In December I reported that United was temporarily suspending flights between Chicago and Washington DC-Tel Aviv.
United has extended the suspension of those routes through at least April 1st.
In January, United operated 10 weekly flights between Newark and Tel Aviv, with the earlier flight 84/85 only operating 3 days a week.
In February, that’s being reduced to just 1 daily flight once Ben Gurion reopens, with flight 84/85 suspended through at least March 6th. If you were booked on those flights you can be moved to flight 90/91 or you can request a full refund.
Starting on March 7th through March 31st, United will operate 10-11 weekly flights, with flight 84/85 operating on select dates only.
United will continue operating flight 90 from Newark to Tel Aviv at 8:25pm instead of 10:55pm through March 26th, after which it will revert to the later time.
United will also reduce flights between San Francisco and Tel Aviv from daily to 3 per week through March 31st.
In short, United will operate 13-14 weekly flights to Tel Aviv instead of their planned 27 weekly flights. With Israel’s borders remaining closed to foreign nationals through at least March 1st and with the airport currently closed, that’s not much of a surprise.
United is also changing the schedule of their Chicago-Tel Aviv service.
Originally they flew on Monday, Thursday, and Saturday from Chicago to Tel Aviv, departing at 6:45pm and arriving at 2pm the next day. That meant Sabbath observant Jews were only able to fly the route on Mondays. The return flight was on Monday, Wednesday, and Saturday.
The reason for that schedule was that United didn’t think it would make sense to fly from both Chicago and Washington DC to Tel Aviv on the same days of the week. That’s because both flights only operated 3 days per week and needed to pickup additional connecting passenger feed in order to turn a profit. However, I mentioned last September that United would be open to changing the schedule and that’s exactly what United is doing going forward.
Starting in April, United will fly from Chicago to Tel Aviv on Sunday, Tuesday, and Friday, meaning that Sabbath observant Jews can now take the flight on Sunday or Tuesday. The return flight from Tel Aviv to Chicago will now operate on Sunday, Tuesday, and Thursday, so that Sabbath observant Jews can take any of those flights.
If you were previously booked on nonstop Chicago flights, you can call United to change your dates or request a refund.
The Washington DC to Tel Aviv schedule in April continues to operate on Sunday, Wednesday, and Friday with Tel Aviv to Washington DC on Sunday, Tuesday, and Friday.
Of course if Israel remains closed, those flights are unlikely to operate.
United is the only airline in the world that has maintained daily service (other than during the current airport closure) to Tel Aviv during this pandemic. They even changed their post-Yom Kippur flight time when a DansDeals reader requested them to do so.
Were you booked on any of these cancelled flights? What do you think of United’s new Chicago-Tel Aviv flight schedule?
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14 Comments On "United Pares Back Their March Tel Aviv Flight Schedule, Updates Chicago-Tel Aviv Flight Schedule For Sabbath Observant Jews!"
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My daughter was booked on an upcoming direct TLV->ORD flight in June. Checking on it, they silently (no email notification or anything) canceled that flight and rebooked her through San Francisco! (I want what they’re smoking!)
Moving her to the next day’s direct flight was $29 via their app, well worth it vs trying to deal with them over the phone to rectify it for nothing. Idiots. I wonder how many more times they’ll mess with the bookings without notifying us.
You could have texted or DMd them to do it for free if you didn’t want to call…
I had a Thursday ORD-TLV award ticket that was silently changed to ORD-EWR-TLV. Was able to change to Tuesday for free, but seemingly only because award space was open.
Original ticket booked tlv-ord March 14th on ua141. After seeing this post I checked the app, they automatically rebooked me on ua91 via ewr. Love the new ord schedule if they ever continue.
I was supposed to fly business class for Purim. Will I get credit or refund when I cancel?
Did they cancel or change your flight time?
No, but I believe I am restricted to entering Israel in February as I don’t fall under permitted categories!
Wait and see if they cancel.
Which flights, which days will the TLV to SFO be operating ?
I don’t think the new schedule is particularly great. At least not for the observant business passenger. For that, the smartest would have been to move up the Thursday flight by a few hours. Now the last flight someone can take in the week is Tuesday.
I was booked on LAX-SFO-TLV on March 30. They cancelled that route and rebooked me on LAX-EWR-TLV. Not pleased but I understand. Hopefully it will actually happen.
You can also change to a date that SFO-TLV is operating for free.
Just an FYI: SFO-TLV cancelled Monday the 29 and Wed the 31 as well. So I have to fly LAX-EWR. Annoying is that I paid to upgrade to Econ Plus. SFO to TLV is 3 cabin and meal service all the way. Lax-Ewr is no meal service and 3-3 757 config and EWR-TLV is 787 with 5 cabin service. So my upgrade doesn’t go as far and less meals. They moved me up on LAX-EWR Econ + (I had to ask. Couldn’t do it via app without getting charged) and EWR-TLV they moved me to row 32 (I also had to ask as I couldn’t do it via app) That’s where we are at.
Correct. However it’s kinda tight as it is during Chol Hamoed Pesach. With time diffs and margin of errors the 30th is the safest bet. I don’t always play it safe but I try to 😉