Update: Today is the final day to transfer points to El Al. Will you transfer any points?
El Al says that they are “replacing” this transfer option with their own US credit card. Unfortunately that card is a terrible value compared to spending on other US credit cards.
Your best bet going forward will be to redeem hybrid points for paid El Al flights.
Originally posted on 10/4:
El Al’s Matmid loyalty program is nothing short of a dumpster fire.
The points system used makes comparing the requirements to any other airline a massive headache. You need a PhD to understand the intricacies of the program, likely to hide how poorly it stacks up to the competition. There are fuel surcharges to redeem for awards. Points expire without any ability to extend them. There is no co-brand credit card for North American users. The latest website redesign removed the ability to easily search for classic award tickets. Etc, etc…
Typically it’s better to book El Al awards via partner airlines, though El Al blocks a lot of their award space from partners. Here is a comparison of how El Al stacks up with Qantas for booking El Al flights.
And now comes word that AMEX points will no longer transfer to El Al after 12/31/20. You can still transfer points to Qantas to book award travel on El Al.
The value from transferring points to El Al is rarely very good, but there can be some uses that are decent. North American members can also attain El Al Executive status by transferring over 5,000 AMEX points, which converts into 100 Matmid points.
That option will be gone as of 1/1/21.
When Marriott merged with Starwood they said they would be able to transfer points to El Al, but that never materialized.
Considering how lucrative loyalty programs have become to North American carriers, with the only profitable part of the airline coming from loyalty, that’s a big blow for Matmid as they lose a key way to interact with North American customers.
Will you transfer any AMEX points to El Al Matmid before it’s too late?
HT: tavster, via DDF and Grant
Hopefully new management will fix this. Hope they bring you on as a consultant.
It’s a big job, they’ll have to nuke the program and start again IMHO.
While I’d be very happy to see a lucrative points program IMHO you need an airline that stands on its feet before you do that and there should be a lot of other priorities ahead, not saying that a good program is not a pillar of a good airline it’s just that LY is not much of an airline at this point
What’s happening with Rozenberg
I believe that he was given the permit to control the airline last week.
Horrible conversion rates
I still have the HAS card that transfers to El Al
Wasn’t that killed off years ago?
https://www.hasadvantage.com/lawsuit.html
Yes. My HAS card became a vanilla U.S. Bank card that I never used. U.S. Bank cancelled it without notifying me, which was unfortunate because it was one of my oldest cards.
Just got in the mail with my US Bank Statement “The U.S. Bank Matmid Point Transfer program will end March 31, 2021.”
Is executive status really worth anything? For how do you have this status?
The US bank card was a replacement to the Has card what was also original by US bank partnered with Fas
No, I keep on transferring, I believe I transferred last time beginning of this year right before COVID at a rate of 40-1
Who cares. Did anyone really even use Matmid anyway?
For the most part, of course not. But every so often they would run specials, 50% off points flights. So it would be 700 ElAl points- or 35k MR- for a round-trip from the East Coast DIRECT. Those were the days… but those deals are probably long gone anyhow.
The fact that they don’t partner with any airlines in North America is a far bigger problem than them not partnering with any banks
El Al was already useless to the 90% of the country that doesn’t live near an airport served by El Al. Because why give the 30 million people in Texas the option to fly your airline? Or the 40 million people on the west coast who don’t live near LAX/SFO?
Hey, it’s not like Israel was one of the fastest growing tourist destinations until COVID hit. Why would El Al want to have a piece of that pie? Codeshares and interline agreements are for losers.
Well they do have agreements with Alaska and JetBlue, but they’re half baked at best.
If that agreement doesn’t involve JetBlue flying people onwards from JFK, BOS and LAX on one reservation, then it’s not a very useful agreement
Are we sure they aren’t moving to a new issuer? Or issuing a cobrand card? Rumor has it Chase is announcing changes to the CSR today – maybe El Al will move to Chase? (Half-joking)
I think I may have beaten tavster to the news (I posted in the credit card forum), but I will graciously withdraw my claim to the HT 🙂
Is executive status worth the transfer now?
Only if you anticipate redeeming Matmid points for a flight within the next 12 months.
Dan or JJ: Do you know if El Al is flying to NY this Saturday night? I have a ticket and an assigned seat on a scheduled flight (001) but El Al’s customer service has been disconnected … I have no one else to ask
Sorry, I meant Sunday night. October 11 (technically October 12)
My guess Rozenberg will try to fix the points program with new transfer partners over the next year
see the message I just received from them:
We would like to inform you that ELAL will no longer be listed under Points subsection of the use Points section under AME’X Membership Rewards points program. Effective January 1, 2021, Matmid Members that holds an AMEX credit card will not able to transfer points to ELAL Israel Airlines. We would like to thank you for your loyalty and inform you that we will launch an all new credit card that will enable you to earn award travel faster on ELAL Airlines.
“Your best bet going forward will be to redeem hybrid points for El Al flights.” Meaning to just redeem UR points at 1.25/ 1.5 twds paid travel?
Is there any value to having executive status at this point??
Going forward, will there still be an option to upgrade from Premium to Business with points?
I am totally in the dark about the points. But I don’t know what to do now. I transferred many many many points from Amex to Ella and then realized I did not have enough to make the needed number for a business ticket. That was one year ago. Now I have a large number of Amex points that I can still transfer before 12/31. But not sir if it is enough. Do I transfer them or do I do something else to get the required number of marmot points to get a business class ticket. Please help me understand what to do.
Check required points here.
https://www.dansdeals.com/credit-cards/will-apply-el-als-new-us-credit-card/
Is it worth to transfer 5k to attain El Al Executive status? Does it expire? What’s required to keep status?
Valid for 1 year. Can’t be extended.
Till what time?
Unclear. Do it now if you want to.
Is there any value to El Al executive status outside of redeeming Matmid points for a flight in the next 12 months??
Not that I’m aware of.
The March 31 deadline for US Bank transfer -as mentioned above- is approaching.