Best Place to Stop Over in Europe From TLV

[md]

Keep calling, you never know when a seat will open up

[Daniel]

Keep calling, you never know when a seat will open up

I actually need 2 seats...impossible? Is there any site I can check online instead of calling everyday? Someone once mentioned checking matmid availability, is that a reliable indicator and can you do that without a matmid balance?

[Daniel]

What about with a different AA partner airline?

Is it possible to book on ELAL through an AA partner airline using AA miles or did you mean connecting in Europe?

[Dan]

I mean what about taking an airline like Iberia from TLV to Spain, or BA from TLV to LHR, etc.

[Daniel]

I mean what about taking an airline like Iberia from TLV to Spain, or BA from TLV to LHR, etc.

I would love to do that, but we need at least two bags each (preferably 70lbs, but maybe we can do 50lbs) and from the research I've done it seems all the carriers allow only 1 bag of around 40lbs and anything extra is charged an insane rate per KG, not to mention the $50/bag or per over 50lbs that AA will charge me from Europe to NYC.

My plan now is to find an easy way to daily check ElAl direct availability instead of calling AA everyday.

[Daniel]

As per the advice elsewhere on the forum for direct TLV-NYC I've been checking availability through Expert Flyer- looking at J Class for ElAl rewards- seems to be pretty accurate. I'll call AA soon to compare.

As for connecting/stopover in Europe, the baggage rules are so confusing. If I book a connecting flight which is using ElAl aircraft to Europe and AA or a different airlines aircraft to the US- what are the baggage allowances- ElAl Europe's + the other airline's usual allowance from Europe to US or is it ElAl's transatlantic allowance since it's a connecting flight and I won't re-check the luggage?

[Daniel]

Sorry, I take that back. I got a few non-stop available dates from AA in April and they showed up as not available on EF - I guess it's not so reliable.

Member, "dealer" told me about doing an ElAl flight to Toronto- there was availability!!

Also, I figured out that if I do a connection in Madrid- using Iberia, I will be allowed 2 bags each, so I may do that.

[SuperFlyer]

Hey Daniel, heard you wanted to see me.

Thanks, machshovo is nechshav kemaasse.

[Daniel]

Ha, yep I wanted you to stop in, Dealer and I live in the same apartment building

[SuperFlyer]

Yes, that's what I understood, and I was supposed to come to your place, but as someone decided to give me an "inverted-elite-plus-treatment" the plans had to change...

[Daniel]

Just to follow up on my story-

I have been calling AA everyday and using Expert Flyer to check non-stop TLV-NYC availability. Today I see tons of flights for the dates in May I was looking at- just like that. And of course, I reserved them. Now, I'm just hoping my Starpoints or CC points post in time before the reserve is up.

By the way, when EF says 4 seats available, then I think AA gets 2 out of those 4, because for dates that said 2 available AA told me they didn't have. But anyways, as I've said before there is not an exact correlation between EF (ie- Matmid's) inventory and AA's award inventory (both for the bad and for the good- sometimes AA has inventory that Matmid doesn't have, or at least EF says they don't have).

Thanks Dan, and everyone else for their help. Maybe I'll stop in Europe next time (next time that I don't need many bags- which is not so often).

[SuperFlyer]

a way to extend on holds, is: calling up (towards the end of the "grace" period) telling them that there is a mistake in the passengers name, when they fix it, your reservation gets refreshed.

[Dan]

a way to extend on holds, is: calling up (towards the end of the "grace" period) telling them that there is a mistake in the passengers name, when they fix it, your reservation gets refreshed.

Which airlines have you tried that on?

[SuperFlyer]

Which airlines have you tried that on?

AA, however, they keep a careful log, so don't overdo it.

[SuperFlyer]

another way of doing it, is saying that the guy sponsoring the miles, is stuck at the other end of the world, and his plane is landing about 15 minutes after the booking is supposed to expire... Works well.
If using the same trick, try changing at least to 14 or 16 minutes....

[Daniel]

Which airlines have you tried that on?

I think he is correct, because after I added our baby on the reservation a few days after making the first one, it extended the hold for 5 more days even though they said there were no more reward seats available.

[SuperFlyer]

I think he is correct, because after I added our baby on the reservation a few days after making the first one, it extended the hold for 5 more days even though they said there were no more reward seats available.

You just added a valuable comment.
Changing names more then once, stinks; but adding a non-existent baby, and removing it, gives you a total of grace period X 3.

[benjie1305]

Which airlines have you tried that on?

You just added a valuable comment.
Changing names more then once, stinks; but adding a non-existent baby, and removing it, gives you a total of grace period X 3.

So I tried this with my hold expiring tomorrow at midnight by adding a lap child and it did not extend it automatically. Is this dead? Or does it need to be a real seat?

Or Does the first or last name change still work? Tried by adding middle name and they said it didn't matter to AA so they didn't add it.