for booking on the phone but if that allows you to get a fare at below $3K including the fee rather than $4.5K without the fee, it's a no-brainer.

One return trip to the US in C gives you 480 tier points and you need 400 for Silver so yes - one trip is enough. 2 more after that and you would be Gold.

The reason I think BA C is better than LY F is the hard product - I find the BA C seat more comfortable than the LY F seat and love the privacy of the window seats. LY F soft product is as good as BA C or probably a notch better.

My main gripe with BA - aside from the extra stop - is that the flights leave TLV at 8 am. That means you don't get any sleep on the flight, nor a decent sleep the night before.

Well I suppose that depends where you live. I'm less than 30 minutes from TLV so I can leave home at around 5.45 or 6.00 (for a 7.35am departure).

On my last trip a couple of weeks ago I got 4 hours sleep on the LHR-ORD leg which surprised even me.

I find the flight back to be more problematic as with LY I can leave NYC at midnight, get a good 6-7 hours sleep and go to sleep a few hours later again once home. With BA, you have to wake up and change flights and that's more tiring. Still, the price difference wins me over.

If you're talking about the soft product I can't comment as I haven�t flown LY F in a very long time, but if it's the hard product you're referring to then I totally agree with economyman on this.

I just tried the F seats this afternoon as they opened F for C seating and although I knew it wasn't comparable even before trying it I was actually surprised at how dated it is considering it's such a new seat.

It is just not comparable in any way shape or form to any F I have flown, and I wouldn�t even rate it that much if it were a C product to be very honest.

After a few flights in C on other airlines, I boarded an LY flight on a 777 a couple of weeks ago. I had 10A.
We boarded from the front door, and naturally I went to the first seat on the left and started to settle in.
It took me a a minute or so to realize that I was in the F section. This is what C should look like!

http://www.globes.co.il/serveen/glob...29240&fid=1725