El Al Will Honor Tickets!

will they allow you now to change dates if i go nonestop?

AMAZING!!!!

wow unexpected from Israelis!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Thanks @mickeyg on DDF and DAN!!!!!!!!

AAWWWOOOOOOOOOOOOHHHHHHHHHHOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! ISRAEL HERE I COME!

@mickeyg and @Dan THANK YOU!!! (And good predictions yesterday)

DAN IS THE MAN!!

Thank you Dan keep up the great work . Thank you very much.

Horray!!
Great job Dan And Mickeyg
May we hear many such success story’s in the future

Way to go, Elal! Thanks dan for your help as always! And although I was too late for the deal, I respect them, and “fargin” (how’d you translate that from yiddish?) Those that are traveling, and they got 1000 points for costumer service.

I”ll take my 12 hours in london i have a meeting with the queen 🙂

Hi Dan, I wonder if you made it to the ELAL no fly list as a result of costing them about $6,000,000 ($1,200 * 5,000 tickets, per your AP posting)

A BIG ROUND OF APPLAUSE TO
MICKEYG
THANK YOU THANK YOU

Dan

A) is it $75 per person or per itinerary, and B) can you do one way and not the other?

Ha! Very clever to “allow” people to change to non-stop LY-op flight; that way it doesn’t cost them money they’d have to pay code-share partners. Tons of chutzpah to make people pay $75 “upgrade” to something that costs them less.

Will they honor the confirmations as well? Or just if you got an e-ticket.

I vote Mickeyg as vice president of dans deals.
Anyone?

Thanks Elal for my Paris/Israel/Madrid trip.

@Dan dont you feel bad you didnt book a diff flight?

@ everyone else: There is NO NAME CHANGES!!!!!!!

Woohoo!

I should have bought multiple trips! lol

Anyone has info if you can change the dates?

Three tickets would cost me an additional 450.
Worth it?

Isn’t this a loophole to cancel tickets? I’m afraid to touch the reservatoin….

Kudos to Elal!!! We should support them big time for coming through and going beyond by allowing for the upgrade. Kudos to Dan! While I am so happy for the 5,000 people who got the tickets, I am still sad that I missed out. I religiously go on Dans Deals every morning however Monday I had a meeting from 11:30-1:30, when I tried the site at 2:00 it was not working due to overload. Guess it just wasn’t meant to be for me. Enjoy & take advantage of the kedusha of Eretz Yisroel!!! Nesia Tova!!!

El Al must know something that we don’t. Maybe they know about a coming attack on Iran and they are trying to sell out now.

Love how the elal dude makes it sound like he doing first timers to israel a favor!!!!

E-Mail bomb Jeff Smisek this Statement from El AL and show him what it means to honor a mistake

Waiting to see who the first tzaddik(or tzadekes) is that returns their tickets for a refund. While nobody may be obligated to do so, your reward for the kiddush Hashem will far outweigh the thousands of dollars that you may have potentially saved.

Israeli Customer Service?!?!?!

I am more shocked at El Al’s customer service then I was from the price mistake

@dan
a significant portion of the taxes on these tix were undoubtedly european airport taxes. lets say $50-$100
if we fly direct and elal collects an additional $150, wouldnt they legally be required to return the money collected as european airport tax?
im not saying they should have to give out more money, but i think they may be legally bound to return taxes like that? any idea or comments?

Dan – many of us have a 5 hour stop in Zurich. Please fill us in on what we can take advantage of in Zurich for 5 hours. This way we can decide if we want to skip the stop for $75 or take in some of Zurich. Thanks!!!!

They’re probably doing this because a seat on their metal cost them less than having to pay partner for the TATL segment. It also puts an extra $75 in their pocket.

woOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOHOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

thnx dan. Winter break in the holy land!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!1

@DB:you just did intense oral surgery on a ‘gift horse’! think you should change your name to: “The Ungrateful” !! Feel bad for whoever has 2 deal with u as a customer if that’s how you re-act to such an offer!!

@rob, great minds think alike. That’s their plan, by offering he nonstop, they can recoup enough cash to cover the potential losses. instead of getting $250 per $400 ticket, now they will get $550, which may allow them to break even. Very smart move.

@Yaakov: SAYS WHO?? love when ppl sell re-estate in the next world like they r g-d’s personal broker!!

wow thanx!!! sooo exciting!!!!!!!! better than hong kong!!lol

Any information/past experiences flying American vs Elal?

Lets all just take it and run, name changes…date changes…nonstop…lets all say THANK YOU to El Al and dont drive them crazy. This was meant to be!

Can we change the flight dates as well or is it only on the same day

Moshiach must be on his way!

It looks good for them, PR wise to allow changes and cancellations, but it is also in their best interest financially as non-stops end up as “no-profit” as opposed to “out-of pocket loss” and cancellations will free up the “no-shows”, which were bound to be many, for ful l fare payers. But who says they can’t do what’s best for everyone, which seems to be the case here? What’s wrong when both customer and company gain? 🙂

Dan wat would you say is the best thing I can do with matmid points??

If someone from ELAL is reading this,
I want to say publicly that I am very impressed by their response in this undoubtedly trying period. I have always been impressed with ELALs service. Because of this, I will try to “give back” to ELAL the next time I fly to Israel, and I will try my best to fly with them! THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU!!

I am so happy it is the first time i am going to israel!!!!!!!!

We will probably pay the $75 for the long stop over in London. Consider the cost of an extra day of parking due to the stop over. The cost of taking a taxi during our 7 hour stay in London and the cost of eating out in London. Most of all – I dont want to sit in an airport for 3 hours

is this true?? is there something official that one mat verify aside from this site?

this type of advertisement is priceless!

@P&L:
SOK HE CAN ALWAYS GO WITH UA WHICH IS HIS HOME AIRPORT-CLE CARRIER, BEETER MILAGE PROGRAM, AND IM SURE HES PLAT AS OPPOSED TO EL-AL

is see that cheapoair charged me the full amount what should i do i called elal and they said that i should contact cheapoair

I have 5 hr stopover in zurich on arrival flight and 5 hr stopover in london on departure flight. Does that give me enough time to just stroll around the city. If I’m just going to sit in airport, i would change to direct.

1) Can you only upgrade one way?
2) On a 12 hour layover will they forward your luggage? It would be nice to get to spend 6 hours in another country without having to go thru customs with luggage, and then finding a place to leave luggage.

To everyone who is criticizing El Al for trying to recover some losses by offering the $75 upgrades. Its a win win situation, you will still be spending a fraction of a ticket cost and enjoy the convenience of a direct flight. If you don’t want to spend the additional $$ then don’t.

Thank you El Al. I never believed that I would be able to take my whole family to Israel. Thank you for making our dream come true.

Sam,
You may have agreed to pay the full rate. From around 1PM, cheapoair posted the $350 rates and let you book tickets, but let you know that the price changed to a much higher amount upon confirmation. If you confirmed the reservation at the higher price, you may be screwed.

Good for everyone who got these. Unfortunately we booked our tickets through http://www.bt-store.com. They seem like a legitimate company, BUT ARE NOT. Even though El Al is honoring the tickets – THEY WON’T! Warning: DO NOT USE THIS COMPANY EVER. What a disappointment. Especially because I could have just used any of the other discount sites right off the bat. Lesson learned, everything is for a reason, right?

@…:

London – probably not. Zurich – most likely yes.

Can I change to direct for one of the ways, also is it the same charge tov change a baby ticket.

Would love a direct flight, but we live in Chicago and it doesn’t look like El Al has direct flights from Chicago. Any suggestions for what to do with six hours in Paris?

Thank you for everything, Dan. My girlfriend and I can’t wait for our trip to Israel!

just food for though, it was the yeshiva world that alerted El-AL about the price glitch, is it a co-incidence that EL-Al has a full ad on the Yeshiva world website?

@dan i bought 9 tickets for chanukah!!! Is there any way I can upgrade my ticket to buisness with miles??? or if not how much will it cost me? I am a big guy (6-6) and I simply do not fit in coach. I trid calling expedia and they said to call elal I called 800-223-6700 and wnd waited 1.5 hrs before I hung up. Is there a better way to contact elal?

I just called elal to switch to a direct flight and the representative I spoke with said they still have not decided wether or not they are honoring the flights?!?!

@The QUEEN:
Same stop – i’m excited! 🙂

@Mihah:
$75 per person.
You should be able to upgrade one-way for $75 for round-trip for $150.

@Dave:
Read the post, you need to email them, not call.

@Dave: You’re supposed to EMAIL them to the email mentioned in this article. RTFM

@David M:

Use getHuman.com to have them call you: http://gethuman.com/phone-number/EL-Al-Airlines/

Dave, on El Al’s Facebook and twitter page they posted that they are honoring the tickets. And I spoke to an El Al rep this morning that told me they were told to tell all customers that they are honoring them!

http://abclocal.go.com/wabc/video?id=8766473&pid=8767842

Can I pay extra to extend my stopover for longer?

@Dan: I highly doubt that they will do all these changes all via email, it would be a nightmare to try and coordinate such changes all via email.

@ozzy: You’ll contact them via email, and someone will call you, or come to your house (though not likely the house part).

i thought it would cost elal less if we go direct. assuming that it is cheaper why they would charge 75 to upgrade? i guess my assumption was wrong.

Thank you El Al. We haven’t been to Israel in so long. We’re looking forward to our tip iy”H.

@Michael: We also have a 6 hour layover in Paris from Chicago. You can take the train (30 min) from CDG to central Paris (30 min), take a walk, have an amazing (kosher) lunch and then rush back to the airport…

@Dan Any clue if you can change ticket date when changing direct flight?

Yisachoch El Al! Definitely the right PR (and business) move. Online from Toronto, El Al is charging approximately $150.00 more each way to Israel with a European-stopover than flying direct to Israel. I’d imagine the extra cost is for the connecting airline(ie, American Airlines). Therefore, El Al is saving itself approximately $300 per person/ticket by offering the direct flight to it’s own plane. Plus, El Al is receiving $150.00 per person to book the direct flight and all other additional ancillary flight costs/benefits (ie, extra baggage fees, missed flights, cancellations, purchases onboard/duty-free, etc..and of course positive goodwill and PR). I love the El Al spin that they are offering this to “better accommodate these passengers”. If El Al really wants to “better accommodate” passengers why charge the extra fee to passengers? The bottom line appears that El Al was legally bound to the original ticket sales at higher cost to them. I’m going for the direct flight. But my prayers are for all those Halacha questioners – maybe there’s a shayla if you can pay to fly direct. Please let us know what your Rav says? LOL

What does 3-4 hours in London due for me and the family? Alos do you think they would consider adding a CLE connection?

@David You can’t email them until the 14th

I am not playing holier than thou and agree that halachically speaking, one is permitted to keep their discounted seats according to most poskim(& I do not work for ELAL).
I also bought during the frenzy, however after speaking this over with daas Torah as well as trying to put myself (and my business)in ELAL’s shoes, I subsequently cancelled. Bottom line – imagine if you had a website that sold goods, and one of your workers accidentally entered an incorrect price causing you a loss that you were forced to deal with (otherwise you would incur penalties). HOW WOULD YOU FEEL IF EVERYONE TOLD ALL OF THEIR CONTACTS ETC…Yes, you can rationalize anything you want to, but ELAL IS LOSING PLENTY OF MONEY.
Remember – Kiddush Hashem is up there in G-d’s Eyes.
BTW Kiddush Hashem also applies towards other Jews.

El al is gaining on the advertising here big time they are making money not losing money
They should pay us to go

For all those who travel make sure to let everyone know how you found the ticket. Give Dan the credit he deserves.

I am booked on American for the stopover flights. Have a 4 hr stopover going through Paris and a 2:40 hr stopover coming back through London. What are people doing–is it worth to get a direct flight? (I am not just talking about paying the extra money but having to go through the back-and-forth with El Al?)

Someone asked what the difference is between AA and El AL.

AA Seat Pitch – 30″, Width – 17.2
EA Seat Pitch – 32″, Width – 18

On the merits, El AL is more comfortable.

For comparison:

BA 31 – 17.5
UA 31/32 – 17-18

In my haste to book I didn’t actually bother to look as to where my stopover was. Afterwards, to my great excitement, I have a 14 hour full day stop in Zurich on the way there, and likewise a 14 hour overnight stop in Zurich on my return. Sounds pretty good to me!!

Dan i like the way after all this fame you got your not even benefiting from this deal.

Your probably saying 1000 dollars for a trip to Israel is a lot of money for someone who has a billion points balance.;)

cool 8)

@Adrianne:
Don’t feel that bad i booked with http://www.issta.com and they Cnaceled all tickets

@dan any comment on the taxes?
thnx

We should all email and complain to yeshiva world for busting this deal for ppl that didn’t buy in time before yeshiva world called them to alert them.

To all who plan on flying thru this mistake – I recommend that you go Lifnim Mishuras Hadin and cancel your flights. According to Reb Moshe Feinstein, the long term reward for kiddush Hashem far outweighs your temporary gain.
Maybe that’s why ELAL is allowing a couple more weeks to cancel for free – enough time for you to think over the short term vs long term and do the right thing!

I understand that I need to email them. My question was- why would a representative say they might not honor it?

@sol: Ummmm….Says the Shulchan Aruch, and just about any Rabbi or posek that knows anything. Look, I repeat – there may not be an Halachik obligation for you to return your tix, but it would absolutely be a huge kiddush Hashem to do so. Love it when people rationalize any monetary gain by making up nonsense, I.E. – I deserve this deal, El AL deserves to lose money, etc. Facts: This was not a sale fare, this was a price mistake – By a Jewish company, which is the official carrier for the Jewish State. They already have a much higher overhead than all other airlines because of the security they require, which is the best in the industry. I have but one question: If your father owned El Al, would you have purchased these tickets?

@poshiterbaalhabus
Thank you for putting the matter into proper perspective.
I agree with you that its a kiddish Hashem if you cancel.

@EJB: Unfortunately I booked through Cheapo air- I gave them my credit info, and even got an El Al confirmation # for the low fare. Now they claim that by the time they got around to putting it into the system, El Al’s prices went up. It is really cheapo air’s fault. At the time I booked, (1:20), ALL the agents were showing the same low fares. unfortunately I picked the one that was the slowest. It really is unfair and unacceptable. I’m sure people that booked later than me were able to get the fare. Cheapo air should definitely take responsibility. Does anyone know what the latest time people who booked, were able to get the low fare?

so you guys made me feel bad for el al so i called el al to cancel but the agent told me i am nuts to cancel for feeling bad and that this is a business decision on el als part and they hope to be compensated by their contractors and that either way i should go enjoy israel and help the economy there.

I think everyone is missing a crucial piece to the puzzle. People are claiming that the airline is taking a loss of $1000 per passenger which is likely not accurate. There are a few points that need to be clarified before deciding if the tickets should be used or not:
1. Exactly how much does it cost ElAl to fly a passenger to Israel? If the tickets come close to that (especially for those who upgrade to nonstop) then yes I would “do that deal with my brother or father.” In the past I have bought consolidator tickets for $300 so it might not be wildly off the mark as people are claiming. No profit is not the same as loss. We all ask those favors from friends and family.
2. Will ElAl receive compensation from the third party? Then there is no loss for ElAl and turned out to be a great publicity stunt for them.
I personally missed the deal but I would have no problem using them had I been lucky enough to book in time. Happy for everyone who did!

@poshiterbaalhabus and all you other people trying to guilt people into cancelling you need to stop. You literally have no clue if Elal is losing a penny, which i can tell you they are likely not otherwise they would not have honored it, but you go around parading as if your sitting at the investor meetings. Just stop. El Al is extending the cancellation time because many people booked multiple tickets that they knew they wouldnt need, and they are offering the upgrade so they dont have to pay AA or other airlines. Israel, which El Al has a massive interest, will profit tremendously now, because winter is a slow time four tourist. Your all trying to be holier than thou and twist the torah, through poskim who truthfully have limited knowledge of what torah really is, and act as if your tzaddikim. This is good for elal, good for israel, and in the long run I guarantee EL Al makes money off this.

Now that you will go to Israel,

Use your time wisely,

Give tzedaka, daven your heart out and learn Torah.

Don’t waste your potential to MGalei Kovod Shamayim,
on a donkey ride in Eilat (arguably Israel) while seeing things that will spiritually mess you up.

If any of you even complain for a second about the service on your flight, ask the person next to you, to give you a patch!

Avaiation Insurance will cover all ELAL’s losses. Every airline has policies to protect them from unexpected losses due to operating their airline.

THanks!

So now we can cut the chatter about ELAL losing money!

I did not get any tickets, but I am happy for those who did, especially those who would not be able to go to Israel at normal prices. I went in June with a stopover for $800, which is still a great price.
I don’t believe any of us know the impact of this on EL AL or how ultimately this all works, so please lets stop with all the opinions on Halacha and what people should do.

Also, make sure to contribute extra to Israel’s economy.

It should be a good tax write-off for elal on lost profits.

The majority of those that bought would NOT have gone without the deal so were basically just filling up “empty seats” in the slow winter season, For Elal its either an empty seat or a passenger for $350.oo+… where is their so called 5 million dollar loss coming from? HAkol Revach

Cheapoair messed me up also, I think all those that got messed over by Cheapoair should get together and sue.

@oldtime that is another great point @Dan made. The airlines fly planes 20% of the time that are completely full. The times these tickets are dated for are all in the slowest time of the year, and they would have been flying many moderately empty airplanes. They are not selling tangible goods, they are selling a service, which happens to be inflated and price gouged to begin with, and at the very least theyre filling those seats for 300-500 a pop. I understand if the sale was for 30 dollars but 420 is not dirt cheap, which is what I paid for.

@mendel: Thank you for saying for the post- agree 1,0000% people should stay bring the halacha into this–let people go and enjoy!

@mendel: Well said!

1. This is great deal no matter how you cut it.
2. I had a long discussion with my “higher up” contact at El Al and they are doing the following;
By “allowing” to switch to non-stop they are, a. collecting another $150 ($75 each way) per ticket; b. get to keep all the revenue vs. paying to partner airlines; c. they will limit the number of allocated seats per flight for these tickets and this will enable them to control which and how many seats per flight are “given away” (something they would do anyway, as there are many empty seats per flight).
Bottom line is, they hope to turn this from a mistake that could cause them a loss into a major profit. If, and that is a big “if”, they can get most of the people that purchased these tickets to switch their flights to non-stop, and also be slightly flexible with their itinerary and schedule, El Al hopes to make a killing. They will fill up “dead seats” with paying customers (albeit “only” $500-$550) and also score a major PR victory with announcing that they are honoring the tickets. They are avoiding litigation and review by the DOH as well.

Boy, so many people here and so many opinions. Halacha, profits, losses, contacts.. Unbelievable. Let’s all just say that regardless of the profit or loss to El Al, thousands of people are going to Israel to reconnect, go for first time and just enjoy the land. In addition, Israel will receive a major cash infusion as a result.

For all the haters out there.. relax. Let the people who took advantage enjoy their time and enough with the halachic issues / speculation (becuase you’re NOT poskim) and conspiracy theories

@chaim:

I don’t think you should be swayed by an El Al phone rep, over daas torah

Then again, maybe you need to keep the tickets, so you can go to eretz yisroel and find out where daas torah really stands on this issue

@milechazzer: You clearly have your priorities straight. Kol Hakovod (divrei harav, divrei hatalmid…)

@yaakov: Cheapo air absolutely messed me up. They have no right to take their time in putting the order through, and then say it was too late. What a horrible way to do business. Just like El Al is taking responsibility, they should also admit they made a mistake. They prob. realized that the fare was too low, and so didn’t put the orders through. But they had no right to make that decision. This will reflect very badly on their business, if people realize how inefficient they are. There must be industry standards that dictate how long they can hold on to a reservation before actually booking it.

An I the only one who paid 629. I’m flying Xmas time due to work. Everyone is posting they paid on the threes. Is it cause of my dates or did I kiss something ?

3 big reasons why to change to a direct flight:

1. To be able to fly around 500$ total DIRECT to Israel is amazing!!!!

2. By doing this you are atleast helping the ONLY JEWISH AIRLINE IN THE WORLD to avoid major major losses

3. When you fly on the original tixs with connection, you are on the one hand messing up ELAL even further and on the other hand giving parnasa to the goyim on the expence of our brothers. Do you really want to have your money go the the pockets of some swiss who’s ancestors stole from jews for years??? or some british anti-semite who’s bowing to the united kingdom of muslimia????

I still haven’t heard if Elal will let us change dates to extend a few days. Anyone know?

Dan thanks again for you service on this deal and many others.

does any one know if they charge for $75 for infant on lap

@dude26, you can cancel to save them even more money of their “major major losses”. Unless you say that your seat would be empty anyway, otherwise, they could sell it to someone else for $1000+. Just saying…

For the record, I got this deal and do not plan on canceling unless my Rav changes his psak.

@Ben: I am aware that the high majority of Rabbonim are okay with this deal, however my question to them is – do they know ALL the facts A-Z like they do when they pasken on meat -milk questions?
Just asking…

I wanted to point out to you that ELAL has not exactly been there for the Jewish people for the past 60+ years.
The way the travel to Israel works is as follows. ELAL is owned 51% by the Israeli government which means the
Israeli government has full control of 100% of that company. The economic committee in the Knesset in Israel
controls how many airlines can fly to Israel, how many flights can take place a day and even what size planes
can land in Israel. This committee set a very low cap on the number of flights it allows into Israel this is called
a “Quotta”. In addition the Knesset sets is so that within the Quotta ELAL is given the great majority of the flights
and the rest of the few selected airlines get a small % of the flights. Now since there is a government controlled
small supply of flights and a huge demand for tickets to Israel, this causes the price of a ticket to be sky high.
Fuel charges & Security charges as you pointed out are an accounting gimmick ELAL created and they have nothing
to do with the total price of a ticket. What Continental does not have fuel charges and security charges?
ELAL is the airline that is not allowing this situation to change. ELAL does not care how many people fly to Israel in total.
ELAL only wants to make sure their flights are full and passengers are paying as much as they squeeze out of them.
The competing airlines like Delta or Continental are very happy with the one or 2 flights a day they are granted permission
to fly to Israel because they can charge as much as they want on these few flights and still their plane will be full since
the demand is very high and the supply can not possibly fill it.
For 60 plus years people are fighting to have Israel comply with open skies and let more airlines and flights into Israel
but to no avail to this date.
Also wanted to add, most large groups traveling to Israel Fly ELAL (Yeshivas, federations, schools, camps are just a few
examples of large groups flying to Israel) why? The group leader receives a free ELAL ticket and the rest of the group more
than pays for the leader’s free ticket. I am sure the Ha’lach has what to say about this. I would think a group leader has the
obligation to check that the total price the group will be paying is cheaper on ELAL than on a competing airline and make
sure this is communicated to the group members before the group flies ELAL.
My advice to anyone flying to Israel from the USA is do not fly ELAL rather fly any other airline.
Also if in any way possible fly to Israel (but never ELA L) via a stop in Europe.
If we all follow the strategy listed above (not ELAL and via a stop in Europe) within one year all parties in control will realize
that people in the USA have woken up, and that the business as usual model is broke. Only then will the limited supply regulations
stop and fairs will become competitive.
There is a lot more to say on how ELAL currently structures it’s self however it is much more constructive to focus on how we
the people can change the structure of the flights system so that as many Jews as possible get to visit Israel for a fair rate to
the airlines and for the passengers.

Wishing you a Shanah Tova,
Le’Shana Habah B’yershalim Ha’Benuyah,
A Pushit a Yid.

to everyone who is having trouble with cheapoair- we were advised by a travel agent to file a complaint with the department of transportation . if enough of us do so, maybe we can get something done.

Just spoke to Elal and was informed…

If you choose to pay the $75 to upgrade to direct flight, you must do it both ways. They arent making the cahnges yet but have that information.