Finally, after four years, LY just announced that PL's are once again supreme and that they actually want our continued business. Now, for last minute upgrades, the PL's go first and the GL's go second. That means a PL with an M class ticket is higher up on the list than a GL with a Y class ticket.

Its about damn time. Thank you El Al.

They are also reducing the number of points needed for upgrades to First Class.

http://www.elal.co.il/ELAL/English/M...uteReduced.htm

You are supreme? Interesting statement....

Good news for PL's, bad news for GL's who don't have a chance of an upgrade anymore if they travel on any of the busy routes on Monday/Thursday etc...

I think it would have only been fair if ElAl changed the upgradable booking class back to Q as well.
I’m sure this was all changed around the same time, wasn’t it?

Definitely bad news for me as I keep getting 'that close' to PL. Although if I see that my upgrade ratio suffers I'll likely start flying to Asia through Europe. I'm hoping that the larger LY planes to India will mean that my ratio of upgrades doesn't suffer too much.

Well as a GL this is very disappointing and I think a grave mistake on ELAL's part. Whilst I agree that all other things being equal, status should prevail, I also think that surely someone who is willing to spend an extra 400 USD for Y class and thus giving more revenue to ELAL to increase the chance of an upgrade, should have priority.

I will have to review my future travel plans and reconsider my position vis-a-vis ELAL. At the moment I give a lot of revenue to ELAL and as a self-employed person I decide exactly where to put my money. I am pretty sure that I spend more than some PLs on an annual basis as I usually buy full fare tickets and travel quite a lot. I know many PL's who travel on corporate rates that are significantly reduced and thus therefore give ELAL less money than me.

I don't reach PL because I choose to put some of my business every year towards other airlines and in particular BA.

Anyway, such is life!!!

You still get somekind of priority if you buy Y,
- PL with Y will be upgraded before PL with S
- GL with Y will be upgraded before GL with S

As for those who use to buy the ticket same day of flight, chances
for upgrades are lower than if you buy it 72 hours prior to flight (as they
might upgrade people in this 72 hours...)

So the winning formula is buy a Y Class ticket at least 72 hours prior to the flight...

BTW, For those of you that work close with an agent, if you book a Y class
at least 7 days in advance there is a promotion Y class price, which might
be even cheaper than S...., Used it already twice.

I guarantee that there are even more PL's that don't get corporate rates and that give LY more annual revenue than almost all, if not absolutely all, GL's no matter how high a tarrif they pay.

The bottom line of FF programs is to reward customer loyalty. El Al is now, correctly, viewing loyalty in terms of annual revenue. The fact that a GL pays $400 more for a particular flight DOES NOT outweigh and is far less significant than the PL who spends $20,000 more than the GL on an annual basis. All major airlines work on this premise and now El Al has followed suit.

In addition, economyman, you admit that you give plenty of revenue to BA - that is why El Al's move is correct, even in your case, because they want to increase the revenue you give them. Now, to get the upgrades on LY, you'll have to give them more of your business instead of BA, and get to PL. THAT is life.

But this will not make me fly more with ELAL, probably less to be honest. Recently for the very first time I took CO to EWR in J and returned with Swiss from JFK via ZRH. I got a great deal on this flight which worked out less than Y on LY.

When comparing LY and BA here is how I see things. (a) BA have a premium economy product which is very reasonable and much better than economy on either BA or LY - I always book premium economy on BA; (b) I usually upgrade my trip on BA either in advance with miles or if I think an operational upgrade is likely then I leave it to the airport. Biz on BA is much better than on LY. All that said, LY fly direct to many of my destinations and that means a great deal to me. So probably at the end of the day I will keep flying with LY despite all I've said. But you can be sure I will not forgo my BA travel either.

Rant end -----

The main reason Y class exist is not to give you better odds for upgrades...
There is 99% of the times when you will always find a seat in Y than in S or any lower class (if you go economy).

Also if you are a PL and there is a fully booked flight in economy, And you
can no longer order ticket this flight, You can alway book a Y class ticket,
and ELAL will manage who they will take off from the flight, This is really
useful for me, I have used it more than one time and is a life saver...

So being upgraded thru Y is only a bonus... 8-)
As for prices, for Corporates the same discount apply both to S and Y,
And to those of you that really think corporates get an amazing discount,
that's not true, The discount is so low and only on high classes (S,Y, I,C,F).

I believe that you are talking about IATA published fares. Those fares are for the most part non-refundable and El Al refuses to upgrade them since they use a different fare basis.

I didn't know there is a discount for F.

Lior

LY Insider: Not sure what are the IATA published fares, but it was a cheap Y and i double checked with ELAL its upgradable (as it was cheaper than S), And i was also upgraded... So it was Y for everything for my opinion.

LiorM: You are right, I have just checked our agreement, Discounts are
S, Y, D & I, Recently we got an ok for discount on Q class.
For F you can get discount if you ask, But this is not on regular bases....