Connecting in TLV and ADD
 

So I flew SFO-> TLV -> ADD -> CPT, first leg on United, rest on Ethiopian

Here is my experience connecting in TLV: Don't
I arrived around 11 pm, and as I turned into the "connecting flight" corridor, there was a sign "pick up the phone if you're connecting." Bad sign. I pick it up, and wake up the guy who comes out and brings me to a security area. I was the only person connecting. Out of the entire flight. Or any other flight. About 5 people showed up from security, brought my checked bag from the bowels of the airport, put me through the scanners. They knew exactly what they were doing, from a security standpoint.

But.… I had a bad feeling about the luggage, so when I checked into Ethiopian, I asked the woman to verify that they had my bag. She called and said they did. (It was a 4 hour layover)

To my surprise, when I landed in Cape Town, my luggage was right there... not. Yup, they lost it and found it 2 weeks later when I was back home,

So don't connect through TLV, for the love of god. Their lounge is terrible, btw.

Btw , ADD is almost as bad. I didn't know there was a second security checkpoint at the gate, and that there would be a mob of people trying to get through. I almost missed my flight because it took 1.5 hours to get through the second security (which didn't even stop me for having a full water bottle).

I can add dont connect via ZRH either, twice recently doing so 1 of my 2 bags remained in ZRH

Do you know who was at fault? did the bag make it to TLV? if so did it make it to ADD with you?

fwiw isnt UA starting up its own flight to CPT I think non-stop from EWR

Surely you could have flown from SFO to Europe and then non-stop to CPT why did you route it the way you did? was it a Saver kt and thats all that was available

TLV is seldom a transit airport, considering its location and neighbors do not align. Lounges for non LY (and even they aren't great) are not good, but being a PP lounge it is what it is, plus the way flights work at TLV you have waves of departures which make the lounges packed. Considering you had to phone call someone to transfer sums up TLV airport as a transit airport (it definitely is not) and Israel in a nutshell.

I agree but if I wasnt a US citizen I would never transit via any US airport either, where Inbounding means having to go thru C&I and in most cases change terms by taking some sort of transit. Then even if you remain in the same term you still must clear C&I. As for lounges if its peak time Ive found more and more Airline lounges that are a part of PP to have a sign that PP is NOT accepted at this time due to over crowding

Ever arrive into a US airport way early in the morn eg EWR, JFK you will remain on the plane until C&I opens at their offical time at times at means an hour of simply sitting and waiting, never had that @ TLV

I still agree TLV is far from an ideal transfer airport no different then almost every US airport

Out of interest, why take such an odd route? Was it on one ticket?

It did.

yep, my bad!

But still dont know if it was left @ ADD or TLV

My gut tells me it was a Saver Award . Many times when looking to get to TLV using a Saver, ET (?) is the only option, but the routing and layover and arrival time just doesnt work for me so I purchase an Aeroflot Prem Coach for $100s kess then any reg coach eg for my Oct trip SU was $1170 while the cheapest *A coach was $1900 via Europe and sitting in E the whole way, no UA flights in E+

It was left in TLV. I don't think Ethiopian ever received my bag from TLV security after they pulled it out of the baggage area.

I took that routing because it was the shortest (30h) out of the available United award tickets (through Frankfurt would have been 37h)

It could be that TLV security opted to further examine your luggage and not having enough time to load it on the flight, it once happened to a friend on a short hop to Cyprus, she got her bag ~2 days later, the airline (it was Cyprus Air or something like that) did inform her on arrival that the bag was held by TLV security.

With the added complexity of the ADD transit etc. I suspect it was probably a mix of TLV security holding the bag and then the rest is all ET's fault (or their ground handlers)

So I got some new info. Someone who flies Ethiopian a lot says they often bump luggage to make room for cargo. Apparently they're notorious for doing that.