Off Topic – Gaza

Our readers are frequent flyers, living in New York and Israel whose daily lives are impacted by terrorism, so I am taking the liberty of addressing the war in Gaza. Just a few non-original thoughts for our readers and friends and enemies or just those confused and troubled:

1. Given the choice of targeting soldiers or civilians, Hamas chooses the latter. There are large Israel army encampments close to the Gaza border, yet Hamas aims it rockets over the head of the soldiers to bomb the civilian centers much further away.
2. For months we have been fed stories of lack of food and basic supplies in Gaza. Now we find out they had hundreds of tunnels connected to the outside world. If they could get a Grad though the tunnel, surely they could get some Baby Formula and flour through.
3. Up until 2005, we kept on hearing about the injustice of Israel using 20% (not sure if that is the correct #) of the land for 0.5% of the population. In the 3 years since we left I do not think Hamas turned that prime real estate into housing for their people. The infrastructure is still there, even though they destroyed many of the hothouses and public buildings that were handed over intact. Not to mention the $200M annual exports Israel managed to extract from the Gaza land.
4. And finally – the word that keep on popping up is “disproportional“. By its very nature, terrorism requires a disproportional response. Consider the BILLIONS of shoes that have been removed at airport security due to a single attempted terrorist act.

And when hearing stories of “innocent” adults being hurt, bear in mind that 440,409 people voted for Hamas in 2006. When you vote for an internationally-recognized terrorist organization (sworn to destroy its neighbor) to run your country (or town or city) expect the worst.

US Air Crashes into Hudson River NY

Breaking news:

US Air 1549 just crash landed in the Hudson River and it seems that everyone survived. This is really a miracle – only other time it happened was in 1970 -

ALM Flight 980 (DC9) – 40 out of 63 survived.

NOW – AIR CANADA – WILL YOU PUT BACK THE LIFE VESTS YOU TOOK OFF TO SAVE MONEY!!!!! – see my post.

And all my readers – listen to the safety instructions and know where the life vest is!

ElAl Great Fares – $199 RT This Weekend (Jan 16)

I am definitely a fan of the
ElAl Spontani and they have some very good fares to Europe for this weekend. Flights leave Thursday night or Friday morning and return Monday or Tuesday. Great idea for people working with the US. Monday is Martin Luther King Day Day and Tuesday is Inauguration Day, so it is a good time for a long weekend.

$199 destinations include Brussels, Budapest, Rome, Madrid, Prague, and more.

And, unlike most ElAl offers – there does not seem to be a catch. The flights are priced Round Trip, no extra charges and they actually have space available. Only caveat – its pretty cold in Europe these days.

Send me a postcard.

A look back at 2008, for the TLV to JFK frequent flyer

A look back at 2008, for the TLV to JFK frequent flyer.

Airfare shot up with fuel prices but didn’t really come down. But there have been some good fare sales lately on domestic flights. To save money, airlines charged for everything – from pillows to bags to water to food to movies. That is here to stay.

Free ticket mileage levels went up, and it is as hard to use as ever. Less people are flying, but less planes are flying also. Tickets are available for those willing to make a large effort.

ElAl continues to get away with whatever it wants. Miami, Los Angeles disappear and re-appear from their schedule at will and code share relationships are annulled and consummated, at will. To be fair – if you can read Hebrew and can spot the few pixels ElAl devotes to their “Spontani” offers – you can get a decent last minute (could be a week) fare. And “free” means about $500.

The web gave consumers the power of travel agents. Now, consumers need that, plus the patience of Job and the brains of Albert Einstein (or at least David Mirchin). Navigating between the online travel agents (like Expedia and Priceline), the suppliers (like Jet Blue, Turkish, Continental) and the meta search (Kayak) and playing them one against the other can save $100′s on a ticket to the US. We did. Times 6.

Car rental companies used $147 oil to upsell full tanks. Now they are back to their usual scams. Beware the $13/day GPS. The Zipcar model is starting to be adopted by the big car rental companies.

I discovered airport lounges, in case anyone cares. I also discovered Sequoia trees in Manhattan.

And I stand corrected on one post – you cannot get a free ticket for your 18 year old just by getting a Visa card – could be the tightening of credit or the fact that she has no credit history – but my 18 year old was rejected. Sorry kid – no free trip before the army!

Advice for 2009 – keep on reading this blog and spend time in a spa in Catskill, NY or seeing the San Francisco tourist attractions or just find a few fun things to do in New York City.

The Great Lakes are Not So Great

At least according to Air Canada Jazz. Eh?

The airline decided to save fuel by getting rid of the LIFE VESTS. As anyone flying from Toronto knows, planes fly over the Great Lakes. Eh? But they are not so “Great” and all routes are less than 50 miles from shore, so life vests are a luxury the airline can no longer afford. Eh?

Other than that – Jazz is a good airline. This fall you may want to fly them to New York for Fall Colors, to see Virginia Fall Foliage, but not Colorado Fall Foliage.

ElAl and American Airlines codeshare – LY (El Al) and AA

Almost as long awaited as peace in the middle east, the ElAl / AA codeshare seems to be picking up some steam. ElAl announced that it starts Sept 2. AA has not mentioned it on its website and the other flyer forums have not really got excited yet. There will be a more detailed post later on, but here are the key benefits to our readers:

1. Single ticket Tel Aviv to many US destinations (may be via Europe). Baggage gets checked all the way through. Now may be the chance to see the Adirondack Fall Foliage or Pennsylvania Fall Colors.

2. Possibly better use/accrual of miles. Remember that when dealing with ElAl points, “better” is a relative term. Here is a list of EL AL points you can get on AA, ranging from 240 points for First Class – London to Los Angeles to 5 measly points for lowest class New York to Pittsburgh. AA has not provided information on what changes on their side.

3. Access to AA lounges for Business Class travelers.

*** Details to follow ****

And to my friends at ElAl – The city in NJ was not named after Noah’s boat of biblical fame. Its Newark not “New Ark”. And San Francisco is hard to spell – good thing you tried a few options. Anyone want to volunteer their high school student to proof ElAl’s English Website?

Codeshares may mean lounge access – we like lounges and we discuss how. In SFO, there is enough to do at the airport and you might just find yourself sleeping on a floor at JFK.

How Olmert, Peres and Bibi get El Al Platinum Status

From Yesterdays Yediot, here is how Israel’s leaders are doing with their ElAl miles (as of 2005):

President Shimon Peres – 6250 (thats only 73/year)

Olmert – (the envelope, please….) – 4788 points

Bibi – 660 points (don’t you get points for marrying a stewardess?)

Shaul Mofaz – 0 points

Zohar Zisapel – 1618 points

Why should my loyal TLV2JFK readers care?

1. Kind of scary that your personal data gets into Yediot

2. These guys all managed to get Platinum or Gold level membership, which gets all kind of nice things. Most of us need to fly almost every week to get to that level. Mofaz got it on ZERO points. So, there is some way to bully ElAl into getting (or keeping) Elite status. Let us know when you find out how.

Glutton for punishment? – More posts on ElAl Frequent Flyer Program – general, freddie award, citibank and more. Or just read about continental.

Car Rental Refueling Charges

Avis and Hertz are making almost as much from oil as Sheikh Khalifa Bin Zayed Al Nahyan of Abu Dhabi.

The major car rental companies now have a policy where they automatically tack on a gas fee for rentals under 75 or 100 miles. This happens in the parking lot during the 1 minute express return, when you are trying not to forget your laptop, hoping not to miss the flight and your blackberry is buzzing – so Avis gets to have their cake and eat it too. These are your four options:

1. Support America Option. Fill up on gas before the return and pay the gas fee. You paid twice for the same gas, but only one payment goes to ibn Saud. And then please stop reading my blog, sucker!

2. Lazy Option. Don’t buy gas for rentals under the limit (75 or 100 miles). For the approx $15 they charge, you just about break even.

3. What I Would Do Option. Buy gas before returning the car and then make sure they deduct (show them the receipt) the automatic charge.

4. Abbie Hoffman Option. Don’t buy gas. Stop in the nearest gas station and buy a 6 pack of beer. Claim that you bought gas, show the receipt and have the automatic charge deducted. Remember to finish the beer before security or else they will.

What option do you like?

See other posts about Renting cars with priceline, Using Zipcar, Car Rental Dropoff charges and general Car Rental Scams.

AA AAdvantage Frequent Flyer awards changes

No need to Panic about AA award changes.

Lots of people have asked me about the new AA award structure scheduled to take effect Oct 1, so I decided its worth a post or just look at the changes on AA.com. Red is bad.

Compared to other frequent flyer changes in the industry, this one is pretty tame. He is what may concern our readers:

1. OneWorld awards are unchanged. These are based on actual miles flown and usually not worth it.

2. Israel to North America now requires 90K miles instead of 75K, but Europe to North America is unchanged at 40K off-peak season and 60K peak. So now, it makes even more sense to get to Europe and fly from there.

3. Israel – Europe is unchanged at 40K. Here is the chart of where you can go from Israel (we are considered Middle East).

4. Business and First Class tickets have increased slightly on some routes. Check with AA or promise to take me with you and I will check for you.

5. Upgrades based on non-full fare economy cost up to $350 one way! + miles. Seems like people are willing to pay a lot in order not to sit next to people like themselves.

6. Awards within the US have increased but are not really relevant for the frequent flyer from Israel.

Comments welcome and don’t get too excited – it is still going to be difficult to use these awards, even after Oct 1.

If you read this blog for the frequent flyer info – there are some good posts about Turkish Airlines and its partnership with American, how to get a free ticket just by signing up for a Visa card, free travel on British, Continental leaving Delta for United and the Star Alliance, another post on ELAL and more. And, representing days of research – a guide to free tickets on all the airlines on the TLV – JFK route.

ElAl is selling legroom (for an arm and a leg)

Here are the good seats on ElAl to New York and back – but it’s going to cost you.

These are the seats with more legroom – the bulkhead seats and the exit row seats on ElAL:

777-200 45BC, 45HJ, 21AC, 21HK, 22DFG, 46DFG 747-400 21BC, 21HJ, 34BC, 34HJ, 35A, 35K, 45BC, 45HJ, 25DEFG, 36DEFG, 46DEFG 767-200 45AC, 45HK, 21AC, 21DFG, 21HK, 46DFG 767-300 22AC, 45AC, 46AC, 46HK, 21DFG, 21HK, 46DFG, 757 21ABC, 21HJK, 23Hj, 45ABC, 45HJK, 25ABC 737 45A, 45K, 21ABC, 21HJK 737-800 45ABC, 45HJK, 21ABC, 21HJK

You can grab these seats online, the easy way, the hard way and the very hard way.

The easy way – be a platinum or gold member and its free. OR qualify as a corporate customer under this cryptic rule from their site: “comm. DP or comm. DG status“. And, the fine print says that if you are traveling with someone who is not a gold, platinum or whatever level – he/she will have to pay (see below) to sit next to you. This rule has the potential of breaking up marriages (or save them).

The hard way – PAY. And sometimes that is not good enough. You go online and “reserve” the seat. What you are really doing is putting yourself on the waiting list for the right to pay $59 (each way!) in case none of the high rollers show up. The waiting list is not run in the traditional “I was here first” algorithm. It is run by the caste-like heirachy of the ElAl flyer world. Recall that Top Platinum, Platinum and Gold get the seat for free. The waiting list priority goes in order of Silver and King David first, then regular Matmid members and finally – the “Untouchables” – the non-Member.

The only good news is that ElAl’s worthless points may be used in lieu of payment. 135 points (each way) and you don’t have to fold your legs in the tray table.

And, the really really hard way. Bring a baby up to 9 months old. You get the bulkhead (a $118 value) for free. Thats almost the price of a ticket for the little shrieker.

Now an exercise in Talmudic logic (please add the singsong):

If you are traveling with a 9 month old and get the bulkhead – what do you do about the other bulkhead seats?

Do you pay $118 each for the rest of your family to sit with you or do you just hope no one will sit next to you?

When you get on the plane and see that others have paid for the privilege of watching you change a diaper on your lap do you ask them nicely to switch with your husband in the center seat of the last row near the bathroom?

Or do you offer to buy the seat at the going rate?

Or do you ask the person (who we know has already made a very poor $59 investment) to fork over some more cash to trade with your husband in the back?

TEKU