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Update, 5/14: This is now live on El Al’s booking site. If you find this option on any other online travel agencies, post a comment and I’ll update this post!
If they aren’t going to offer that as an option, hopefully El Al can find a way to allow people to add the option within a period of time after booking, by contacting El Al or on the El Al site.
Originally posted on 5/14:
During COVID, El Al offered the ability to refund all tickets to flexible vouchers.
That was an incredible incentive to book El Al, as it meant you could cancel at any time and anyone was able to use the voucher for future travel. Travel agents even got paid a commission on travel voucher bookings, so they were happy to buy vouchers from people who weren’t using them. You were even able to combine multiple vouchers from different people to buy a ticket or use one voucher to buy multiple tickets.
It was also great as it meant AMEX Business Gold Card or AMEX Business Platinum cardholders could generate vouchers while taking advantage of the 25% or 35% respective points rebate while traveling in El Al economy or premium economy, or to just convert points into El Al vouchers at a value of 1.33 or 1.54 cents per point.
Alas, the El Al voucher program ended in December.
However, the airline exclusively tells DansDeals that early next week, they will once again offer the opportunity to purchase tickets that are eligible to be refunded to the same style vouchers as were offered previously!
The catch is that they will now be offered as an ancillary purchase at the time of booking.
The “El Al Protect” launch price will be $19 for short-haul tickets on flights up to 6.5 hours and $29 for long-haul tickets. That’s expected to remain as a fixed price for the first couple months, before switching to dynamic pricing based on the route, fare class, and other parameters. The vouchers from this program will be valid through 12/31/24 for travel through December 2025. It’s available in all fare classes on El Al and Sun d’Or operated flights, except on LITE fares and Matmid award tickets.
Travelers can add this flexibility option to tickets purchased directly from El Al or from travel agents. It will be up to online travel agents to sell this option, so here’s hoping that AMEX and Chase offer this option! The option will only be available for purchase at the time of ticketing.
Matmid members can also redeem points to purchase voucher eligible tickets. At launch it will cost 57 points for short-haul flights or 87 points for long-haul flights.
While El Al still offers free changes on flights between North America and Israel, those funds must be used by the ticketed passenger within 1 year. Spending an extra $19-$29 seems like a pretty good deal to lock in the ability to refund a ticket to a voucher, which can be used by anyone for flights over the next several years. We’ll have to see what the dynamic pricing looks like to see if this will remain a good option in the future.
Will you spend a little extra to allow your ticket to be refundable to a voucher?
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37 Comments On "[Now Live!] DansDeals Exclusive: El Al Will Bring Back Their Awesome Flexible Vouchers Next Week, With A Catch"
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This would be incredible if it returns. Please let us know!
Ah, please read the post 🙂
Or the title…
he meant to ask if AmEx will have the option to book it trough their system for the 35%
For your Poll, it would depend on how much the flight costs.
Very smart move. Finally some competence from El Al.
Capital one travel site, has a similar program, for a fee you can get 80% refund up to 3 hrs before flight
Right, but for an El Al flight, that can be $100 or more to make it 80% refundable.
This option is far more attractive.
The way refundable tickets are priced makes them unattractive, this is much more affordable and sensible option.
So essentially possible to use the voucher beyind 2025 by booking and canceling etc. ? Or just 2 years?
Sure, if you buy another voucher eligible ticket.
I currently have a voucher expiring end of the year,
So you say I can rebook, add the $29 , cancel and get until the end of next year for the expiration?
Correct.
So does that mean we won’t have the option to add this to a ticket purchased today? (ie., we should wait until next week then to book if this is something we want to take advantage of?)
Correct.
thanks! and the fee is per ticket, or per booking/reservation?
Per ticket.
Will these tickets with option to refund for vouchers need to be purchased directly from Elal (or TA that works with ELAL) or would it be able to purchase using Amex travel as well?
See the post 🙂
Can these tickets be used at any time of year?
Which tickets?
If you buy a voucher for a ticket, can it be used for tickets for times when tickets are typically higher? Or an i misunderstanding this whole concept?
The voucher is for the price you paid.
Won’t work on Matmid award tickets, but what about other award tickets (Alaska, Qantas)?
No.
Sounds good….however how do we know if a ticket is a LITE ticket and is not eligible for this program?
Dan
I just checked up on an upcoming on elal.com and found an option to cancel the flight and receive a voucher. There are many different rules and categories explained in there which is (more than) a bit confusing but I’ll just copy-paste two bullets that affect my upcoming flight.
“Passengers who began their trip (to\from Israel) and were scheduled to return before May 19th,2023 (including), may move their flight to the same destination to an earlier time, up to May 12th, 2023 (including) with no change fees or pricing differences, in the same class of service.
Passengers who have yet to begin their trip (to\from Israel) and have flight tickets purchased before May 9th,2023 (including) for flights scheduled to depart until May 12th,2023 (including) may change or freeze their flight ticket with no change fees although pricing differences will apply. Alternatively, customers may issue a credit voucher to the sum of the original ticket (including Lite tickets). Please note, the credit voucher may not be exchanged for money.”
Is all the info they posted reflective of the new policy, or was it online all along? If so, what exactly will be changing next week?
When did you book your flight?
I booked it in middle of April (before May 9) and the way I understand it I have until today to make any changes to my not-yet-begun flight. Am I missing something?
Was this due to מגן וחץ?
If elal should offer express flights from north America for a premium price if they put the pedal to metal so to speak and shave off a couple of hours they would win the market
This would be very good news, but in terms of being able to utilize the Amex 25/35% discount, its hard to believe that that amex/chase will allow you to purchase the add on, as this would require them to recode their platform.
But no commission for TAs this time
If I have the CSR which comes with all the insurances, is there a need for this?
Does CSR let you cancel “for any reason”? I don’t think so
Is there any way I can change a flight through ElAl for a flight that I booked through quantas?
Hi Dan,
On May 14 after reading this post about El Al protect, I purchased an El Al ticket with El Al protect.
I have just checked my options to cancel my flight scheduled for Sep, the system on El Al says that The voucher is valid until the date indicated, for flight departures until November 30, 2023 not Dec 2024 as you posted.
Anything I can do?