Israel Airfare for Passover

TLV2JFK presents the 2010 Pre Pesach Price Planner for those taking the family to the states for Passover. The sooner you start hunting for tickets, the better. Right now ElAl, Delta and Continental are charging around $1500 for non-stop. Adding a stop can get you down to about $1200 and even down to about $1000 if you are ready to spend a night somewhere and trek from one airport to another. Here are some tricks to help in your search:

• Orbitz is easiest to use for the big picture
• AA is best for finding alternate dates – but make sure to indicate “All carriers” on search
• ElAl site often has lower prices than shown elsewhere
• Children pay about 10% less – usually best to see that on the airline site
• AlItalia comes up with great deals if you can catch it (was $800 for pesach, last week) – but not on their site! Use Orbitz. And take a day off in Rome or Milan.
• Prices go down a bit if you can return the week after Pesach
• Forget about free tickets from Israel, but if you can pay your way to Europe – you may have some luck using that free ticket.

And finally, an idea that most of my readers (and my family) will ignore. Royal Jordanian via Amman.

You can find these flights by “including nearby airports” on Orbitz (not on Kayak). A random search today turned TLV to Amman to JFK (non-stop) and then return to Amman for under $800. Thats a savings of about $400 per person. But, you have to make your way back to Israel from Amman. Its a 4 hour drive to Aquaba and a simple crossing into Israel. Make the trip less painful by spending a day in Petra in Jordan and a day or two in Eilat. It will cost less and the kids get to miss more school. In another post I will discuss Jordan and the option of crossing directly at the Allenby bridge.

A word about passover destinations in the US. If you have to go to the catskills, take a day off for the local attractions,  like the  Kykuit Rockefeller Estate. If you end up in Disney, you can save money at the Prime Outlet Orlando Mall.  LA is a good passover destination – check out the Fun Things to do in Southern California.

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Jet Blue Unlimited Flight Promotion

Sorry, readers – this promotion is SOLD OUT.
Lots of buzz in the frequent flyer world about JetBlue’s just announced “All You Can Jet” Promotion. For $599 you get a full month (Sept 8 – Oct 8 ) of travel between 50 US cities and a few Caribbean and Central America destinations. The rules are pretty simple and no ElAl-style tricks:

• Must buy by Aug 21
• Must book individual flights 3 days in advance
• “Last Available Seat” – which means all seats on the plane are available. If there is room – you are on.
• Taxes apply on flights outside of the 50 States (but they apply even if you pay for a ticket)
• No mileage bonanza – 35 JetBlue points for the whole thing. This is clearly a disappointment to world-class “mileage runners” but not a big deal for most normal people.
• Penalty for no shows, cancellation fees apply. They don’t want hogging.
• First bag free

Convinced – now start planning the trip.  I am assuming that you want to spend as little as possible. Here are some pointers:

• Take advantage of the Redeye – Long Beach to Boston or JFK
• Take day trips to the beach – 8am JFK to Fort Lauderdale, back in JFK by 10pm.
• In general – make one of their hubs a base and day trip from there. Their hubs are LA, NY, Fort Lauderdale, Boston, DC.
• Stick to destinations with good public transportation to/from the airport – such as Seattle, Portland, Las Vegas, Boston, DC, Salt Lake City, Pittsburgh, San Francisco

Now some itinerary suggestions from TripCart –

Most likely, you are starting in NY. Don’t miss the new fun things to do in Manhattan, like the High Line Park and of course the usual NYC entertainment offerings.  Head to the many places to visit in California via Chicago. Consider taking the Van Gelder Bus Lines to visit friends in Madison or Milwaukee. Then back to the see the places to visit in Chicago, before the winter deep freeze sets in. Once you get to the West Coast, use Long Beach Airport as your hub for travels to San Francisco, Portland, Seattle, Salt Lake City and Las Vegas. Leave the West Coast with a trip to Austin, take the bus Houston – Austin and enjoy the places to visit in Houston.

If you are interested in the places to visit in Phoenix, be aware that the only flights are from New York, so most of the day will be on the plane. Similar story for Denver, served only from the East Coast. BUT, given the dates, late September is the ideal time to see the peak fall foliage in Colorado. Start off with the shuttle DEN to COS, then it is up Pikes Peak. Finish up your trip with a flight to Burlington for the world-class Vermont fall foliage, which should be at its peak around Oct 8.

And don’t forget to check out shopping malls along the way.

Finally, for the vast majority (possibly all) of my readers that won’t be taking advantage of this, what this may mean, by my survey of some people really in the know:

• Other airlines might come out with similar promotions.
• JetBlue might really lower prices on seats still unsold. This is a traditionally weak time for the airlines

And, expect the unexpected. Air Florida sold a similar package a few years back and then promptly folded. But JetBlue seems quite sound. And definitely recommended by staff of TLV2JFK.

US Air Begins Nonstop Tel Aviv to Philadelphia Service

US Air has started daily flights to Israel from Philadelphia.  Prices seem quite low to places other than Philadelphia.  I managed to book a flight on their Israel site to Boston for $875 (via Philadelphia). Interestingly enough, the exact same flight to Philadelphia costs $200 more.

Flights leave TLV at 11:15p and arrive at PHL 5:10a (Oy Vey!).

Flights leave PHL at 9:15p and arrive at TLV 3:30p+ .

Reasons to fly US Air:

1. You want to go to Philadelphia (or just avoid New York)
2. Good deals to other US cities
3. Sully may be your pilot

As far as Frequent Flyer miles are concerned:

1. Miles may be accrued on the US Air Dividend program or on programs of Star Alliance Partners (most relevant to TLV2JFK readers are Air Canada, United, Austrian, Turkish, Swiss, Lufthansa and Singapore)
2. 80,000 US Air Dividend miles can get you to the States including Hawaii, Central America and the Caribbean.

With the addition of US Air, the following 4 cities are served non-stop from Israel:

New York, Los Angeles, Atlanta and Philadelphia

Before we get all excited about that – guess which  5 UKRAINIAN cities are served non-stop from Israel.

Give up? They are:

Kiev, Lviv, Odessa, Simferopol and Dnipropertovsk

Lets hope ElAl puts back the non-stop to Miami, so we can tie the Ukrainians.

El Al Frequent Flyer Stealth Program

No – El Al is not using stealth technology on their planes, but they are trying to use  stealth sneaky shady methods to steal poach the competition’s frequent flyer data. And they were not very shy about this disgraceful business tactic.  From the Jerusalem Post:

El Al reached out to the travel agent community last month, requesting hard information on the frequent fliers of several airlines.

Their request was simple: “Send us your list of frequent fliers on the following airlines: British Airways, Continental, Delta, Lufthansa and Turkish Air. Send us their ID number, mailing address, cell phone number, email address, and birth date. Send us their complete travel plans rom 2008, indicating to where they flew with dates and cities.”

Now to be fair to El Al, the airline made it a competition among the travel agent community. The agent who sent the most names could win big money – $1,000.

The story was picked up quickly by international frequent flyer community.  The general sentiment was that El Al was “Doing business the Israeli way”. And that link went out to 190,000 FlyerTalk subscribers. Just when our PR machine was recovering from an accused rapist President, a war that BBC did not find to their liking and a Prime Minister under investigation for more shady dealings than Spiro Agnew and Richard Nixon put together.

I guess the marketing guys forgot to ask the lawyers for their opinion beforehand (hey, at $300/hour can you blame them?) but the lawyers did put an end to this plan.

Hats off to:

1. The lawyers

2. The travel agents for not cooperating (they would have lost their licence)

3. Turkish Airlines (and others) for not making a shwarma out of ElAl’s management.

4. The Jerusalem Post for reporting this, and

5. You, for reading my blog and for using TripCart’s Road Trip Planner to pick up some New York City family vacation ideas for the summer.

El AL Nonstop to Brazil, South America

ElAl just GRU! (GRU is code for Sao Paulo, Brasil)

Starting May 2, ElAl flies 3 time a week non-stop to Sao Paulo.

Through interline agreements, passengers can continue on to most main South American destinations. That means you have one ticket and your bags are checked all the way through. It is not a code share.

SCHEDULE – Flights leave Israel on Monday, Wednesday and Saturday evenings arriving early the following morning. Returning flights leave Brasil on Sunday, Tuesday and Thursday evening (715p) arriving in Israel the next day at 310p. (Schedule is similar to TLV-JFK-TLV).

COACH PRICE – $1000 to Rio and Sao Paulo, $1100 to most other destinations.

FREQUENT FLYER MILES -120,000 American Airline miles will get you an economy seat to Sao Paulo, Chile or Peru on ElAl.  ElAl Matmid members flying economy class earn between 65 and 250 points one way, depending on type of ticket.  That’s the same as flights to Los Angeles.

The flight is one of ElAl’s longest at 14.5 hours. The following will be the route in the New Middle East – but until Libya and Chad are willing to have us  in their airspace the routing is a bit longer, via Spain.

Finally – it is interesting that the flight is aimed at the religious pilgrim market originating in Brazil. Another notable entry in this field is Travelujah.

Bar Refaeli – Not A Cheap Publicity Stunt

Unlike Southwest Airlines, TLV2JFK will not stoop so low as to use an Israeli supermodel to sell our product. We  simply want to solicit snappy captions for this picture.   Or intelligent comments. Or in Sully-speak – “ACKNOWLEDGE”

If you are offended by this picture of a repainted Southwest Airlines 737 – in the past we have featured Shaul Mofaz,  Bill Gates and Sheikh Khalifa Bin Zayed Al Nahyan of Abu Dhabi or just a Sequoia Tree on the Lower East side.  TLV2JFK is an equal opportunity publicity-seeker.  And yes, we have stooped lower.

Talk like Sully

Its time we learn to communicate. Lets email (and talk)  like Sully.

When advised to return to LGA, Capt. Chesley B. Sullenberger III  simply answered “UNABLE” and got on with his business of saving 155 lives.

I recommend we use Pilot Radio Communications Phraseology and Techniques for our business communications. It may not sound friendly or polite, but it lands millions of planes a year successfully. So, entrepreneurs, investors, managers, employees, customers, salesmen, consultants, accountants and even lawyers – listen up!

Use these general rules from the world of aviation:

1. Phraseology is the mark of a professional … reviewed from time to time to sharpen your communication skills.
2. Listen before you transmit.
3. Think before keying your transmitter. Know what you want to say and if it is lengthy; jot it down.
4. Use figures in round numbers

I suggest using these key phrases. I have modified the definitions slightly to be applicable to us non-pilots:

BASIC COMMUNICATION

ACKNOWLEDGE- Let me know that you have received my message

ADVISE INTENTIONS- Tell me what you plan to do.

OUT- The conversation is ended and no response is expected.

OVER- My transmission is ended; I expect a response.

ROGER- I have received all of your last transmission. It should not be used to answer a question requiring a yes or a no answer.

HOW DO YOU HEAR ME?- A question relating to the quality of the communication or to determine how
well the communication is being received.

SAY AGAIN- Used to request a repeat of the last communication . Usually specifies communication or portion thereof not understood

I SAY AGAIN- The message will be repeated.

CORRECTION- An error has been made in the communication and the correct version follows.

STAND BY- Communication pause  to attend to other duties of a higher priority.

BASIC YES/NO

AFFIRMATIVE– Yes.

THAT IS CORRECT– The understanding you have is right.

NEGATIVE– “No,” or “permission not granted,” or “that is not correct.

DECISIONS

WILCO– I have received your message, understand it, and will comply with it.

UNABLE– Indicates inability to comply with a specific instruction or request.

ACTIONS

CLEARED AS FILED–  Proceed in accordance with the plan

ABORT– To terminate a preplanned maneuver

DELAY INDEFINITE (REASON IF KNOWN)– Used when an accurate estimate of the delay time and the reason for the delay cannot immediately be determined

RESUME OWN NAVIGATION– Used to advise a pilot to resume his/her own responsibility.

VERIFY– Request confirmation of information; e.g., “verify assigned altitude.”

WHEN ABLE– When used in conjunction with instructions, gives the latitude to delay compliance until a condition or event has been reconciled. Unlike “pilot discretion,” when instructions are prefaced “when able,” the pilot is expected
to seek the first opportunity to comply.

STATUS

ON COURSE – Used to indicate that an aircraft is established on the route centerline.

OFF COURSE– A position fix is reported or is observed at a point not on the approved
plan.

FINAL– On the final approach,  course is aligned with a landing area.

REPORT– Used to instruct pilots to advise of specified(real time)  information; e.g., “Report passing Las Vegas
VOR.”

EMERGENCY COMMUNICATION

EXPEDITE– Compliance is required to avoid the development of an imminent situation.

IMMEDIATELY– Compliance is required to avoid an imminent situation.

EMERGENCY– A distress or an urgency condition

MAYDAY

Note the flow and use it to get things done in the world of business (but keep things in perspective – Sully never used Emergency or Mayday):

Expedite -> Immediately -> Emergency -> Mayday

Please note that I modified the definitions slightly. The original is here.

Finally, so as not to confuse “Talk like Sully” text (aka TLS) from other text in the body of the email, it is suggested to use CAPS. Since ALL CAPS is considered “yelling”, I suggest prefacing the terms with “*” (conviniently located on the number pad to the left of your cup of coffee).

Now back to the usual topics of this blog – airfare savings, frequent flyer info and some New England vacation ideas.