Update, 1/27/22: El Al now officially confirms that they will resume Boston-Tel Aviv service on 3/27/22, as was reported here last October. The flights will be operated on a 787-8 Dreamliner, though it has been scaled back from 3 to 2 weekly flights.
El Al’s smaller Dreamliner offers 20 Business class lie flat seats with direct aisle access, 35 Premium Economy seats in a 2-3-2 configuration, and 183 Economy seats in a 3-3-3 configuration.
El Al had also been selling seats nonstop from Chicago to Tel Aviv from late March, but that has been pushed back to at least late October.
Boston to Tel Aviv will operate on Sundays and Thursdays, departing at 8:30pm and arriving at 1:50pm the next day.
Tel Aviv to Boston will also operate on Sundays and Thursdays, departing at 12:50am and arriving at 5:30am the same day.
El Al will codeshare with JetBlue for connections from other cities visa Boston, though codeshare pricing that I checked from cities like Cleveland and Pittsburgh was absurdly expensive. While those flights can be purchased separately, you would have to recheck baggage and you would be on the hook for flight change costs in case of delays or cancellations.
Delta still plans to launch nonstop Boston-Tel Aviv service with 3 weekly A330-900neo flights beginning on 5/26/22.
Do you think that Boston-Tel Aviv will be able to handle 2 carriers or which airline will win this battle?
Update, 10/5/21: El Al will attempt to preempt this Delta flight with 3 weekly flights between Boston and Tel Aviv, now on sale starting 3/27/22!
Boston to Tel Aviv will operate on Sundays, Tuesdays, and Thursdays, departing at 8:30pm and arriving at 1:50pm the next day.
Tel Aviv to Boston will operate on Sundays, Tuesdays, and Thursdays, departing at 12:50am and arriving at 5:30am the same day.
Those are the same days of the week as Delta’s flights, but El Al will operate red-eye flights instead of Delta’s daytime flights. We have traveled with our kids to Israel several times, and have found that the red-eye flights are far superior, so I’d say the schedule advantage goes to El Al here.
El Al flew this route before COVID, though it was among their least successful North American routes, which is why it is still on hiatus.
This comes after El Al announcing that they will battle United for the Chicago to Tel Aviv route.
It’s great to see an aggressive El Al responding to continued attacks on their North American market share, but it remains to be seen if they can compete with US carriers superior ability to offer connecting flights and superior loyalty programs.
Either way, it’s good for consumers who will benefit from price wars. The real question is how long can El Al last in a price war versus significantly larger US competitors?
Will you fly Delta or El Al on this route?
Update, 10/3/21: The Delta flights between Boston and Tel Aviv are now bookable!
Round-trip paid flights next summer from Boston to Tel Aviv start at $891 and round-trip paid flights from Tel Aviv to Boston start at $679.
Delta charges 69K miles round-trip in coach:
Virgin Atlantic charges 35K miles each way in coach:
Delta has excellent business class award space for 105K miles each way:
Business class on the A330-900neo has private walled suites:
Originally posted on 10/2/21:
Delta flew from their mega hub in Atlanta to Tel Aviv from 2006-2009 (cue the acronym jokes like Delays Every Leg To Atlanta, Delivers Everyone’s Luggage To Atlanta, Departures for Everywhere Leave Through Atlanta, etc). Back in 2009, we flew from Tel Aviv to Cleveland via Atlanta in business class for a mere 45K Skymiles, though I didn’t particularly care for Delta’s leather business class seats. Delta then dropped Atlanta and relocated the flight to JFK, where they are able to take advantage of the larger demand for nonstop service at a premium cost with a shorter flight.
They have increased from 1 flight a day from JFK to Tel Aviv to as many as 3 per day during peak periods and they have upgraded their aircraft to the A330neo, featuring business class suites.
Tel Aviv has proven to be a lucrative market for US carriers, in no small part due to El Al’s inept frequent flyer program and customer service.
Delta announced today that they will begin flying nonstop from Boston to Tel Aviv starting on 5/26/22 with an A330-900neo featuring business class suites!
Many had hoped that Atlanta-Tel Aviv would return one day, but Delta has been actively building up their presence in Boston in recent years and will also be adding flights from Boston to Athens on 5/27/22.
Delta initially plans to fly from Boston to Tel Aviv on Sundays, Tuesdays, and Thursdays at 4:20pm, arriving at 9:35am the next day. They plan to fly from Tel Aviv to Boston on Sundays, Tuesdays, and Thursdays at 11:50am, arriving at 4:45pm the same day.
That’s an excellent schedule for Sabbath observers!
El Al had flown from Boston to Tel Aviv 3 times weekly before the pandemic, but they dropped the route last March. It was never a very successful route for El Al, but Delta will have better connecting options than El Al did, which could help it succeed.
Now, all we need is for Israel to reopen for tourism…
Do you think that the Boston-Tel Aviv route will be sustainable for Delta? Will you fly on the route? Which North American city will be next to see new service to Tel Aviv?
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50 Comments On "[El Al Confirms They Will Preempt Delta In Boston!] WOW! Delta Will Add Another Tel Aviv Route, But It’s Not From Atlanta"
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Do all flights from jfk currently featuring business suits
depends how you come dressed. if you also wear a tie with your suit you get 10 free miles.
ElAl acquisition getting less and less valuable daily for Mr. Rosenberg. Clearly US carriers are eating ElAl’s lunch
I was twice on that el al route it was. Jammed packed so I’m not sure what was not successful.
There’s no kuntz in packing a plane. Packing it profitably is a lot harder.
As a Bostonian, I am ecstatic to hear this news.
also good for all the small jewish communities in the are. waterbury, providence, etc.
Most definitely will fly this route.
The return dates are as written in article? Will Delta leave the plane’s there for an extra day?
It can sub with the JFK flights.
I just was in isreal for Yom tov 4 business class seats on elal
Elal is definitely the best way to fly to Israel stop the hate elal has the best seat best service and the best food onboard
I don’t hate El Al. I would have loved to help make them competitive and profitable.
$2200 elal business used my business amex 🙂 so 110k for each
But I’m very serious I tried delta American and United I definitely think elal is the most comfortable seat and love the service they try to help didn’t make a big deal my kids and me no masks on I was very happy with Elal we should all fly with them
What do you mean when you say: ”I would have loved to help make them competitive and profitable.” You reached out to them? They reached out to you?
Or you just wish they were competitive and profitable?
Dan reaches out to them practically every day. They never return the favour.
Now that we moved to Atlanta, I’m hoping a direct to TLV will restart. We were spoiled living 20 minutes from EWR.
On this current few trips this year, we’ve flown UA via EWR and ORD on United. I like their business class, and I’ve repeatedly been able to get ‘Saver fares.’
Great kosher food. Great service. 3 checked bags per person. The ‘permit process’ has been horrendous, but Israelis are very happy to see us foreigners.
The amount you’ll annually save from NJ property taxes should make the 1-connection flight to TLV well worth it.
+1
On an Elal flight now to TLV very full
I like the mysterious title! Made me open the post 🙂
Looks Like ELAL hasn’t completely pulled this flight as the flight still shows in GDS but 0 inventory
Was really hoping to see a red-eye option out of Tel Aviv… so much more convenient, especially with kids. @Dan- Seems like airlines are moving away from red-eyed from TLV, it used to be the most common flight time but now is very rare. Any idea why this changed?
Agree that the red-eye timing is better with kids.
Clearly the earlier timing is better for Thursday night flights to TLV though.
Seems like 105k each way is a steep price compared to some other star alliance prices. Any cheaper option to book the delta flight?
I didn’t see any business award space released to partners yet, but post if you find any 🙂
J class doesn’t show up on AF yet ?
Delta often doesn’t release business awards to partners.
“It was never a very successful route for El Al, but Delta will have better connecting options than El Al did, which could help it succeed.”
Why is this true? El Al was partnering with JetBlue, which has more routes in Boston than Delta does.
Because changing airlines is never ideal. Those options show up lower in search results, you often have to pay bag fees to the domestic carriers, change terminals, etc.
Plus they never synced up on loyalty earning and burning.
Never mind the mess that happens if one airline has a delay or cancellation. Irrops are bad enough when you’re just on one airline!
You think any chance Delta would launch DTW-TLV one day?
Certainly a decent chance, especially if Boston does well.
In terms of TLV, I feel like DTW for Delta would be the equivalent of what IAD was for United. 1. Airports with relatively stagnant growth through the past 10+ years. 2. Airports which wouldn’t be a large enough local market for O&D traffic to TLV. 3. Duplicating efforts (Delta is at BOS and JFK, United is at EWR); as I expected, IAD didn’t prove itself to be a 2nd back-up option for EWR on the eastern seaboard. All in all, if anything ATL would more closely check some of the above boxes; better than Detroit. If we are guessing Detroit, why not throw in Minneapolis?
Any word on ElAl stepping up their game to be Israel’s airline after the takeover? I’m saving up miles to take the whole family to Israel and I really don’t want to use another airline because ElAL is part of the experience, but all these other miles and availability offers are really making it a tough choice!
I flew the BOS route many times pre-pandemic. First it was on the 767, and eventually they upgraded the route on 777.
The business class was always packed and it’s the only times they ever offered me to downgrade for pay. Till this day I still regret not accepting these offers.
The economy class was hardly ever full. So with less business travelers these days I’m skeptical it will be successful
Dan is it true that a infant under 2 can fly to Eretz Yisreal without a passport just birth certificate? Thanks
No, this is definitely not true. For all international travel, every person needs their own passport, even if they are under 2. Did you see this written anywhere that an infant doesn’t need a passport? If so, it needs to be corrected immediately.
CtownBin is correct. All the more so, an infant requires a passport. International child trafficking is sadly a very real occurrence. In many instances, the documentation of young children is scrutinized more deeply than that of the adults.
After starting off with great fanfare last time on BOS-TLV, LY soon had to switch to flying this route with old, wet-leased charter aircraft. Passengers canceled flights or switched to connecting through NYC. LY shouldn’t have to resort to doing that this time around hopefully.
What happened to being able to sort the comments by newest first??????
Personally, I think the Delta flight schedule is a far more relaxing one. The Business Class service on Delta is nothing compared to the class European airlines like Swiss, Lufthansa or Virgin, but it beats El Al any day and, yes, I have flown all those airlines across the Atlantic to Israel in Business. Swiss gets my vote as the best.
The Motsae Shabbos departure ex-tlv is not convenient for Israeli business travelers.. most fly out on Sunday night.
They made the same mistake back in the day when they were flying 3x weekly.
I flew this route many times ex-Boston.
Very interesting. With ElAl’s codeshare with JetBlue, that should be close to equivalent to Delta’s ability to connect, so I think it’s a pretty fair fight from that standpoint. Although, it’s bizarre (and really dumb from EalAl’s perspective) that the codeshare connecting flights are so high, that would need to change to compete. Although living in a city like Cleveland, I find it far more convenient to drive to a close city like Toronto for a direct flight instead of connecting, especially with kids- kids sleep in a car, they don’t sleep in an airport 🙂 (never mind that Toronto flights are almost always cheaper)
Yay for capitalism and fair competition!
I flew this route with my family 6 years ago and it was great except that neither the plane nor (most) of the flight crew were El Al (it was some Spanish airline) so the plane was old and crew didn’t know about kosher meals…
¿Tienes algún problema con los españoles?
Hi Dan
I see very low business class fares on El Al over the summer, but I cant seem to figure out online what is the cancellation policy?
i would go delta 100% not elal
when will delta restore the flights they stopped from jfk-tlv??
Hurry!!!
Use promo code – Rothwedding on ELAL.COM
To get 20% discount during several dates in February, just got 4 tickets!!!
delta has updated the route to tue thu sat bos to tlv and tlv to bos mon thu sat. I had bos to tlv in delta one for 105k on a sunday which has now been moved to sat any advise on what to do?
called delta got it switched to jfk-tlv