I snagged 3 seats trying to get to Israel for Sukkot, but I'm having trouble figuring out the London-TLV and TLV-London legs and may cancel my TAP flights. I have:
13OCT:
EWR-LIS
LIS-LGW(arrives LGW 0930 on Fri, 14OCT)
25OCT:
LGW-LIS (departs LGW 1025)
LIS-EWR (departs LIS 12:45 on 26OCT -- so there is ~24h layover in LIS).
Problems I am having:
1. Given the arrival in LGW at 0930 on Friday, there's no way to get to TLV before Shabbat. So, staying over Shabbat in LON is not the worst thing in the world.
2. There are limited options to travel Saturday night or Sunday London-TLV.
--Monarch? $220 pp
--Austrian has a connecting flight that works timing-wise, but the YQ (or maybe it's London airport fees) kills it: (25K +$173 pp).
3. The return from Tel Aviv to London is slightly, but not much, more promising.
--Turkish 25k + $30pp. The flight leaves TLV at 0100 and the connecting flight via IST arrives LGW 0905, just one hour before the TAP flight is scheduled to leave. Cutting it pretty close.
--Again, Monarch has a nonstop flight, about $200 pp, which is TLV-LUT, leaving TLV 10:40PM motsei chag, arriving LUT 0215 (how awful is that!) and then we would need to transit to LGW for the 1025 flight.
Anyone have better ideas? Thanks.