Having moved to Israel recently, I realized that my mileage is best used towards an upgrade only to NY. (to maximize my time in the States). My employer reimburses 75% of travel expenses, so I am not terribly concerned to purchacing a more expnsive ticket.

I travel an averge of once every 5 weeks to the States, and occasionally to Europe.

I am confused as to the various ways earn points, and if my credit cards (AMEX, Leumi) will count towards points for upgrades) and also what the "last minute upgrades" are all about.

Thanks!

First things first, Which Matmid country are you enrolled in USA or Israel. If USA you should change your membership to Israel so that you can participate in all their offers out of the country.

Also have you read all the FQTV information on their website, it's very informative and should answer most of you initial questions.

After reading through this information you'll probably find that your best option (on the assumption that 75% of your travel is reimbursed) would be to take 'Y' fares and use your points to u/g to 'Z' or just purchase 'Z' direct.

The burn rate on the U/G isn't as good from TLV-NYC as you�re only earning 200-350 points each way while burning 700 each-way on an U/G, where as TLV-LHR the earning rate is 150 points each way while the burning rate is 200 on the U/G each way.

If you�re travelling every 5 weeks, you'll hit platinum within around 14 segments so 7 flights (discounted Business) or 25 segments or 12.5 flights (economy); this will give you a more economical way of using u/g with reduced points. Be aware that there are quite a few PLAT commuters out there.

Your Amex / Leumi will earn you matmid points.

Overall these are the main options open to you on ELAL though you should also look into Continental's BusninessFirst product or BA NewClubWorld Product thats if you don't mind breaking the flight up with a 2 hour layover in LHR on the BA flight (the C/F service LHR-NYC-LHR is worth it! and post August so will the LHR-TLV-LHR).

Hope this helps

You don�t necessarily have to purchase full fare Y class to upgrade with 700 points.
An S class ticket will be a little cheaper and upgradeable too.
On the other hand if you�re hoping for a 100 points last minute upgrades 48 hours before the flight or even at the airport (providing you are a Silver/Gold/Platinum for the 48 hour upgrade and Gold/platinum for the airport upgrade) you will have better chances of an upgrade with Y class ticket.
ELAL�s upgrade policy has changed and they now look at the fare you have purchased rather then your statues, so if you are a Gold member with a Y class ticket you have a better chance of a last minute upgrade then Platinum with an S class ticket.
Policy is a bit strange, as it does not reflect the amount of revenue you bring them altogether as a frequent passenger but just on that flight�
You also need a minimum number of points in your account, and all these rules can be found of the website.

Onepass is better.
Fly with Continental
The busines First is much better (much much better)
the food is better
the seat are better
the conections are better

Lior

Also, on CO if you pay for BusinessFirst and you have an israeli address you get 200% EQM, 3 trips to NYC in BF = Platinum.
unfortunately, some of the other older perks for Israel based plats have disappeared.

I don't think CO J is much much better, I'd go for 'significantly' better. CO's service on the ground is vastly superior to LY, OnePass is a better program, I think the food is .. actually LY's food wasn't bad at all, but if you're flying CO you *have* to order Kosher if you are Kosher. I have wondered why they bother to serve blatantly non-kosher stuff on the TLV flights (lobster, shrimpies.... ). And finally, I haven't experienced LY C on the 777 and 767, but the seats suck compared to CO J.

Finally as far as my experience analyzing Matmid (vs. CO), Matmid is superior if you are actually flying a ton, CO is better if you have a mixed flying/partner accumulation pattern (getting matmid points via credit card at 70:1 on the amex doesn't seem good to me..). Also, I don't have experience in redeeming upgrades/reward tickets, are they fairly reasonable to come by? CO's availability to TLV (either 1 or 2 on their most profitable routes) sucks in general.

RT Flight from NYC-TLV in discounted Biz:
LY: 800 points
CO: 22,600 miles

Free ticket:
LY 3k
CO: 100k

Flights needed for free ticket(no status):
LY 3.75
CO 4.4
For RT Upgrade:
LY: ~2
CO:~3

with top tier bonus:
LY 1200 points (RT UG in 1.1 flight, free ticket 2.5)
CO: 37k miles (RT UG in 1.6 flights, free ticket 3 flights)

Very good, Entropy! thanks for the info. You've convinced me.. I will fly CO next time! Flying El Al from LAX next week.. I wonder how full it is?

I agree, but don't plan on using your Onepass miles on the EWR-TLV route. It is very difficult to get award seats on this route. Every time I want to get an award seat from New York to Israel or from Israel to New York, I end up doing the Amex Reward points to Madmid shuffle, even though I have millions of Onepass miles.


I have found the upper deck of the ElAl 744 to be comparable to CO's BF product. The lower deck does not compare however.

I have found the upper deck of the ElAl 744 to be comparable to CO's BF product. The lower deck does not compare however.[/QUOTE]

and the ELAL 777 seats are so bad...

I just landed from another CO flight (1A and 1L)
I dont think the uper deck in Elal has seats like in CO...
maybe row 77 has more room but not flat bed

the food in CO is 10 times better
the service is always the same good and eficiant
In eLAL IT DEPANDS ON THE STUFF.. some times very good and some times ...

Lior
but you are right about free tickets... hard time with CO

How much luck do you guys have getting reward seats (C/F) on LY?

CO is pretty difficult (*slightly* better when plat, which you will easily be with your travel pattern) they used to have a thing where you could get an unrestricted inventory ticket for the standard rate, but no more

Dream - you're converting at the 70:1 rate with amex points? doesn't that end up costing like 280k MR points for a free ticket?!

I was in 77A on LY Be'er Sheva. Plenty of leg room but the seats don't recline to anything close to fully flat.

LY's Yarden wines are better than the crap that CO serves... even the sparkling wine is better than the cheaper champagne CO has now...

Flying BF with CO gives you F in the conection
I am not so sure about ELAL if the conection they give is in Business class.

The CO website is much better and you can choose your seat..(1A)


the Lobster and the Shrimp are much better then Elal's

Lior

Lior-

There is something about the upper deck of the 747 that I like. I didn't say the seats were as good, only that the overall product is equal because of the quiet, private feel of the upper deck. The food doesn't really matter to me, especially from Israel to New York, as I take the 1:00am departure and basically sleep the whole way. This is just my opinion. Feel free to disagree, I won't be insulted.


Entropy-

I have found business class reward seats on ElAl for several trips. Much more difficult on Continental. The last time I did a business class reward on ElAl was middle of 2004. It was right before they increased the Amex rewards rates. I recall that it cost me 300,000 Amex Reward points for two ElAL business class tickets, and I scored the upper deck both ways. I believe with the overhaul of Madmid, it now costs almost twice as many Amex Reward points.

ElAl is not the most flexible airline to deal with. Last year, their New York telephone rewards reservation line was only open for five hours each day. Almost laughable in this 24x7 day and age. Even with the points, they required a faxed request. Also laughable in this electronic era.

By the way, I just got a Continental coach reward ticket for my aunt to come visit. Could not get business class either way on either flight. She lives on a kibbutz and is grateful for the free coach ticket.

I agree with the Upper Deck 747, its very private, even more so given that on my first flight there were all of 5 or 6 pax upstairs, with 3 FA's, and yet even moreso that the whole lower deck was Y.... oy!

LY connections into the US are in Y if you're in C class, which really doesn't make sense. I was reserving a DL reward on LY and they told me I'd have to fly in coach unless they had BusinessElite domestic cabins, and I'm like *...*!? Domestic F is mostly a joke anyways, but perhaps they keep it that way so the foreign airlines won't be able to book int'l business into a domestic F connection...

Dream- If you are elite on CO you can standby for a J seat on a fully paid reward ticket (as in, if you can only reserve Y in advance, but deduct miles for J, you can still get J if its available at checkin or the gate(!)) And, given that CO to TLV is 70k in Y and 100 in J, it makes no sense not to try, even for a kibbutznik.

For 200k MR points I'd rather have sleazypass J on CO, OR, you could convert to DL miles and get a C reward on LY from DL for 120k standard.

I have done this myself (and did not clear in either direction). My kibbutznik relatives shudder at the mention of "standby". They would rather have 100% certainty as to what seat they have and what the flight will be like. They are not elite, they are not frequent flyers, they are not Flyertalker types, if you know what I mean.


While I know this is an reward option, I have never been able to get it. I have lots of DL miles but no status, don't know if that makes a difference. Have you ever been able to book it?

for some people simple is good, I often wonder how more than 80% of the passengers flying NYC-TLV can handle the back of the bus that long!

I had a DL/LY C class reward on hold(SFO-DL Y-JFK-LY C-TLV), I didn't ticket it because I had a better idea: SFO-TLV LY/DL was 120K in C. I booked SFO-CDG-ATH with AF in F(C intraeurope) and a ticket from ATH-TLV on LY. total 120k for F/C/Y, or 130k for F/C/C.
again, its not the kind of thing a non-FT type person would be into...

Sorry - Please see this thread instead.