I received an Email from EL AL today announcing that Matmid was once again nominated for the best Frequent Flyer program of the year in the Middle East for the Freddie Awards. It also provided a link to a survey where I could vote for Matmid (which I did; hey why not? )

My question is this: I know over the years many of us have discussed the advantages/disadvantages of Matmid. Does anyone here know how Matmid stacks up to other regional carrier programs from RJ, EK, or EY?

The question is why would anyone vote for either El Al as an Airline or its terrible FF program?

I had the misfortune of having to fly El Al for 3 round trips bkk-tlv-bkk in j and have never had such a dissapointing service/experience on any other airline.

Old outdate aircraft with old outdated j and f seats.
Overpriced tickets for crap services
Terrible robotic service,dire food,ignorant security and gate staff.
I am unable to find anything good to say about either the airline or its FF program.

As far as Matmid is concerned in my opinion it cannot compete with RJ, EK, or EY all of which have the own problems but these are nothing compaired to those i have experienced with Matmid.

Those who run the airline need to take there head out of the a-se and see how the rest of the world is passing them by.

This ofcourse is my own opinion and i am sure there will be many who say otherwise?

Everyone on this forum knows how critical I have been of EL AL's management and the way things have been run there for some time, however I must disagree with you about one point you make. I never found EL AL's service to be robotic or sub-par. In fact, EL AL's soft product, in my opinion, is significantly better than the services offered by competing European and American carriers. It's remarkable to me how good EL AL's in flight service is given how demoralized front staff are as a consequence of the recent cuts and layoffs. If you want to truly know what robotic service feels like then you should fly the likes of Lufthansa and United.

With that said, EL AL does need to seriously reform its hard product, Matmid FF program, and managerial structure so that the company is able to come to par with international standards and generate sustained profitability over the long term. I wrote and mailed a detail specific plan for such to EL AL's management and its Board. Hopefully with the new change in ownership on the horizon they will be able to implement the suggestions found therein.

Getting back to main question posted, does anyone specifically know how LY's program stacks up with other regional Middle-Eastern and Mediterranean carriers? Can someone compare/contrast so we can have an idea?

i have had long term dealings with most larger Midle eastern FF programs and in my opinion would rank them in this order.
1.Etiahd Airways
2.Qatar Airways
3 Royal Jordanian.
4.Emirates
5.El Al
6.Egypt air
7.Kuwait Airlines
8.Gulf air
9.Oman Airways
I have flown J or F on all of these airlines,some more than others but have reached either silver,gold or elite status with all of them.
Etihad for me are head and shoulders above all the other airlines i have dealt with.
The milage is credited within a few days of travel.
There london and manchester call centers are first rate and have always dealt with any small issues i have had(which have been very few).
Milage redemtion has always been easy and in all the time i have used Etiahd i have never had an upgrade from j to f refused and have even had the call center tell me which flight had the most available seats for upgrade so i could book acordingly.
Web site is easy to use.
Qatar are nearly as good but not quite,not as helpfull as Etihad in my opinion altough again never had an issue when wanting to use milage to upgrade J to F
Royal Jordanian next because they are One World and my staus with BA helps in dealings with them.
EL Al,s Matmid has a lot of catching up to do but they are not the worse by a long chalk,the way Emirates are going it wont be long before they fall further down the list as they really are terrible when having to deal with there call centers.

Would it be possible for you to compare/contrast more specifics between Matmid and Etihad's/RJ's programs?

I will try if you would be more specific about the kind of information you are looking for,in which areas would you like me to compare the respective FF programs ELY001?

3737,

Could you compare Matmid to the FF programs offered by Etihad, Emirates, and RJ in the following categories:

1. Ease of attaining and retaining elite status

2. Benefits of elite status for comp upgrades and upgrades with points

3. Elite status lounge access benefits

4. Availability and ease of points/mileage redemption for free tickets on both the airline itself and partner airlines

5. How generally elites are treated by the airline

6. Your overall impression of the strengths/weaknesses of each program.

I know it's a lot however your knowledge and experience with the FF programs of all three airlines would be invaluable in giving all of us (including those inside LY who read this forum; I hear their numbers are growing) perspective as to where EL AL stacks up and what could be improved upon.

Ok Here goes.
1.Ease of attaining and retaining elite status.

Most FF programs are the same in my opinion,the more you fly the easier it is to move up the ranks,i dont see any advantage or disadvantage Regarding Matmid in this respect and there Elite status is no harder or easier to attain than the rest of the Reigions FF programs.
I managed to reach Gold with Matmid very easily and would have made gold elite if i had continued to fly with the airline.

2. Benefits of elite status for comp upgrades and upgrades with points.

I was never offered a comp upgrade and never managed to get upraded with El Al using points and tried a few times to do so.
I paid for J so was looking to upgrade to first when that cabin was available.
The dissapointing thing for me was on 2 occasions when an empty f cabin was flown i was denied the opportunity to upgrade on points but was asked to pay $500 dollars to upgrade?
So little use for me to acrue miles if i couldnt use them for an upgrade.
Etihad has given me a free f upgrade 4 times from purchased j seat holding silver status plus atleast 6 j to f upgrades using miles and this over a period of 3 years flying with them so not even a regular flyer with the airline.
Emirates never holding gold status on j purchased tickets.
Kuwait i free upgrade to f on a j purchased ticket.
all the other airlines flown were only j class tickets with either no F or i didnt request to use miles.

3. Elite status lounge access benefits.

This is where i think Etihad has everyone beat as there premium lounges beat other midle eastern lounges hands down.
Difficult to compare regarding access through status as i am fortunate to fly at least J on any airline i use but having experienced most major airlines lounge offerings i think Etihad are tops
El Als offering in Tel Aviv is extreamly poor in my opinion,barely compairing with Kuwaits at there hub,and would put it at the bottom of lounge experiences where the others are concerned but in most cases silver stauts on most airlines allows you some sort of lounge access so its the experience you have in the lounge that counts here.

4. Availability and ease of points/mileage redemption for free tickets on both the airline itself and partner airlines

Extreamly Difficult for Matmid to compete with RJ who are One World or Emirates,Etihad etc who have many other airline partners.
I understand the reason why El Al doesnt belong to any seriouse alliance but this hurts there FF program in my opinion.
The lack of alliance membership restricts what you can do with Matmid miles and network routs are limited also so again against Qatar,Emirates,Etihad difficult for Matmid to compete.
Hardly worth trying to redeem Matmid miles for its own flights in my mind unless you just travel mostly on El Al?

5. How generally elites are treated by the airline

Again,its about the experience you receive before you even reach the airport,Etihad,Emirates,Oman all offer a free pick up and return car service,comp hotel for layovers exceeding a certain time limit,free hotels on booked stop overs,etc etc.fastrack imigration services on departure and arrival.
Matmid does none of this to my knowledge,the scrum to get through bagage search and immigration does nothing to enhance its FF program.
As a gold member i wasnt given any preferential treatment on check in or fastrack from anyone else??
So where is the value to me in being a Matmid member?
Even RJ afforded me a free hotel,all transfers,meals,fastrack through immigraton and lounge access and i was on a broze One world status.
Ok,I was on a J ticket but was given the exact same offer as they gave One World Gold so was given priority over non members.
Most of the airlines above gave me some sort of recognition when boarding or after boarding.
Especially on a Gold status ie welcomed by name and spoke to by the cabin services manager offered my preferences(drinks,papers,magazines etc) as indicated in my FF information.
When flying Emirates First class between LHR-BKK i have seen on the cabin services managers passenger information that my name was higlihted as an "Comercially important passenger" and received slightly higer interaction from the cabin crew than non status F passengers not much difference i know but atleast i could see some sort of recognition for my money.
Only Egypt air and El Al was this welcome or recognition not given and having flown both airlines several times i never received any benefit from my FF staus.

6. Your overall impression of the strengths/weaknesses of each program.

No airline has a perfect FF program that will involve a 100% of its passengers being kept happy 100% of the time however For me i have had a poor overall experience of both El Al as an airline and have not received any reall benefit from joining Matmid.
I am sure that a lot of people who are Matmid members can give a different outlook and again this is only my experience of my time flying this airline but having flown and been a member of 20+ airlines i am affraid as an Airline and a FF program El Al and Matmid dont cut it for me because as the national airline of Israel i really was expecting more.

3737,

Thanks for your extensive and well thought out review.