Tag Archives for el al.
There are some nuances of their security program that still come as a surprise to me. El Al doesn’t just have missile defense systems to protect its planes against surface-to-air missiles. They have cameras in the cabin now. Is this only on some aircraft?
A man has filed a lawsuit in US District Court for the Eastern District of New York on Monday against Israeli airline El Al because, he says, he was injured after getting stuck in one of their business class seats on a flight from Tel Aviv to New York JFK in October.
A flight attendant “had to pull him free” from the seat, and this is the airline’s fault because cabin crew had “failed to explain to him how the seat operates.”
Alaska Airlines and El Al announced a partnership three years ago. It’s taken until this week to introduce award redemption. You can now earn and redeem Alaska Airlines Mileage Plan miles for travel on El Al.
El Al is spinning off its frequent flyer program at a $500 million valuation. The entire airline, including the frequent flyer program, has a market cap of less than $180 million. They’re not alone. American’s frequent flyer program was appraised at up to $30 billion (and they borrowed $10 billion against it) while their market cap is less than $9 billion.
Abu Dhabi-based Etihad Airways will start direct flights from the United Arab Emirates to Tel Aviv on March 31, 2021. It has entered into a new agreement with Israel’s El Al for codesharing and a frequent flyer partnership.
This is monumental. Not only will this Arab state airline fly non-stop to Israel, it will all Israel’s flag carrier to put its own code on Etihad flights. That means, effectively, that certain Etihad flights – which all begin with a prayer from the Quran – will also be El Al flights.
If you want to redeem miles to fly El Al, the best option is usually using Qantas miles. Qantas is a transfer partner of American Express, Citibank, and Capital One. If you’re flying El Al, it’s usually best to credit flights to Alaska Airlines Mileage Plan.
There’s very little use case for using El Al’s own Matmid Club.
Israel’s Ministry of Finance turned down El Al’s request for a $350 million government-backed loan. In explaining the decision, the finance ministry said it “did not believe El Al would be able to repay” the money.
El Al has suspended all commercial flights and is operating only cargo and government-sponsored repatriation flights.
Here are the results from a survey of Berlusconi Market, Dream Market, and Olympus Market. Where they present more than one data point I average them for this chart. It’s important to note that these are asking prices. The people selling miles may or may not have a good idea of what they’re worth, and in some cases may be looking for a sucker (buying 500 Expedia points?).
Gary Leff is one of the foremost experts in the field of miles, points, and frequent business travel -- a topic he has covered since 2002.
Co-founder of frequent flyer community InsideFlyer.com, emcee of the Freddie Awards, and named one of the "World's Top Travel Experts" by Conde' Nast Traveler (2010-Present) Gary has been a guest on most major news media, profiled in several top print publications, and published broadly on the topic of consumer loyalty. More About Gary »
