apirchik

Israel, as "hi-tech" and as advanced in technology you may think of it, is way back in the airline-travel agent relations. While in the rest of the world the travel agents are losing their power and more and more people are dealing directly with the airlines, in Israel it is the other way around. The travel agent's union is a monopoly in the field and forces it's power on the airlines. Many of the major travel agencies in Israel (Ophir tours, Unitours and more) have an allocated number of seats on most flights leaving Israel they can only seel themselves (until a few days or hours before the flight).

When ElAl introduced online booking, travel agents have threatened they will not handle ElAl anymore as the airline is taking away the customers. The airline "folded" and now when you book a ticket online at elal.co.il you must choose a travel agent and pay that travel agent a fee in order to get the ticket ...

With their power, travel agent can force airlines to clear certain booking codes for a certain fare - I've seen a travel agent "convert" a Y to a K reservation on Continental on a sold out flight by a simple phone call.

Another thing that works well for travel agents is the whole charter market which is blossoming in Israel for short vacations in Europe (and all the way to New York these days). Those charters are sold only by the agents and the airlines do not play any role unless they act as their own agency (Arkia and Israir have their own travel agency - you do not deal with the airline, you deal with the agency of the airline). Every charter flight is "owned" by one major travel agent and all the reservations eventually go through tem anyway.

jonnye

Are you sure? i've never paid any travel agent wehn buying my tickets through ELAL online? maybe it's just in israel?

..not sure about sold out flights though this is stardard practice on undersold flights and quite right too, weather it be CO/DL/LY at the end of the day they'd rather sell the seat than have it empty!

apirchik

Correction - I just checked it again - they let you do an Eticket directly with the airline. Paper tickets have to be collected at the travel agent of your choice (with some travel agent fees involved). And yes, it is only applicable in Israel.

Again, only in Israel and against any airline logic. Also, travel agents in Israel do not ticket until 24 hours or so before the flight and still can get 7 and 21 days in advance prices, even if they changed the flights at the last moment. How? - they have too much power they can manipulate the airline.

ekobayashi

I'm a complete amateur, who lurked a bit recently but still have an unanswered question regarding Israeli TA's. You fellows would probably know (and long explanations of seemingly obvious things to you are most welcome!). A friend of mine in Tokyo wanted to buy NRT-TLV-NRT around passover and found it impossible to secure a seat thru a local agent. Her father, who lives in TLV, managed to buy her IN TLV the desired seat on NRT-TLV-NRT, for the same rate (or slightly lower), same carrier (TK). He sent the tkt to her by mail, and that was the end of it. I used to think an agent in TLV cannot issue a ticket starting elsewhere, but then came another one: another friend based in Tokyo wanted a 3 months tkt NRT-TLV-NRT. The lowest quote she could get for her desired "alliance" was $1700, and no child discounts. She heard of an agent IN TLV who can issue cheap longterm NRT-TLV-NRT, and indeed she did it thru him for much less ($800 only per child!). The agent told her that it is only one particular airline (not TK) with whom he is able to do that trick. So I am wondering: is there a rule broken here? if so by whom? Can one repeat this "arbitrage" elsewhere or is it an original, Israeli "anomaly"? Thanks, ek.

apirchik

Travel agents in Israel can issue any ticket from any point A to any point B around the globe. However, they might not get the best deals with itineraries that do not involve Israel or airlines that are not represented in Israel. I don't see any problem with this. What might have happened here is that agents in NRT are not so aware of deals to TLV as there are not so many people who do this route on a regular basis. T/As in Israel are much more aware of those deals even if they are on the reverse route.

yosithezet

Could be that their system doesn't do TLV? When you go to Orbitz for instance you can't get routes including TLV.

mikebg

This business cuts both ways. I managed to get a trip from TLV to NYC last year on a combined EL AL business class/Virgin Upper class with the Virgin part costing for far less than I would have been able to buy it for in England. And my agent here in Israel told me that it would probably work out expensive as LY and VS don't have any published combined prices.

apirchik

For a long time (since it started), Orbitz only supported itineraries originating in the USA. Recently, they added a few airports in Europe as originating points but they still do not support TLV as well as many destinations in the far east and other parts of the world (NRT and HKG as well) as originating airports. You can get tickets on Orbitz from supported originating points to anywhere in the world including TLV. It's not true that you can't get routes that include TLV.

apirchik

I'm pretty sure VS are selling tickets between the USA and Israel with the LHR - TLV segments on LY. It might not work on the other way (on LY ticketing). Another way to fo this route on a published fare is with Continental's codeshare flights on VS metal. Continental has a fare basis for tickets between the USA and Israel via Europe when the USA - Europe is done on CO code flight and the segment to TLV is done on local carrier or LY.

Jakebeth

I'm afraid to know the answer to this, as I've already plopped down cash for some tix on CO, but here goes....

Do any of you believe I would have been able to get a more competitive price on EL AL business-class tickets by trying to buy them via an agent in Israel? (i.e. -- U.S. citizen, buying an EWR > TLV > EWR ticket in dollars, on a U.S. passport)

I ask from the standpoint of someone who tried agents here in the U.S., and naturally found the EL AL pricing, and those of combos with European carriers, to be much higher than what I could get by taking the less-popular flight out of EWR to TLV on Continental.

The real killer is that, naturally, I've got an aunt who's a travel agent in Israel...it never even occurred to me to talk with her.

MSP2000

Does any one on this thread regularly fly AC to TLV? If you do, I am looking for a good agent in NY area for EWR/PHL-TLV trips. In the past, I was able to book online on www.onetravel.com Now, they are no longer offering deals. I have used agents in NY and they seem to be buying the tickets from another consolidator. I need a "source" with AC inventory and the ability to print the ticket in their office on the same day.

ekobayashi

Thanks for your very helpful reply. My friend and I did look hard for good fares for NRT-TLV-NRT, also at good Japanese auction sites where local TA's bid, but you made me realize that in our case the Israeli TA's real achievement was probably not the fare alone but finding the one that allowed child discount and an over 60 days stay... the carrier (AZ) in fact gave a 6 months open tkt for $800 per kid, peak season. The NRT-MXP part was a JL operated codeshare so they had JL service for AZ price.

Lehava

Gil Travel is PHENOMENAL (www.giltravel.com) with Israeli trips. UJC sends thousands of people via them every year. They know the system, have always gotten great service and great fares with them

haniboo

so, do you know of an insider TA? i could really use some "protexia"