DansDeals reported last year that Delta committed to making efforts to help El Al join the SkyTeam Alliance.
That process took another step forward today as El Al launched a codeshare agreement with Air France. You can now book flights starting for travel on 3/31 with Air France’s code on El Al flights and El Al’s code on Air France flights:
As part of the agreement, El Al Silver elites flying on El Al codeshare flights operated by Air France will receive additional free baggage, while Matmid Gold elites and higher will receive perks like priority baggage, boarding, security, and access to Air France lounges. Elites won’t be able to bring in companions to Air France lounges. Matmid members will accumulate Matmid points and elite qualifying diamonds.
Air France/Flying Blue Silver elites flying on Air France codeshare flights operated by El Al will also receive additional free baggage, while Gold elites and higher will also receive perks like priority baggage, boarding, security, and access to El Al lounges.
Air France was one of the early foreign carriers to return to Tel Aviv after the October 7th massacre, and unlike many European carriers, immediately restored nonstop flights. It currently flies 5 weekly A350 widebody flights between Paris and Tel Aviv, which will increase to daily flights when the codeshare begins.
El Al currently flies 22 weekly 737, 777, and 787 flights between Paris and Tel Aviv, and will increase that to 27 next month.
The Delta agreement has opened the door to more deals with Delta’s partners. El Al hopes to work out a deal for a codeshare with KLM in the near future and additional codeshares by the end of the summer.
Mileage reciprocity with Air France/KLM’s Flying Blue program and other airlines should also come online later this year.
One letdown with the Delta partnership agreement, is that while El Al announced that there would be reciprocal lounge access for each airline’s elites, that was apparently a misunderstanding. Delta didn’t honor lounge access for El Al Matmid elites and El Al then pulled lounge access for Delta elites. For now, lounge reciprocity with Delta is off the table, but as with joining SkyTeam, El Al hopes to get there one day.
It’s also worth noting that while El Al offers Delta elites free access to SPACE seating, which feature extra legroom, Delta only offers preferred seating to El Al elites, which include aisles and windows closer to the front of the plane. Delta doesn’t offer seats with extra legroom, which are sold as Comfort Plus seating, to El Al elites.
As far as other non-SkyTeam codeshares, El Al announced last June that they would join with Star Alliance carrier ANA in Spring 2024. Having ANA as a partner would allow for connectivity within Japan for El Al’s Tel Aviv-Tokyo service. SkyTeam has very little presence in Japan, as the market is dominated by ANA and OneWorld carrier JAL. That codeshare is still in the works, despite the Delta partnership, however it has been delayed in the wake of the October 7th massacre and won’t happen this Spring.
The partnership with Alaska Airlines, formerly a close Delta partner and now a bitter Delta rival that has joined OneWorld, will end after 7/31.
I was wondering about JetBlue, a now struggling airline with no alliance that is also now a bitter Delta rival, but it appears that its partnership with El Al is safe for now.
El Al has recorded record profits in Q4 as other airlines handed El Al a near-monopoly on Israel flights after October 7th. That will be challenged as more airlines head back to Tel Aviv, especially with United’s return this week.
What do you think of these El Al partnerships and initiatives?
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21 Comments On "El Al Takes One Step Closer To SkyTeam With Air France Codeshare Agreement; News On Mileage Reciprocity, Delta Lounge Access, SkyTeam, ANA, Alaska, JetBlue, And More"
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sounds great but still are they most expensive way to get to israel
Shouldn’t Virgin Atlantic be next on the list?
They’ve been selling joint tickets between TLV-US for years already.
Makes sense Delta doesn’t want to go around giving more folks lounge access given their lounge access debacle from last year. Bummer for Delta elites ex TLV though.
Forgot to mention elal’s new code share with SAS who is also joining skyteam
Will you be able to book El Al flights with flying blue miles?
+1
The post discusses this.
1. Can we use Delta miles or Air France miles for ELAL tickets? 2. As of today which airline miles can we use for ELAL tickets? 3. Which airline miles are best deal for ELAL tickets?
What about the EL AL and qantas relationship? Will that be ending?
@Dan, somewhat seperate topic. If my wife has delta gold medallion status and we book a delta flight using Virgin Atlantic points, will we be able to use lounge access with her Medallion Status, even though we booked flight using Virgin Atlantic points (Delta flight)?
I’m a Delta platinum and after adding my account number to my el al booking I didn’t receive any benefits from el al. I was even required to pay for an additional bag and it doesn’t show anything on the system. So I’m not sure how AF elites can utilize their benefits on el al flights.
will ly end AA codeshare through CDG?
Nice to see companies from europe conducting new agreements with israel these days
wonder if this is new due to air france reduced capacity
@Dan is United partnership in process with elal?
I was able to book yesterday a united outbound and elal return flight on United.com website with 016 ticket.
Was that just a glitch or something cooking.
Any airline can book travel on any airline.
True they can but I don’t think they ever sold LY flights on United.com! any more info.?
They dont sell Elal flights directly on united.com presumably u clicked through google flights
It’s very hard seeing the alaska partnership end. As an mvp100k I used to get perks flying elal. Went last week and they wouldn’t allow me extra bags without paying plus I sat in the back of the plane. Also our cheap mileage booking fee or flight to israel will come to a stop and now be very hard for me to book with alaska points.
What may be huge is if FlyingBlue miles can be used for ElAl flights.
DL redemptions (as always) are criminal
It’s in the works.
Does this mean that flights booked on Air France can now earn diamonds on elal? If so, when will that become available?