Israel’s Channel 12 is reporting that El Al will suspend all scheduled flight operations after tonight through at least April 4th. They hope to resume service on April 5th, but that date is subject to change and has been pushed back on prior route suspensions.
El Al previously suspended service to all airports except JFK, Newark, London, and Paris. Now those airports will be included as well.
Flight demand has plummeted after Israel closed their borders to foreign nationals.
For now, United still offers daily nonstop service between Newark and Tel Aviv. That is the only remaining nonstop service from North America to Israel.
It’s hard to imagine that the only airline remaining with nonstop service between the US and Israel isn’t El Al, but that’s the current situation.
El Al will still offer charter rescue flights to select destinations where Israelis need extra flights to get home. They have offered flights this week from cities like Perth, Australia; Sao Paulo, Brazil; and San Jose, Costa Rica to Tel Aviv.
Per US and Israeli law, airlines must provide refunds when flights are cancelled, but El Al has been declining to offer those refunds.
Remember that if you are being refused a refund:
- You can dispute the charge with your credit card. Just note that if you used a personal travel agent you’ll be taking the money out of their pocket rather than the airline’s pocket.
- You can file a complaint with the US DoT or with the relevant local complaint board.
- If those options fail, you can take the airline to small claims court.
You can discuss coronavirus and how it’s affecting your life on the dedicated COVID-19 board on DDF here.
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45 Comments On "El Al Will Temporarily Suspend All Scheduled Flight Operations!"
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What if you only have the second leg left to fly and it got canceled? Are you still entitled to a refund according to Israeli and US Law?
Yes, you should get a pro-rated refund.
Will United cancel flights? I have flight to Israel end of May for Shavuos. Any chance that happens? Are they still making people quarantine? My trip is only supposed to be a week long.
As the post says, United is still flying. It’s too early to know about Shavuos, but I think the odds are that there will still be restrictions in place.
Israel is only allowing Israeli citizens and residents into the country for now.
Residents arent even allowed in. Personal experience.
Residents should be allowed in, if they are citizens.
No one knows. Even Bibi Netanyahu can’t answer this question. But in my OPINION, it seems unlikely at this point that you’ll be able to go there without quarantining in May.
Only Temporarily?
Too bad on us.
I got a refund from ELAL for a cancelled flight. But the refund has yet to hit my CC. Any idea of how long it will take? ELAL’s website says 20 days, however, I am worried they won’t actually process the refund.
Surprised it took this long.
What airline can I use to get my son back from Israel Turkish Aeroflot United?
Why have you waited so long?
Grab a ticket on whatever you can before it’s too late.
Bc if you’re daas torah says that finishing the zman is more important than anything else, you listen. Being in Israel isn’t dangerous the land ain’t contagious and you dont run home early bc maybe you won’t be there for Bein Hazmanim. If you can make it home great of not you get a lot of schar.
Can I get some of the stuff your smoking?
Mike, yea…. I’d also like to know either what you are smoking or your favorite beer is during these days of isolation.
Whatever he’s smoking seems to be working, because his son is currently in a location far safer than NYC. What have you been smoking that you didn’t get on a flight to Israel before it was too late?
From a health standpoint, it is probably safer to to stay in Israel, no matter what age group you are in. If any health issue comes up that requires hospitalization, you will not want to be in NY. The health system is on the verge of a meltdown in the coming weeks, and there is no signs of any relief. That will affect anyone needing any sort of emergency medical care. If someone has an innocuous allergic reaction that a quick hospital visit would generally clear up, they are way more likely to perish in NY in the next couple of months than in Israel.
Dave, you are assuming he lives in NYC. It’s possible they live “out of town”. Second, assuming his son is young and in overall good medical health, he is likely not going to need hospitalization if God Forbid catches the virus. According to Gov Cuomo’s stats from a news conference, the vast majority of cases require no hospitalization. Lets not cheapen the phrase “daas Torah”, because in truth all mainstream and reputable frum Rabbonim, Roshei Yeshiva, and Vaadim have closed shuls and yeshivas (and switched to online). We should all be well to 120.
Yes Correct, Eretz Yisroel is doing a much better job than every country with containing this situation, It is much much safer staying there now if they have a place to stay, The Lubavitcher Rebbe said many times that Eretz Yisroel is the safest place.
Some good points. If they were okay with risking the possibility of him having to stay in Israel, that was their decision and I respect it.
Just adding my opinion to the rest of us self appointed armchair judges.
My son should be boarding the United flight right now. As you can see he was able to finish the zman as scheduled and is going to be getting home for Bein Hazmanim as originally planned. He has no regrets for staying and davening with minyonim for the last two weeks while many of his friends were panicking.
If elal changes me to a diff flight, am I entitled to a refund? I’m assuming I was switched because they cancelled the original flight.
What if my flight had a “schedule change” but the flight I booked is no longer running and the new flight they put me on is a different flight # entirely. Is that considered canceling even though they said it was a schedule change? I would much rather a refund
Same question. Are they required to give a cash refund, or we are forced to accept the credit, which to add insult to injury expires, which to add further insult dates from within a year of the original booking date, not the flight date.
Have a flight on El al next week was waiting for them to cancel booked it using chase ur how will I get my refund and how to I file a dot if I booked on points
Link in the post
FYI – It appears BOS-TLV on El Al has now been pushed off until 5/31. Previously it was only until 5/2 I believe. I was booked on that route for 5/5 (through Qantas) and got an email this morning from Qantas that my flights were being changed. Logged on to Google Flights and sure enough the first date showing service on that route is now 5/31 (Sun/Tue/Thrs resuming at that point, for now).
@dan If I froze my ticket with elal recently (future flight credit), do you think I now have grounds for disputing to receive a refund?
Will guys and seminary girls be able to go back after Pesach?
Hkbh knows. No one else
In other words: I left my prophetic vision at home today.
Most people brought home all their items when they came back for Pesach, big chance that not.
If you brought them home, then their yeshiva year is finished. So many have emphasized that for months
Looks like ELAL 32 from YYZ TO TLV is still going tonight.
I have tickets on El Al Tlv to Lhr April 5 now canceled how do i get out from here no flights till then the only one i see is BA on April 5 should i book or big chance they will also cancel
Already cancelled all BA flights until May.
British Airways also cancelled until May.
Dan, Hope all is well. What about if you booked an EL AL flight from JFK to Tel Aviv, using Chase Ultimate Reward Points? Who should you call to refund? Will Chase put the points back into your account?
Thank you!
Daniel
Call Chase.
If they don’t refund file a DoT complaint against El Al.
How can I get a refund from Chase for my El Al flight that was cancelled (they are only giving me airline credit) if I booked the flight over 60 days ago?? Chase does not allow…
Did you try disputing for services not rendered?
How does one do that?
This responds to your communication regarding EL Al Israel. The U.S. Department of Transportation seeks to ensure that all airline passengers are treated fairly. Complaints from consumers are helpful to us in determining whether the airlines are in compliance with our rules and to track trends or spot areas of concern that warrant further action.
Based on the information you have provided, your complaint appears to fall under the Department’s rules. We will forward your complaint to the airline and ask the company to respond directly to you with a copy to us. Airlines are required to acknowledge receipt of a consumer complaint within 30 days and provide a substantive response to the complainant within 60 days. We will review the airline’s response. If you need to contact me, please include your name and case number (see above). I will make every effort to reply to your message within one business day.
If our review of your complaint and the response from the company discloses a potential violation of our rules, we may pursue enforcement action. Generally, we pursue enforcement action on the basis of a number of complaints which may indicate a pattern or practice of violating our rules. Your complaint may be among those considered and may lead to appropriate enforcement action including the assessment of civil penalties. However, we have no authority to order compensation for individual complainants.
We have entered your complaint in our computerized industry monitoring system, and it will be counted among the number of complaints filed against this airline in our monthly Air Travel Consumer Report. This report allows consumers and air travel companies to compare the complaint records of individual airlines and tour operators. The data in this report also serve as a basis for rulemaking, legislation and research. Consumer information for air travelers, including the Air Travel Consumer Report and our pamphlet Fly-Rights, a Consumer’s Guide to Air Travel, can be found on our website: http://www.transportation.gov/airconsumer. Thank you for taking the time to contact us.
El Al cancelled my flight today and my travel agent said they are not allowing them to give refunds so I should call him after pesach for a refund, I booked with a regular Chase card, what do you suggest I do?
If you were planning to go to Israel the first week of august would you book now or wait?
Received email from ELAL just now:
Dear EL AL Passenger,
Due to the COVID-19 situation your flight has been canceled.
At this period we will freeze your ticket.
Change of a destination or receiving a refund for your ticket will be done once we will return to a full operations.
You can follow our flight schedule on our website: http://www.elal.com
We wish to apologize for the inconvenience.