Which program will be better for me - LY or BD
 

Hello There,
I am LY gold. I recently matched my BD status to GOLD, as I had a bad connection experience with LY to AA at JFK, and I decided to be BD*G so I will have *G benefits flying with LH or US.

Some information
1. I am located 25KM from TLV airport.
2. I fly to the US at least 2 times a year - one in April/May (for INTA conference) and one in November (for INTA management meeting - usually in MIA, MCO or PHX) - always in BUSINESS
3. I fly to London at least 1-2 times a year - PREMIUM ECONOMY or BUSINESS CLASS.
4. I fly to many other european destinations (at least 1 time a year) - BUSINESS class

EL AL - advantages

• EL AL fly to many direct destinations out of Israel
• EL AL has codeshare agreement with AA to some US destinations
• EL AL IFE systen is in Hebrew

EL AL - disadvantages

• EL AL does not have codeshare agreement for connections within Europe and Asia
• Most of the connections with AA requires terminal changes
• Most of the AA codeshare flights leave from JFK, so there will be long queues at the immigration and at the passport control
• PHX is excluded from AA-LY codeshare
• EL AL flies only 5+1/2 days a week..

BMI - advantages

• BMI gold gives me all STAR gold benefits
• Many of BMI partners fly out of TLV - to Europe and to the US
• I will get points also for my connecting flights
• I can fly to many US destinations with Europe connection
• I can also do the connection in PHL. The US TLV-PHL flight arrive when there are no other flights who use immigrations and passport control
• BMI and its partners fly 7 days a week
• Arrivals lounge in LHR
• 4 upgrade vouchers for BMI flights, so I can seat in PREMIUM ECONOMY for regular ECONOMY price

BMI - disadvantages

• TLV is not a hub of BD or of one of its partners
• BD or its partners IFE system is not in Hebrew...
• EDIT:When Diamond Club will become part of M&M I will not be able to gain enought miles in order to requalify SENATOR, so I will have to match my status to another airline.

I think I will choose BD, but I also ask you to advise me which program I should choose. Thanks in advance...

I think you answered your own question, BD sounds like its the way to go, and depending upon your religous convictions the sabbath operations issue is up to you on wether or not you want to observe. I left AA for the better network of *A and I am enjoying it so far as it sounds like you will be connecting anyways so unless LY flew direct TLV-MCO/PHX/MIA, I would personally pick BD.

Thanks. Unfortunaly, when LY flew direct TLV-MIA the NOVEMBER conference was handeld at MCO (2 times) and PHX (1 time)...

I would pick BD
 

But fly LH (or AC/US/CO) to USA. LHR connections aren't so good, and BD handling isn't good at TLV yet. If you are a company, look to join ppb also - great for upgrades TLV-FRA and vv

BTW, I think you would make LH SEN quite easily. Remember you get at least 2 x miles on LH C class. After 35K miles (FTL) you get 25% bonus on LH/LX/OS, and, I assume, BD soon). You only need 100K once per 2 years to keep SEN. Plus those 2000/2500 on intra-EU flights rack up pretty quickly.

From what I understood I need to earn 100K miles within one year, not within 2 years... Am I wrong?

You need 100K status miles in 1 year, but status is valid for at least 2 years. Therefore you only need to do 100K every other year...