Update: These flights are now bookable!
Economy flights start at $741 round-trip. Coach awards start at 60k AA miles round-trip, premium economy at 81k round-trip, and business class at 162k round-trip.
Airlines are waiving change fees on all tickets, though the difference in fare will still be owed. If Israel doesn’t reopen by June then American will cancel flights and will offer refunds on flights that don’t operate.
Originally posted 2/8/21.
American announced that they will be adding nonstop service between Miami and Tel Aviv!
They will fly 3 times per week on a Boeing 777-200 starting on June 4th.
Flights will be bookable starting on 2/15. Will we see another awesome intro fare?
Miami to Tel Aviv flights will operate on Sunday, Wednesday, and Friday, departing at 8pm and arriving at 3:10pm the next day.
Tel Aviv to Miami flights will operate on Monday, Thursday, and Saturday, departing at 11:55pm and arriving at 6:25am the next day.
Kosher food and wine will be available in all cabins!
The flight will be operated by a 777-200 with 37 lie-flat business class seats in a 1-2-1 configuration, 24 premium economy seats in a 2-4-2 configuration, 66 main cabin extra legroom seats in a 3-4-3 configuration, and 146 economy seats in a 3-4-3 configuration.
JFK and Miami to Tel Aviv were seen as obvious route launches when American merged with USAirways. However they ended Philadelphia to Tel Aviv service in January 2016, decided to massively shrink their JFK hub operations, and they were beat by El Al in Miami.
United CEO Scott Kirby, who was President at USAirways before moving to American with the merger and then jumping ship to United, once called the Philadelphia to Tel Aviv route among the most lucrative in their system. However American said the route was not profitable and didn’t have any forecast of profitability when they shut it down.
The assumption at the time was that American couldn’t fly to Tel Aviv due to pension liabilities leftover from TWA. I had speculated when the USAirways merger was announced in 2013 that either American would launch JFK and Miami to Tel Aviv service or they would have to end all Tel Aviv service due to TWA issues. Presumably those issues have been resolved.
Just last month I asked when American would announce Miami-Tel Aviv service. It sure didn’t take long!
American is betting on a big recovery in traffic to Israel as that nation races to be the first to reach herd immunity thanks to their vaccination efforts. They are also launching daily JFK-Tel Aviv 777-200 service starting on 5/6 and 3 weekly Dallas-Tel Aviv 787-9 flights starting 10/31.
Will you fly on American to Israel?
HT: chff & Chevron.
OMG!
That’s what [El Al] said.
Lol
Ouch.
Hopefully LA will be next to get AA or United to TLV
Much more likely United than AA. But even that is a long shot for now.
AA is most likely done with TLV expansion for now. I’d expect PHL to be next though if they do further expand. Even CLT is more likely than LAX.
Judging by Jewish community size why would you think that PHL is next after JFK and MIA for AA’s TLV expansion?
US airlines don’t pick new TLV routes solely based on Jewish community size.
Hence DFW-TLV…
We are still Davening the PHL TLV line goes live again! It was the best flight from the baltimore Washington area. We flew it multiple times a year and even ended up on the last flight to TLV before it was cut.
i see aa & elal doing a partnership, revenue & loyalty benefits. makes the most sense for both of them.
Made more sense before they competed head to head on 2 key routes. Would also make more sense if El Al offered secure transit connections in TLV…
i think aa wants its and they are trying to elal attention, by partnering with elal they will have more frequencies also that will add bos,lax ewr to network.
big plus for aa as they can win business accounts
Do we think there will be avail with BA or IB miles? Right now, looks like on the JFK-TLV route, you can get business class mileage flights everyday for 115K (RT), but technically the lowest rate is 110K (RT) so no inventory on BA/IB
AA aid taking a huge leap of faith in TLV starting 3 routes within a short time frame, I wonder if it somewhat disappoints how much effort they will put into making it work
They’re betting that Israel reopens and Europe/Asia/Australia don’t, so they have the planes to spare.
And that will probably be true, but for how long though ? I’d say 1 year max. Hopefully they get a strong foothold by that time is AA management has been hit and run when things don’t work out.
Will Israel be requiring vaccination papers? Not sure this is gonna be a thing by then. Not everyone is stepping right up to get a brand new experimental biological agent injection in their arm. And before you ask, no I’m not a kook, I’m a nurse. No I will not be getting this vaccine
In the press release they highlight they will offer kosher wine.. isn’t that obvious?
Why?
When you offer kosher food don’t you automatically offer kosher wine?
(As you know I mostly fly ly so I don’t know how the other operate 🙂 ).
Definitely not. Kosher wine is rare if you’re not on El Al.
Air Canada to Israel always has Kosher wine….
Kosher meal were rejected in my GDS for a July booking on the JFK-TLV route, interesting that they say it will be available here.
Did you call AA?
haven’t bothered yet, AA.com only allows it 30 days before, so if I don’t get a chance before then I’ll try that, and then call if still needed.
update: just opened the PNR again and tried KSML and it was accepted
Exciting news as ELAL is no longer the only nonstop option from South Florida. Hopefully this route is here to stay beyond the pandemic.
Waiting for non stop chi-tlv
Not going to happen with El Al and United competing on this route.
Oh well, Have way more AA miles than United.
Does ely currently fly into ord??
AMR and American Airlines were never on the hook to pay TWA’s debts to its Israeli employees nor were they ever ordered to pay those obligations.
The Israeli court case was Ezra Berman v Trans World Airlines, Inc., Tel Aviv District Court 1225/01, 2001(1) 29448. A related case was Insolvency Case – Trans World Airlines 2005(4) 10352.
Some of the details are described in the book “Private International Law in Israel” by Talia Einhorn. According to Ms. Einhorn, the Israeli court ordered that the Israeli assets of TWA be seized and sold and the proceeds be used to pay the Israeli employees in a manner similar to that which was used to pay TWA’s employees in France. After those claims were paid, any leftover proceeds from the sale of the assets were to be turned over to the US bankruptcy court trustee for distribution among all the other creditors on an equal basis.
There weren’t enough assets in Israel to satisfy the court order. The balance is owed by the estate of Trans World Airlines, Inc., in the Delaware Bankruptcy Court, not by American Airlines or its then parent AMR or its successor American Airlines Group.
Wish the dates/times were more shabbos friendly
5 out of 6 are Shabbos friendly, no?
If the flights aren’t bookable until Feb 15th, how is it that you show these bookings and prices? I tried to check on Priceline and it didn’t show the dates after June 4th that I put in for MIA-TLV.
AA first announced DFW-TLV. Then they announced JFK-TLV. Now they announce MIA-TLV. Despite all of these press releases, the last AA aircraft to land in TLV was in 2015. Granted Corona uncertainty–but should their releases really be taken seriously?
They actually fly to 200+ destinations don’t just do press releases.
I’m talking specifically about their announced but not fulfilled service to TLV.
Is it true that Israel might require people to take the vaccine for anyone coming to visit?
Currently requiring negative PCR within 72 hours before flight–same as most of the world–currently applies to those who have been vaccinated–and I believe (constant state of flux), a second PCR at BG on arrival. I believe the BG Check-2-Fly now offers 4-hour turnaround. Assuming second PCR is negative, I believe, no quarantine requirement. No specific path for those who have been vaccinated–this would seem especially true for foreign citizens. No idea how this will ultimately be adapted to open up to foreigners. Stay tuned.
Will AA open award availability for the MIA-TLV direct flight at 12:00am on 2/15?
AA offering a real screw you on business class redemptions. 162K round trip from MIA vs 115K from NY??? Since when do US Airlines charge more from different cities
Not on subject, but does anyone know the quarintine restrictions in san Francisco and how is it enforced?
How do I get JetBlue miles by flying with American Airlines?
Harry, you dont
hidden city seems to come in play with partners, qf isnt showing nonstop mia tlv in business but leaving jfk it routes you through miami in business class.
also qf in coach mia tlv nonstop have different rates for elal [45k] and aa [37k]
I think I figured it out with Expertflyer. AA isn’t opening up low mileage business inventory on MIA-TLV…which is what parnters (IB/BA/QF) need. That’s also why they are fleecing AAdvantage members a bit compared to JFK-TLV
how does that answer hidden city ?
qantas is charging absurd carrier charges for any AA flights across the atlantic (jfk-tlv, mia-tlv). no carrier charge for the el al flights fyi
You can get for around 600 round trip from Israel to NYC in AA.com. with miles by usbank points its less 50k point round trip incl already taxes.
Direct flight with american
Taxes are 50/60 dollar.
I did it for after sukkoth
the same is also both wait NYC -Israel
Dan , this is all wonderful, but what do you think the chances are that we will be able to enter israel in June, 2021. I am not optimistic. I have a son, living in EY(non Israeli citizen). He plans to come here for Pesach (last time here was a year ago). He was told that, ‘maybe’, since he and his wife have Israeli vaccination papers, they would be allowed back in. That’s for an Israeli resident, with Israeli, bar-coded vaccination papers. But for an American tourist with proof from Rite-Aid that you were vaccinated ? I am not holding my breath.
There is lots of talk about concern for yeshiva and seminary students being able to return to Israel after pesach but do we know if they will even be able to leave? Are there plans to open TLV for outbound travelers? People are supposed to be leaving already at the beginning of March