Update: We broke this news on Friday, though Alaska Airlines wasn’t supposed to announce it until today, so their El Al partner page was taken offline shortly after this article was posted until this afternoon.
The news is now official and the press release clarifies that in addition to being able to earn points on either airlines when taking their flight, you will also be able to redeem El Al Matmid points for Alaska Airlines flights in the future. Hopefully there will be some decent values available with that redemption option, but I’m not holding my breath 😉
Have any questions for Alaska Airlines about the partnership? Hit the comments!
Alaska Airlines will partner with El Al starting on 7/1/19.
Partnering with Alaska was one of my strong recommendations when I spoke with El Al Matmid executives about how to improve their program, so I’m thrilled to see it finally come to fruition. Hopefully this is the just the start to many new airline partnerships.
You will be able to earn valuable Alaska miles on El Al flights as follows:
An El Al business class flight from Newark to Tel Aviv from July 7-15 costs $3,658 in J class. You would earn 11,384 miles for the base miles flown plus a 125% bonus for a total of 25,614 miles for this discounted business class ticket.
An El Al premium economy class flight from JFK to Tel Aviv from July 16-24 costs $2,398 in P class. You would earn 6,813 miles for this discounted premium economy ticket (60% of miles flown).
An El Al coach class flight from JFK to Tel Aviv from September 8-16 costs $1,019 in U class. You would earn 2,838 miles for this discounted coach ticket (25% of miles flown).
You can also earn Alaska Airlines elite status with the base miles+class of service bonuses, though not on the additional bonus.
You can call El Al to give them your Alaska Airlines mileage number to accumulate Alaska miles for your El Al flight instead of Matmid points.
You will be able to redeem Alaska miles for El Al flights as well, but those rates have not yet been announced.
You can transfer Marriott points to Alaska at a 60K:25K ratio. You can also earn miles from cards like the Alaska Airlines Visa® Business credit card from Bank of America that currently has a highest ever signup bonus of 40,000 miles. Read more about the offer and the best uses of Alaska miles here.
Currently the best way to redeem for El Al tickets is with Qantas points, that can be transferred from Barclays, Capital One, Citibank, or Marriott. You can also earn Qantas points on El Al flights.
will you be able to use matmid points for travel on alaska?
We can hope, but I wouldn’t count on it.
Back in the AA days Matmid published rates for AA award travel, but I don’t think it was ever actually bookable.
God bless Alaska Airlines for their role in Operation Magic Carpet!
Featured on their site:
https://www.alaskaair.com/content/about-us/history/magic-carpet
https://nyti.ms/2V82ayq
Operation Magic Carpet was a huge tragedy for the Jewish people. They took thousands of religious Jews and forceably assimilated them.
true true. a low point for the state of israel
if u have alaska status will u get benefits with elal?
You would get waived fees for award changes, but that’s about it unless they publish information about a deeper partnership.
is there any more details yet if u will benefit with elal for having mvp status?
Hmmm. I’m holding an R class reservation in J. I wonder how they will reward that and if I should change from Matmid reward points.
It doesn’t seem like R class will earn any Alaska miles.
I think it’s time for a new all about post on getting to Israel using miles
Dan – What is your guess on award redemption rates?
http://www.ask8ball.net/
Lol, I’m gonna have to bookmark this
Response: “Most likely”
what about using alaska to redeem flighs to fly on elal
Read the post 🙂
Maybe El Al should just abandon Matmid and piggy back on Alaska Mileage Plan…
Halevai.
Hi Dan, I know it’s a bit off-topic but what business class would you say is the best to take between LAX-TLV? Thank you!
It’s tough to beat a nonstop flight and only El Al flies that route.
That being said, United via SFO is also a good option.
Swiss via ZRH with ZRH-TLV on LX252 now scheduled with a 777?
Why did you recomend Alaska over any other airline ?
Most other airlines fly to Israel or want to fly to Israel. That leaves Alaska and JetBlue as natural partners that have no near-term plans for flight to Israel and Alaska has the superior mileage program by a long shot.
if i’m booked on an elal flight that i purchased via Chase UR travel, i dont get matmid points – is that correct?
Sure you do.
So now that Alaska is a partner, I can enter my Alaska frequent flyer in my reservation?
Why not?
I’m flying before July 1st, so sadly, I realized it’s irrelevant.
There’s a link online for 40k+$100
Not for the business card.
The consumer card has been 50K in the past.
If you credit ElAL flights to Quantas or alaska and not matmid, how will that affect your attaining or maintaining status on ElAL?
You would need to credit to Matmid to earn status on El Al.
In the business class example that you gave, would I earn status with AS if I’m starting at zero?
Even though they haven’t published the rates yet- isn’t it fair to assume that it will be similar to what Alaska charges for flights to the Mideast on their current partners? Do they have good rates to there as of now?
No. Alaska charges completely different prices for each partner, even to the same region.
Alaska rates for some partners are highlighted in this post
https://www.dansdeals.com/credit-cards/highest-ever-signup-bonus-alaska-airlines-business-card-favorite-uses-alaska-miles/
Understood, thanks. In that case- while I’d love to be optimistic about this- I have a sinking feeling that ElAl will therefore be able to make sure that the cost to redeem their own flights will be high, and that there won’t really be any value to be had with this partnership. But let’s see, ya never know!
There’s still value in earning Alaska miles.
Any chance I’d be able to credit already flown flights when this becomes avail on 7/1?
Is it better to collect on Qantas or Alaska? Do you get the same amount of points?
I stopped flying elal a year ago between convenience, comfort, and mileage program. now its mainly Delta
the press release does not mention using alaska miles for el al flights
I have Elal points that are expiring soon., and I don’t have enough to go to Israel. Since Alaska flies domestic I may be able to use them that way. Any chance they will be redeemable within the next two months?
I am flying to TLV in June and returning in July. Should I associate the June flight with Qantas and the July flight with Alaska? If so, how do you suggest I do it? Thanks
Dan- The press release does mention that in the future it will be possible to redeem El Al matmid points for Alaska flights, but does NOT mention that there will be the ability to redeem Alaska miles on El Al flights. It almost looks intentional that this was left out. Where have you seen it mentioned that there will be this ability?