moe8555

Hi all,

El Al has started auctioning off seats on low-volume flights/dates with some extremely reasonable prices.

This new service was touted in one of their emails or app updates a few days ago, albeit to very little fanfare.

In terms of payment, it's quite similar to bidding for a class upgrade: you submit credit card details, and in the event of a win you get charged.

However, these auctions are eBay-style (you know where you stand at any given moment and the bids are public).

I decided to take the plunge and scored 2 tickets to Rome in mid-December for only $198 each. Had I booked them through the regular method, they would've cost $296 each. A quick glance at competing airlines' prices for the same dates put the lowest fare at $283 via AlItalia. Not bad at all!

The tickets booked into the lowest possible fare bucket and point accrual (obviously).

All in all, everything worked great - check it out. They also have fares to long-hauls like Toronto and Bangkok for about $600.

simba8

where did you see it on their website?
you have a link?

clubman

Nice one. Now you just have to hope you're flight actually operates, and if it does operates with LY and not one of the many leased aircraft they currently have available...

https://www.elal.com/he/Israel/Pages...ns/all/TLV/HKG

clubman

Just has a quick look at it, and really nothing to get too excited about.

If you were planing on booking and traveling on those specific dates anyway, and can save a few bucks great, but there's nothing there worth bidding for just for the sake of finding a bargain.

The bids start too high for that (on some of the shorter destinations like MAD or MUC bids start at $40-$50 below the normal fare).

moe8555

Yes and no. My wife wanted to travel mid-December so it worked out nicely. Other flights did not seem especially cheap. But you don't think $600 non-stop to Thailand, for example, is a good deal?

clubman

It's $680, and yes it's not a bad price for a return to BKK, but it's a starting bid that will save you $120 at most, if you get it for that price.

I'm just saying the starting price points are not that attractive, so if I had to travel to BKK on those dates and was about to book anyway, of course I would try, but it's not going to attract anyone spontaneous, which i would have thought was the whole purpose of the exercise.

moe8555

This is where you have to be perceptive. I monitored these auctions over the course of a day. The Bangkok auction always starts at $601, and even without a single bid, the price slowly creeps up. This happens until it reaches the price you quoted above, stays that way till auction end, then resets back to the original price with a new timer in the event that nobody bid.

FYI - The above behavior goes for the rest of the destinations.

joshwex90

Are these exclusively for flights in the coming 7 days? And does winning actually purchase a ticket (thereby guaranteeing a seat)?

Because if the whole excercise is to simply make money on a seat that would've otherwise flown empty, take the marginal cost of an additional passenger, add a little bit, and start the bidding there. If it's not guaranteed anyways OR there's a strong enough assumption that if no one bids on the seat then it'll anyways fly empty, why start so high and lose out on potential customers? Not like people who actually want/need to fly will stop buying tickets because they might be able to bid on tickets at the last minute

peace108

]I auctioned for an elal flight and won. That was great BUT! They changed my date to a departure 2 days later than what i had bid for. Tried to correct this -- immediately -- and then for weeks afterwards, with endless time wasted on phone calls, and 3 emails, and no one is responding to the issue, just sending me round and round in circles. With each connection they give another excuse. I would say that although the auction idea is great, this glitch makes it unreliable. And the customer service was abominable : phone clerks insisted i write; office clerks responded to my emails telling me to call. In short: zero customer service.

clubman

Maybe OP was hoping third time lucky...

Welcome to FT and the LY forum peace108! Please stick around, but no need for cross and double posting.

peace108

very nice to see that my post was noticed. I appreciate that, but was hoping for some positive action to rectify the mistake by the auction site.

trooper

Hang on, you DO realise this is a discussion forum on a site unconnected to El Al? You almost seem to be thinking this is some official conduit to them for complaints etc....

peace108

so sorry...the many posts are the proof of my total amateur status at forums in general. And no -- sorry again -- i could not understand the extent to which this forum is not connected to el al. Got it, now. Happy to end it here, and let my previous posts be a simple heads up for anyone thinking of playing out the auction site. It was really a very frustrating experience. A warning to potential flyers was my initial motivation.

Ruben5b

Hi,

I am flying to NYC and back from LAX.
I sometimes see airport upgrades options to Premium economy (when the plane is a 787) at the airport. From HKG it was 250 USD. Anyone spotted these offers from LAX? What's the availability usually and how much do they ask for?
Thanks

yosithezet

Should we turn this into a mast thread with successful/unsuccessful bids?