Delta to tlv opening May 8

[Dan]

Always wondered if you pay someone just to write “Read the post?”

If only.

[mliebs1457]

I'm a travel agent, and I know quite a few buchrim who have family here who decided to stay for Pesach. Yes, their parents encouraged them to. Not too many, though.
But I had dozens of couples (many Shana Reshona) who opted to stay in Israel and make Pesach by themselves, rather than fly to New York, once it was starting to become obvious what was happening there. Although it hadn't yet exploded, anyone analyzing the situation was able to see that it was heading in the direction that Italy was at the time...

Sure plenty of bochurim/couples ended up staying. That doesnt change the fact that in the panic of the situation every parent wanted their children home because of the crisis, even though it seemed like it wud be worse here, and the VAST majority of them did come home.

[Dan]

Sure plenty of bochurim/couples ended up staying. That doesnt change the fact that in the panic of the situation every parent wanted their children home because of the crisis, even though it seemed like it wud be worse here, and the VAST majority of them did come home.

I feel impelled to share- I had one student who was planning on staying until the end of the year. When the panicking started, the father called me to change his child's ticket to return to the US immediately. Recently I was so pained to see this very father's name among a list of those who were niftar from corona. At the same time I marveled at the hashgacha that this child was able to spend the last little bit home with their father...

[yaakov35]

But do you really think they intentionally cancelled flights to force charters?

Yes, 100%. Once they consolidated flights for after purim, they zeroed all economy seats on all flights from tlv. But if you called with an open ticket they gave you a seat. Basically they weren't letting you book new tickets on their flights only tickets that were booked already, and even that they were extremely discreet about. And once they pulled their inventory and TA's couldn't change any tickets, the seminaries bugged out and boom elal happens to have as many extra planes as you want avaliable for charter.

[YesThatsMe]

And I just hope this guy didn't pick it up in the airport and then transmit it to the father.

[Dan]

Yes, 100%. Once they consolidated flights for after purim, they zeroed all economy seats on all flights from tlv. But if you called with an open ticket they gave you a seat. Basically they weren't letting you book new tickets on their flights only tickets that were booked already, and even that they were extremely discreet about. And once they pulled their inventory and TA's couldn't change any tickets, the seminaries bugged out and boom elal happens to have as many extra planes as you want avaliable for charter.

To be fair, they probably pulled flights because they didn't want to lose money flying empty flights to TLV. The charters were a side benefit of that, but perhaps not the intention.

[yaakov35]

To be fair, they probably pulled flights because they didn't want to lose money flying empty flights to TLV. The charters were a side benefit of that, but perhaps not the intention.

For the 2 weeks after pesach the flights to tlv were pretty full. And blocking all flights in economy till April?

[Dan]

And blocking all flights in economy till April?

Saving space for people on cancelled flights?
What happened with the space on flights that flew?

[S209]

And I just hope this guy didn't pick it up in the airport and then transmit it to the father.

This was my first thought but I didn’t want to say it..

[yandmk]

Wait a minute. I'm supposed to bash LY and you're supposed to bash me for bashing them 

LOL. I think it'll be a long time until you see a travel agent defending LY after the way they handled this crisis. Truly shameful. You should see the ridiculous emails LY has been replying to all the TA's DOT complaints. And you should hear the garbage LY is telling TA's on the phone. It's stuff you can't make up.

But do you really think they intentionally cancelled flights to force charters?

No. They irresponsibly cancelled flights too soon because the were stingy about the empty returns. When they cancelled, they needed to block all the remaining flights because they heavily overbooked those remaining flights westbound. And when the panic started, instead of rescheduling those flights (can't say I expected them to), they rented out those same planes at crazy prices (a lot more than they'd have earned on roundtrip revenue - and they had far less expenses on the return like no meals, FA's, cleaning etc.) and continued cancelling MORE flights to create a bigger shortage to make sure anyone who wants to fly El Al needs to either buy a $2000 ticket or wait 2 weeks for an available seat.

[davidrotts63]

The chutzpah level is off the charts.

I didn't start doing this yesterday. I was monitoring all of the TLV flights and saw all 4 UA routes go from plenty of availability to zero. On every date from 3/11-3/31. In every single class.

No TA is blocking that kind of space and it came right after Israel's quarantine announcement.
The odds of that being a cancellation were high and indeed, every other airline that did that did wind up cancelling.

Pretending to know better is utter nonsense. Of course there was a chance that it wouldn't be cancelled, which is why I never said they were cancelled, only that it appeared that it would be cancelled, which I stand by as an accurate statement of the facts that were on the ground on a tumultuous day.

Based on the news at the time and Israel's quarantine rules, people would have cancelled their flights anyway. Blaming all the cancellations on the post is naarishkeit.

If you saw how they slowly came back in to inventory, and how many flew with tens of empty seats despite being sold out for days...

Saying you don't mean for something to be personal and then making it personal doesn't suddenly make it not personal.

I apologize again, apparently I can't differentiate well between what goes on what side of the line in this discussion, which is why I'm out, I would not want to cause pain, hate or any negativity to anyone, and I have clearly failed myself by doing that in my posts above.

I am hesitant about the first part of this post, but I'm fairly certain that is friend enough, please remove it if my judgment failed me.

[Iz]

Now that clears everything up.

The chutzpah level is off the charts.

My apologies. No chutzpah intended; just my slightly sarcastic way of asking for clarification, which you ultimately provided.

[yaakov35]

Saving space for people on cancelled flights?
What happened with the space on flights that flew?

They gave it in the airport to standby. They did not release a single economy seat for 2 weeks, even though they had plenty avaliable

[yelped]

דיס טרעד.....

[yandmk]

They gave it in the airport to standby. They did not release a single economy seat for 2 weeks, even though they had plenty avaliable

At first, I don't think they had any available. They were overbooked. But it's very likely that once people started rebooking on the charters and hundreds of seats on the scheduled flights cleared up, they kept it blocked so the charters will sell out. But that's a theory and we really don't have a way to prove it.....

[yaakov35]

At first, I don't think they had any available. They were overbooked. But it's very likely that once people started rebooking on the charters and hundreds of seats on the scheduled flights cleared up, they kept it blocked so the charters will sell out. But that's a theory and we really don't have a way to prove it.....

Whats the theory? There weren't any avaliable for sale. And I got numerous seats for family members and friends by Simply calling and asking nicely. Flights the night after purim, motzei shabbos, all the busy times. Elal rep asked if I need more for anyone else. This just me, I know others that had a similar experience.

[yandmk]

Whats the theory? There weren't any avaliable for sale. And I got numerous seats for family members and friends by Simply calling and asking nicely. Flights the night after purim, motzei shabbos, all the busy times. Elal rep asked if I need more for anyone else. This just me, I know others that had a similar experience.

I'm well aware that they blocked the seats. We all went through this... Can't prove 100%, what the motives were. It's technically possible that they needed the seats to rebook those on the canceled flights, though I strongly suspect that the charters played a big role in them blocking inventory (or keeping it blocked).
And of course after many charter flights left and the demand westbound plummeted, they were able to consolidate even more flights....

[ilherman]

Says more about our education system than anything else.

But for once instead of getting 100 comments where I need to say "read the post," 100 TAs got those comments and had a day in my life. And they've been harassing me ever since then.

Nunu. Not going to apologize for having readers that can't read.

While being part of the 100 travel agents getting these crazy panicking calls I do believe that you did a perfect job. Now that UA continued operations people are busy how wrong you were. However, it makes zero sense for UA to continue this flight. I'm sure they have some reason why they are continuing (maybe Israeli government paying something or some other behind the curtain reason) but when everyone saw what was happening and UA zeroing out inventory, of course you gotta assume that ua will cancel and warn people that they gotta pack up and fly home or else they may stay stuck.

So now that we got lucky and ua is continuing to fly literally empty planes it makes zero sense to say that you made us panic for no reason. Just my 2c

[israshot]

And I just hope this guy didn't pick it up in the airport and then transmit it to the father.

As you are trying so hard to make your points that NYC is the worst place to be... no need to blame it on a transit in the airport, the odds are that it's from the community itself and not from outside it.

[chff]

How. Do. You. Know?
No flight was zeroed out for more than a few minutes,

Was zeroed out for hours & days