i thought Boraxo was trying to say that the counter will start giving away preassigned seats and off-load those who havent shown up and IDB them.

From past experience over a # of carriers at TLV, if you vol they will take your BP and ask you to hang out and wait. They will not check-in your bag and will wait till T-? till they start to actually take the vols. eg this mornings UA 84 was soldout in Y (oversold I understood) with 2 in Biz available. They ended up taking 4 SBYs and there were 4 emptys besides that in coach and 3 empty in Biz. This is normal for UA in TLV

Im not gonna say they wont ever IDB anyone, but they usually have more then enough VDBs and turn down many as they have enough to cover themselves should everyone actually show up.

also for European carriers they offer a non-stop to those who were connecting at the hub, eg AZ TLV-FCO-LHR, they would put those heading to LHR onto BA or LY and they were thrilled even thou they received nothing more. I was turned down since I was connecting to JFK and was told they doubt theyd need me but would call me if they did and they were correct, they had more then enough people who jumped at being to fly non-stop instead

I cant speak for LY but almost every carrier Ive flown if you VDB it will be handled at the check-in counter not at the gate.Once you give in your bag say gby to any VDB chance

If he actually shows up at the check-in counter and volunteer it's a different story of course, but first he has to go through security questioning, and if that will take him 30 minutes, and in the mean time the check-in counter is closed, he'll no longer be able to check-in a bag, so he is unlikely to be able to show up at the gate before it is closed, and OLCI won't help here.

To be IDB'd you need to both:
1. Be checked-in, either online or at the counter
2. Arrive to your gate before it closes

In regards Only with TLV, its possible to OLCI and print your BP, but if you cant check-in your bag no way are you getting to the gate. also if you havent gone thru security before getting to the carriers counter you arent going anywhere, and when the counter offically closes security wont take care of you

Do you know of any case where a person was IDBed at the Gate, I dont and thats with flying to/from TLV for some 40 years.I know of cases where they were IDBed at the check-in counter when they showed up before it closed and within the time period to check bags but they proactively for some reason off loaded anyone who hadnt showed up yet even if they did OLCI

* Im not up on LYs way of doing things as I hadly fly with them, but that may be changing

Indeed, and I'd expect check-in counters to probably close 60 minutes before a flight? Hence 90 minutes might be cutting it very tight, before they had the priority queue, I would easily wait 10-15 minutes in the queue to be questioned.

I don't, but I probably have less experience than you in this regard
Those PAX you describe, should they have no bags to check, would have been to be IDB'd at the gate, if the airline is in a state where 100% of the seat capacity have checked in, they will have to offload PAX, whether they decide to offload the last ones who arrive at the check-in counter, or some who OLCI'd is completely up to the airline.

Again only with TLV, yes those with carryons only can bypass the checkin counter, but from all the times Ive flown with TWA,PanAm,CO,UA,DL over the decades (and back when even carry-on only had to 1st hot the check-in counter) I think they would wait till T-? before off loading anyone, thats why at times there are announcements at the gate asking for x y and z to please come to the gate counter, yes sometimes its for something else but at times its to see if in fact they did show up. Taht said I believe the % of people going carry-on only is extremely small. I know a few folks who commute back and forth for work (mainly in the medical field) and they have bags going back to TLV but only a carry-on coming in and they make it a point to stop by the check-in counters to announce that they are there or the gate when it 1st opens.

At least UA has its game down pretty pat and know when they can start off loading some folks for VDBs. They really wait for the last possible min before doing anything and many a time I will see where some last min passengers are coming on sweating, either someone was VBDed or they were SBYs that cleared the very last second. But I dont recall a single time that anyone was IDBed at the gate usually if you got past the PP exit system youre good to go
As well as I cant recall a single time they came on board to solicit any Vols. this is both in NY and TLV

Things are done Overseas way different then Stateside, UA(CO) used to start @ $750 EWR-TLV while TLV-EWR was $500, and they always tried to get those who lived there so they wouldnt have to pony up for a hotel and taxis.

To the US, maybe, but when most European airlines (and I'm not even talking about LCCs) charge you to check in a bag, I think the number is bigger.
I never had to 'announce' myself when flying out of TLV with HBO, I used AF/KL/AZ & LX, my name was never announced at the gate (or maybe it was when I wasn't there, who knows), and I was never IDB'd, even for flights I knew were oversold, of course that is just one data point

This is something that I would never understand, especially with the recent UA incident... if you want to IDB someone, you can't just do it after he is seated, this should be done the latest when scanning his BP at the gate!

The TLV to Europe is another breed completely. And I hear ya with carry-on being much more as the sole bag especially for those going for a weekend. Although I think the LCCs charge for that as well just less then a checked bag is. But those European carriers have a whole other monkey on their backs EU 261 or whatever where they have to cough up Ca$h and not monopoly money, so they might be less inclined to oversell, especiallly the LCCs where they cant simply FIM you over to someone else. But I will admit Im not up on all the T&Cs when it comes to those carriers or EU rules

Im not saying it never happened but I cant ever recall hearing an announcement by any carrier asking for VDBs after PP control in TLV.Ive heard it plenty in the US but also cant recall hearing it Overseas, could they do make them just I dont speak the language so I dont know that they are made.

as for my friends kid, hes nuts he wanted $1k and a Biz seat, they offered $400 and told him once he checks in his bag its off the table. Turns out they took 2 SBYs funny there were 2 on the list that didnt get on so I assume the 2 that did were non-revs as they were never on the list. 6 were UPed to Biz 2 were awhile ago 4 at TLV so I guess the soldout Biz had a # of no shows

up2 the kid (OK hes young 30s) saying hes so sorry he didnt listen to me 1- he purchased E+ for the way back and 2 he took the night flight. He says its definitely not worth even $50 and the seat is so much worse then the day flight over. I told him,I told you going Biz the night flights are better seats going coach the day flights are much better.

But Israel have a similar law to EC261, and for flights to the US the compensation would be 3060NIS, which is over 700�, more than what an EU carrier will have to pay...

I never heard calls for volunteers in airports in the EU (and I can't recall any airport where announcements were not done in both the local language and English, or at least English), to me the whole charade of calling them up at the gate is a US thing, and even though according to EC261 airlines are also required to call for volunteers, I'm guessing they are doing it in a more discreet way.

Expecting the airline to pay for VDB more than what they would have had to pay for IDB (even including hotel stay) is nuts...

Personally Id rather walk away with a $500 voucher, reason is unless you live in Israel or the EU for EU261, you have to get some outfit to fight it for you, who I believe takes a 1/3, then you have to wait months Id rather get my voucher and be on my way

It wasnt till T-60 that UA cleared the 2 SBYs so it seems they wait till then to deal with everything,I believe T-60 is the min time to have shown up so if you show up after that and its full = no IDB since you got there after the time allotment.

but have no idea how they would handle say a person who is carry-on only and by passed the counters. My guess is they will have boarded the plane by say T-30 which gives them just enough time to take any SBYs or off load a VDB and put on someone confirmed w/o a seat

Again Im not saying it never happened , Im just not informed of any IDB occurring at the gate or on the plane, while Ive seen it numerous times here in The States both IDB and VDB on Domestic flights

So I still hold by if a person can reach the counter by T-90 they should be OK as long as they know they arent fitting into the Profile of a person who will be required for extra security

Anyone have experience with the 530am flight on Olympic Air from TLV to ATH...anything special we should know about and prepare for. We are American tourist....Our inbound flight is DTW-AMM-TLV on RJ. We will not be leaving the airport in Amman. We will spend 4 days sightseeing in Isreal and then to Athens and Santorini.

Olympic?? when did they start flying back into TLV? Did you mean A3 Aegean which merged with Olympic?

I took an A3 5am flight last May, it was parked at a stand along with 3 other AE planes = we were bused to the plane and walked up the stairs, like in olden times at the old term. Other then that it was a normal European flight from TLV

It is almost always not parked at the gate so you will be bussed.
There is a light meal

travelling on El Al TLV-JNB on the 5.50am flight on a friday in business.... now the consensus is be at the airport 3 hours before and I get that....wife travels on an Israeli passport whilst I am on an Australian passport and have been to Israel many many times with no issues ( so far !!! ) but never at this early hour....So can I confirm that there is a business security lane before check in ( previously I recall a security check governing 4-6 gates and cant remember if thats still the case ) and then check in ???....And what might the lines look like at 3-3.30am ??....thanks

3:00-3:30am is probably one of the busiest times at the airport as many flights are scheduled from 5AM onwards, there is a separate queue for J passengers.

thanks