El Al is offering discounted award tickets systemwide.
Awards are discounted further for “Executives” and it’s pretty easy to become an executive. A transfer of just 5,000 AMEX points from the US AMEX Membership Rewards program to El Al’s Matmid program will earn you executive status for a year. Points transfer instantly from AMEX to El Al, though it takes about a day after the transfer for the executive status to take effect on your El Al Matmid account.
Note that transferred points expire after 36 months and can’t be extended with activity.
Winter travel from Boston, NYC, and Toronto normally costs 700 Matmid points each way (35K AMEX).
Outbound travel or one-way travel is valid between 11/01/15-03/31/16. On a round-trip award the return leg is valid anytime as long as the outbound leg occurs by 03/31.
Fuel surcharges and taxes add $160 for the USA-TLV segment and $194 for the TLV-USA segment.
NYC to/from Tel Aviv one-way rates:
Executives: 490 Matmid points (24.5K AMEX)
Non-Executives: 590
Boston to/from Tel Aviv one-way rates:
Executives: 400 (20K AMEX)
Non-Executives: 500
Toronto to/from Tel Aviv one-way rates:
Executives: 425 (21,250 AMEX)
Non-Executives: 525
Los Angeles to/from Tel Aviv one-way rates:
Executives: 785 (39,250 AMEX)
Non-Executives: 885
-All other cities are on sale as well. Here are some sample executive one-way rates between Tel Aviv and:
-Venice: 45
-Madrid: 80
-Geneva: 75
-London: 165
-Beijing: 250
-Johannesburg: 595
American Express is a DansDeals.com advertiser.
To translate Matmid rates into AMEX rates, just multiply the Matmid requirement by 50.
-American Express Membership Rewards points can be earned from consumer cards like The Amex EveryDay Credit Card , The Amex EveryDay Preferred Credit Card, the Amex Premier Rewards Gold Card and The Amex Platinum Card.
Business cards include The Business Gold Rewards Card and The Business Platinum Card.
ouch 354 in fuel surcharges kinda wipes away the usefulness of this deal
TLV to Europe is better than AA via Avios in the US.
Finally some decent elal redemptions!
How many points would I save if I flew business?
I’d be more impressed if they actually had a working website. Is anyone else having issues logging in to Matmid?
The feul charges are absolutely ridiculous.
Even for the 10 matmid points (500mr) to/from Frankfurt it total’s over $200 in YQ.
Need 2 tickets to Israel. Dec 19 to the 27. Any deals or leads would be appreciated.
Trying to book in January, this is what i get: 1180 Points + $355.36 taxes [Without executive]
@Pinny:
Your price is the same as in the post…
from tel aviv to venice is only 45 matmid? thats 2250 amex points does that make sense?
$350 “fuel” surcharge,was when fuel was double the price. They should bring it back to $100-150,like it was five years ago.
Dan, take them up on that point. Let them answer to the justification for keeping FUEL surcharges at $350
i need about 50 tickets to isrel if u from evry war do you have sam dels
i cant find any reference to this on ELALs lousy website. any link?
Fuel surcharges and taxes add $160 for the USA-TLV segment and $194 for the TLV-USA segment.
Its going to cost another $400 for the flight. I don’t see the deal with this?
Best deal is Tel Aviv – Zurich for just 25 points, 1250 AMEX MR points.
you can reduce the $355 fuel surcharge fee by paying $150 of with 300 points. I know, it’s not a great deal, but this way, you end up paying $200 for the ticket if you enough points.
i just booked a NY-TLV ticket for March that way.