WOW! American Will Fly Nonstop Between JFK And Tel Aviv And Will Add More JFK Flights With New JetBlue Partnership!

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American has just announced that they will fly nonstop between JFK and Tel Aviv starting next year.

This will be enabled by a new codeshare partnership with JetBlue in NYC and Boston. JetBlue says they will add more flights to all 3 NYC airports which will feed passengers to American. Hopefully we’ll also get some fun new mileage redemption and elite benefits between the new partners as well!

In turn, American will start flying year-round from JFK to Tel Aviv and Athens next year. It will also fly seasonally once again to Rio de Janeiro next winter. American will be adding several more international flights to Europe, Africa, India, and South America from JFK as well that will be announced later.

JetBlue will not join OneWorld as west coast based Alaska will be soon thanks to their own American partnership. JetBlue will also still launch their own nonstop flights to London next year. For now, both Alaska and JetBlue remain codeshare partners with El Al as well.

JetBlue and American were once bitter rivals, but American has massively shrunk their presence at JFK in recent years as they mostly ceded that airport to Delta and JetBlue. Today’s announcement represents an amazing reversal of their JFK hub’s fortunes as American takes a “if you can’t beat ’em, join ’em” attitude to JetBlue.

JFK and Miami to Tel Aviv were seen as obvious route launches when American launched with USAirways. However they ended Philadelphia to Tel Aviv service in January 2016, decided to massively shrink their JFK hub operations, and they were beat by El Al in Miami.

United CEO Scott Kirby, who was President at USAirways before moving to American with the merger and then jumping ship to United, once called the Philadelphia to Tel Aviv route among the most lucrative in their system. However American said the route was not profitable and didn’t have any forecast of profitability when they shut it down.

The assumption at the time was that American couldn’t fly to Tel Aviv due to pension liabilities leftover from TWA. I had speculated when the USAirways merger was announced in 2013 that either American would launch JFK and Miami to Tel Aviv service or they would have to end all Tel Aviv service due to TWA issues. Presumably those issues have been resolved.

American was supposed to start flying between Dallas and Tel Aviv in September. That route launch was pushed back by 1 year and it remains to be seen if it will happen in the wake of COVID-19 and the Chicago-Tel Aviv route launch by United. The Chicago route will take away from a lot of the feed that American hoped to route through Dallas.

The real question now is when will American announce nonstop Miami-Tel Aviv service?

With El Al’s operations suspended and looking weaker than they ever have, the US airlines smell blood in the water and have now announced 2 new routes in the midst of a global pandemic. It’s a testimony to just how strong the US-Israel market is for the airlines. All 3 major US carriers will now have a presence on the NYC-Tel Aviv route.

Hopefully it will also be a boon for consumers as the airlines jockey for market share, though that may be more bad news for El Al as they can hardly afford a bruising fare war on their flagship route.

Will you fly on American between JFK and Tel Aviv?

HT: Tzfas, via DDF


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174 Comments On "WOW! American Will Fly Nonstop Between JFK And Tel Aviv And Will Add More JFK Flights With New JetBlue Partnership!"

All opinions expressed below are user generated and the opinions aren’t provided, reviewed or endorsed by any advertiser or DansDeals.

LovePHL

What about flying direct from PHL??? Restart that route!!!

Ayid

Waiting for this to come back

Yay

Miracles do happen!!!

Dan\'s the Man

Dan do you think competition will actually heat up now and lower fares as there will now be 4 airlines with nonstops from NYC?

Dave

I feel the future of ElAl is unknown. Regardless, while they are “figuring things out” (if that’s the accurate term) many airlines may try to build up some active markets. I’m surprised AA hasn’t grabbed MIA by now, and additionally PHL.

Bob

Will it be bookable with or earn JetBlue points

MeirS

It’s this announcement the end of JetBlue’s plans for LON?

CtownBin

The press release specifically mentions that this does not at all affect JetBlue’s independent plans to fly to London on their own.

AA JB Merger on the horizon?

Hmmm

Yochai

I guess that’s the end of the EL AL/Jet blue codeshare…

CtownBin

Yup, I’d have to think so, yes. ElAl is unlikely to codeshare with an airline with a partner that competes directly with it. But it’s tricky because it leaves ElAl with nobody to codeshare with to connect passengers to other destinations in North America, which is a huge loss for them.
This announcement is bad news for ElAl in a number of ways.

B

Yes, that ended a long time ago.

FreakwentFlyer

SMART

@

What am I missing?
Is this a big deal ?

Yochai

Yes. Since AA didn’t launch any new route from JFK for the past 4 years.
I also think the Jet blue partnership is a big deal, though that’s not mentioned in the post.

Shaul

Bad news for Elal. And possibly for flyers as well, as the one airline that might be worse than Elal might be enough to push Elal away.

Ed Travel

If El al was behaving well, we would be happy to support them. But a policy of violating the Shabbat is not a good policy. They say one thing, the do otherwise.

Shaul

Keep in mind, I don’t think any other airline would go out of their way to divert a plane that would land after shabbos.

The difference is that travellers would not make bad decisions on the other airlines and fly the Thursday night flight that lands Fri afternoon.

Jerusalem resident

Another airline wouldn’t lie either.

Dave

Yea Ed, I have to echo and agree with Shaul’s statement. If you take any international flight on any airline with a scheduled landing a few short hours before Shabbos, the fault is on you. Min Ha’Shamayim and legally.

E

Best comment so far. But we’re JFK flyers and will suffer with AA if the price (in dollars or miles) is right.

Mike

I originally read the post as WOW will fly non stop! Anyway this will be great as a new competitor will bring down prices

Shmoogrr

WOW is flying nonstop for a long time until they begin to PLAY

MoG

oh, I also thought it was WOW air… AA’s good too. Why wait till next year..
m

Matovu

Their like warning the potential buyer of ELAL to stay far away !

Yandmk

Now El Al will actually have fair competition on who will have more delays….
There’s actually a possibility that LY will become the second worst carrier operationally on the route….

Barry

I’ve had as miles stockpiled from when the phl flight existed

Barry

i meant AA miles.. sitting on them for years. b/c they really are pretty useless out of NJ (not worth it flying out of JFK / LGA domestically) – but for Israel, I’ll get to JFK

Bee

Wait until AA pulls one of them old Birds from the Graveyard to fly this route

Laughing..

Actually cracked me up!

David

I love to see how elal goes down the drain. They deserve it.

Zee

After All they are Yiden
You shouldn’t talk & write like that, We could daven & hope they should change their attitude towards customers & keep shabbos proper etc……

Brian G

After their Yiddin pilots striked and kept my 94 year old grandmother stranded on a layover in Europe for 8 hours and the same for my parents when they are probably the highest paid pilots in the world I could care less what happens to them. I switched to Delta years ago when I kept missing my connections at JFK b/c ELAL landed late, or couldn’t figure out how to get my bags out timely.

Mark

What is the approximate date?

Avi

What aircraft will they use?

Chaim

Can you pls explain “The assumption at the time was that American couldn’t fly to Tel Aviv due to pension liabilities leftover from TWA”

Joep

Bad news for jetblue mosaics? Their email mentioned loyalty benefits news to come.. Is jetblue turning towards legacy airline bs?

Mia Flyer

AA is just as good as UA on international routes , Miami feeder from south america routes should prove an easy second choice destination

Mia Flyer

will Jetblue mosaic get you upgrades on AA on this route ?

Liz

yes I will. Especially since I have a credit with them from my chase reward miles from a cancelled flight due to covid

moe

Personally, unless i am in a rush, i don’t like the long 10/12 hour non-stop flights. I would much rather get a 2/3 hour stopover in Europe so i can daven like a mentch, strech my legs, use a normal bathroom, and maybe look around a little. All it does is add 3-4 hours to your trip but 2×6 is much easier than 1×12. Besides the fact that they are usually 10-20% cheaper, this makes stopovers much more attractive to me.

Dave

Moe, sounds like you are looking to save $$ when flying to Israel (which is okay). Unless someone plans on touring a European city, I don’t think I’ve ever met anyone who would prefer to make stops so they can use a urinal and daven in the dark corner of another European airport– especially with children, strollers, car seats, and diaper bags.

Yisroel

Unless we are counting airports for the DDF list 🙂

Ari

I do, even when the price is the same I take a stopover in Europe to be able to daven shachris like a mentch, the leg stretching and bathroom help, but I wouldn’t do it for that. Interestingly enough I’ve met a lot of people on these flights that do it for the same reasons. I agree I wouldn’t do it if traveling with kids.

Shaul

-Flights to Europe are bad for sleeping, and most are red-eyes. O an 7-8 hour flight, meal service doesn’t end until at least 2 hours into it, and pre-arrival service starts 2 hours before landing, so you only have lights out for 3-4 hours. On a flight to Israel, you have closer to 6 hours to potentially sleep. It’s a big difference.

Avi

Please explain how this code-sharing works, is this considered as a pure JetBlue flight that will not be part of the OneWorld alliance and you can only use JetBlue or AA points, or it is considered as an AA/JetBlue flight in regard to using any OW alliance member points in addition JB points?

joel

another use for my overstocked qantas points. unfortunately qantas tacks on surcharges to most aa international flights

rob

The only question at this point is which airline will beat the other to the punch – DL via ATL or AA via MIA

DL needs to catch up to the other airlines on taking ownership of the modern fuel efficient aircraft, because they’re getting beat to the punch on the routes that those aircraft were perfectly tailored for

As for El Al, I think they’re done regardless of COVID. Until TLV turns into a connecting hub (which will never happen), or they get real airline partners (that ship appears to have sailed in the U.S.), their best case scenario is an airline that shuttles jews between TLV/LHR/CDG and TLV. In their secondary markets like ORD, their O&D network just can’t compete with the hundreds of connecting options UA offers

Brian G

I remember those ATL direct flights on Delta to TLV. I miss them and don’t understand why they don’t restart them? The entire southern US is full of evangelicals that would love to fly thru Atlanta, rather than have to come up to JFK.

united

Will these flights be available through Qantas? and will the mileage redemptions stay at the same levels?

joel

but they themselves dont charge the surcharges ?

me

yay I have over 400k AA miles

OD

Dan you think likely you will be able to use AA points for Jet Blue flight and Vice versa?

Shkoyach

Dan, once again the sheer scope of your knowledge and ability to present it in an easy to read manner is mamesh gevaldig.

YMW

+1k

Adam

I have a ton of AA miles that, unless I am flying to CA or London, I haven’t been able to use. In any event, competition is a good thing. Any idea what equipment they might use?

B

I doubt American will be flying their own planes to Tel Aviv. They don’t need a codeshare with JetBlue to do that. They are, I am sure, pre-announcing that JetBlue will be launching a JFK TLV flight in 2021 with an American codeshare.

Shaul

Even once JetBlue starts JFK-LON, they still might not be in the range to fly to the Middle East, even if they wanted to.

Ehad2

Yemos hamashiah that’s why so many airlines are getting ready to be able to supply the feed no worries about prices/cost or points which cares. We will need to be able to make it 3 times a year BHM. Little by little the puzzle is giving a clearer picture. Let’s keep hopeful and keep davening

Dave

So when Mashiach comes, only Jews from the NYC metro area will be redeemed? What about all the routes around the world that ElAl may likely never (or severely be delayed) to return to?

Yochai

That’s what the Jet blue codeshare is for. So it can connect US passengers via JFK. The preparation for moshiach is that we now have many international airlines flying to TLV, so we won’t need ELAL to pack us in planes like they did to the Yemenites and Ethiopians.

Mendel

Love this!

EA

I have a ton AA mileage that I’ve accrued flying from JFK to HKG via LAX on AA operated flights. I also have EP status so this is fantastic news to me. Any guess at what mileage requirement for economy/business/first to fly from JFK to TLV. If you had the throw a number out there.

Shaul

If this causes the Elal-JetBlue partnership to end (likely), there’s still a perfect Shidduch for Elal – Spirit! They both provide the same level of excellent service flyers of each airline have come to expect over the years.

VCE_JEW

I dont think i would fly American Airlines even if it was FREE!!! I have had so many bad customer experiences with them that i cant seem to ever fly with them again. (unless they change their ways of course)

I think i will start a petition to have them remove the name American from their name as there is nothing American about them, I think Jetblue should have that name!!!

Berry

More than likely I’ll stick with United since I’m 1K however I may fly AA if the price is right and use the accumulated miles to fly First Class on Cathay to Asia.

Yossi

Thank you Dan for all information!
Could you please update us about the situation of South American Airlines with the Pandemic? As Laram, Azul? Gol, Avianca… Thank you!

Mutty

AA keeps closing mileage accounts and thier customer service stinks worse then delta and United I stay away from them I dont touch this horrible airline

Mg

Can we use Avios for Jfk-Tlv on AA ? Any idea What would be the costs ?

Mike

I can see aa become partners with elal again win for both. The only way elal can gain market is to a have true partnership with a major us carrier.

Aa seems to be undoing all the mistakes

Cut off Alaska – back together
Cut off Jetblue – back together
Cut off Elal – coming back soon ?

Yossi

Is Jetblue’s owner a Yid?

jonny

Forgive my ignorance here – but does this in any way mean we can book this with Avios award flights? Like if I convert my Amex/Chase points to BA, would I be able to book these AA flights? Or no because it’s via B6 codeshare?

Ted

I don’t think I’ve ever flown American or USAirways to Tel Aviv. Did they have good service? How’s their caterer?

#AA

American Airlines Warns 25,000 Workers They Could Lose Jobs https://apnews.com/73dcb59362bc05c22e266d6613530022
hopefully the people who terrorized advantage members will be dismissed.

JM

I would’ve preferred PHL and despise JFK. Driving there is a $100 or so cost in tolls & such from Philadelphia area.

Curious if anyone on TLV route has considered on occasion to use the slew of “gently pre-owned” A380 sitting around from our cousins airlines and increase capacity out of NY but with one flight.

Burning 85-90K AA or United miles to TLV is not such a deal when the same distance to, say, Buenos Aires can be had for 50K and less.

B

Now all we need is the ability to transfer bank points (citi?) to AA

josef.koney

Will this mean I could use my jb travel Bank on American flights? I barely fly jb but I fly American a decent amount…

Nachman J

Dan, Would BA points work for TLV flight on AA? Would this be a good option for Cleveland AA connecting flight to TLV?

Moshe

They had a great Philadelphia flight I was on one of there final ones very happy flying with them from there

yankel

Dan can u explain a little what the mirage means for mileage lovers?

Chaim

Thanks Dan for clarifying the news. As usual.
As soon as I saw the Email from AA about the deal with Jetblue, I came to DD to understand what’s really in it.

Does this make it more worthwhile to aim for the Million Miler Lifetime Elite Status?

isaac

If AA took away our miles and if I fly aa again will I be able to accumulate miles

bs

when will they start selling seats?

Jazzman

Hi Dan, any idea if those vouchers that we won thanks to you for essential healthcare personnel will work to Israel as officially it works for anywhere that jetblue flies?

Shaul

Save them for the London flights.

Motty

Hopefully Delta will now put their flagship A350 on JFK-TLV route. The A330 is lame

David

This is good news

AA LOVER

Dan, when do you think AA will announce the schedule for these flights and the aircraft?

Srulky

I would only fly American as long as Dan isn’t on the flight.

Dan onboard an AA Flight=Delayed Flight

Aa

Any chances that AA will be the only airline with nonstop first class from North America to TLV?

Shay

Too bad not Direct flight from DTW to TLV.

Jaso

Dan, nyc to tlv, American or JB (same time, same price), who’s better?

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