Native UA availability sucks also. The Star alliance side of things however, you can usually find something that works.

I've generally not had issues, and it's certainly better than LY.
And you have the expanded benefit (as you mention) of an alliance to deal with (one of UA's biggest benefits is their online award search tool)

Scathing article today in Globes (in Hebrew)

http://www.globes.co.il/news/article...p_firstarticle

LY's response to that article looks incredibly familiar, now where have I heard that being repeated over and over again...? :confused:

Oh yes, right here in this thread by their rep...

The new plan has some interesting redemption values if you have an Amex EDP card and become an executive member.

e.g. 'free' ticket to Rome for $16500 in spending (was $29700 before).

Athens $9900 vs. $16500

Redemption/Award ticket, free it ain't.

I dunno.
Most people I spoke with were pretty annoyed at the changes.
In the meantime, they are full swing into marketing the FLY Card, dumping all this marketing material and applications all over the seats etc.

At the end of the day, if there is enough interest in the card, it could be a source of some ancillary revenue for EL AL.
I just dont get the sense that people actually care about getting another credit card.

Well, we already had Diners cards, so we cancelled them and got the new Fly Cards, although I am not sure how much use they will be for us now, as we are in the process of moving from EL AL to BA ...

If you are able to redeem at the current promotional rate it comes out to $28,500 in spending for a ticket to NYC (for Fly Card premium holders), $21.3K to YYZ. So that's a pretty decent deal, even compared to US CC's.

Of course most people haven't had the card long enough to spend that much. In fact my bank will only start issuing it this week.

After last flight from JFK which was 100% full on all 3 classes I:
1. Gave up on trying to understand how ELAL fills the planes on such ridiculous prices and bad hard product
2. Switched all my long haul flights to other companies - C fares are almost the same as LY Y (well actually S class) fares!!!!

So long and thanks for all the fish

After 10 years as a PL with EL AL, I am also moving - to BA. On average $500 less for a direct, full tier points earning business class flight TLV-LON, and about $2000 less for a business class flight from TLV-NYC (albeit via London and not direct). With EL AL I always took F to New York as their business class hard product was so pathetic. With BA I find their business class seats better than EL AL's F product both for sitting and for sleeping.

Some ELAL prestige Rep (cant remember her name :() just called me to say congrats that I have reattained PL for next year. I told her that after (not sure how many) several years of PL I will probably not gain it again next year.
I explain the reasons:
1. New program has devalued points per $ in LY in between 40-60%
2. ELAL pricing is crazy (TLV-LAS in S cost MORE than TLV-LAS in C in BA!!!)
3. Very low level C product (not to mention the awful F)

She did not have much to say as an answer. I encouraged her to look into this forum for more information and thoughts of fellow FTs

To which she responds, "Yes but we have the new FLY Card, revolutionary in the aviation world!"

The fact of the matter is, as you have noted, their flights are 100% full. You leaving wont impact them that much, as there will be others to take your place.

People are always coming and going to and from TLV. There are people that go from JFK and TLV and back all within 3 days....short trips etc..

Not everyone wants to fly with a stopover. Thats also a consideration for alot of folks.

But if more and more paid C pax are leaving, I just don't see how they will fill up planes in 3 years. Many who "love" LY are non-full fare Y pax or the once/twice year/every other year C pax. That's just not enough.

I'm curious how many of their pax are really paying for C, and doing on a consistent basis. Or does LY have enough "fans" to not need FFs?