Why I Flew a Flight and Turned Around and Went Back Home On The Same Plane.

barefootshoereview
Oct 6
7 min read

Waking up at 4:30 AM I felt ridiculous, sacrificing sleep and a morning for this stupidity, with my wife on the way to surf, (and me having some FOMO that I am not hanging out on the beach with my wife. If you guessed why I'm doing this, then you guessed right. It has everything to do with status.

See, while not commonly done here in Israel, airlines have invested quite heavily into their

frequent flyer programs over the past decade. In fact, Delta Airlines famously got bailed out of bankruptcy by American Express by Amex buying millions of frequent flyer points. United, during corona time, leveraged their frequent flyer program as collateral for a loan from the bank, because their FF program was “worth more” than their actual airline.

US and some EU loyalty programs make these great relationships with credit cards which are a huge win-win; people sign up for airline credit cards, thinking they will get lucrative rewards but then they forget or pay off their debt late and boom: 20–30% compounding interest rates... Luckily in my small country of Israel, they have less faith in people to pay back their debt and most credit cards are more similar to debit cards, smaller monthly allowances and no lucrative sign-up bonuses. Making the credit card and dreams of free flights further away for most Israelis, but...

El Al, the flag ship airline of Israel, understands the value of cards and aggressively promotes

their flyer card. Here is the catch, and as far as I know this is unique among airline cards, while many airlines cards give some automatic status perks, like the United Club card, practically gives you most of the perks of being a United Silver including extra checked baggage, premier access (skip the lines) and some other things, the El Al card is a bit different. The El Al card straight up stacks with your status with the airline, meaning most of the perks that you have with the airline really are only meaningful or get doubled or tripled when you have status and the card.

It makes sense considering that having the card gives El Al or the bank partnering with them a nice monthly pocket change for doing nothing other than printing a piece of plastic. Anyone who has status and flies El Al often would be silly to not get the card and of course while you are it make you more loyal to El Al as you are already invested in their airline, you are likely to continue flying with them (yeah that’s the point of loyalty programs for the good or the bad).

Now back to my story... I am an El Al Gold member. El Al Gold gives you prestige perks making your flight significantly more enjoyable, in fact I got a free upgrade to business, as I'm writing this letter largely due to my status. It also gives you lounge access, extra miles when flying, extra suitcases (in fact last time we flew, we took 4 total suitcases with every single one overweight with no issues) and some other FF perks.

El Al, being money-hungry gougers, generously reduced their program requirements and

completely revamped their program in 2023 to actually make it one of the most generous airline programs out there, no other program has entry level (silver) + card of course ability to already get a free upgrade voucher. After October 7th, they realized quickly the monopoly and of course raised their prices accordingly. A year later they realized how profitable their airline is and effectively how many people started having Elite/El Al status due to the easier to access status program as well as people largely being stuck with El Al like it or not. But then they made a dumb move in my opinion.

Claiming that if everyone has elite status it dilutes the ability to get things like free upgrades and the perks, they not only ripped off the whole Israeli population for nearly 2 years, they raised all their requirements by 30%, making it significantly harder to qualify, unless you spend a shit ton of money on flights, or FLY very often.

To define very often what I am trying to do now and back to the reason I am on this flight in the first place is to hit 20 qualifying flights before their changes take effect in April 1st. As April 1st is when their new changes take affect, as I fly quite often for work. Any addition flights I take will then get those extra miles on flying, my likelihood of scoring an upgrade for or my wife is quite much higher, and if I ever want to bid for an upgrade to business I am at the top of the bid list, as someone who hates economy, knowing that all future flights with El Al I will be likely flying in a better cabin excites me.

I got to the airport in record time, just a mere 40 minutes after departing by car and train. The check-in was fast and smooth with a few minute delay by both the passport security line and the baggage line, once I was there I even had a chance to grab a coffee and a small breakfast at the King David Lounge (reserved for Gold tier or higher) see its worth it. Shortened the line boarded my flight and all was good.

Now where it gets funny. The flights from Tel Aviv to Cyprus are usually surfaced by smaller

planes via Sundor/KlasJet a subsidiary third party of El Al, this has to do with El Al policy not to fly on Shabbat, but apparently these planes do, they are also somewhat the low-cost version of El Al but if you compare them to newly opened Air Haifa or Wizz/Arkia/Israir that begs to differ on certain flights. Instead of the usual cabin plan we got a whopping 777-300 aircraft which is a flight that can handle 15+ hour long haul trips and can fit over 300 passengers, with economy, economy+ space seats and 2 cabins with first class style 2-3-2 seats.

Now here’s a fun caveat for those status chasers to hack the seat system. If you purchase a

classic or flex ticket, as a Gold member you not only get free seat selection but you also get a space seat or front of the plane or emergency exit seat free of charge. *When flying a plane that is supposed to be a smaller plane 1 cabin Sundor plane but is now a multi cabin El Al plane, you can choose first class seats free of charge because the system just sees it as a front row seat.

The catch is if you are on a Lite or low-cost ticket, you can not choose your seat, so I’m not sure how I am sitting in first class right now. I will have to look back and see what I chose.

The flight itself was uneventful, it was rather empty with most of the economy having a row to themselves, (I now know why as the flight back is very full) and we landed just about 15 minutes later than intended time.

The catch again, I forgot, there is no quick security lane in Cyprus, meaning while I intended to catch some work in the lounge and grab breakfast in there, Cyprus has a very nice one, perks of my Priority Pass from the Capital One Venture X. So I am sitting on line for the El Al security watching the clock tick by, with 20 minutes till my gate closes I finally get security, "Where have you come from?" asked the gate agent.

I answered honestly, the very plane that I am now going back too, she looked confused so I just told her I need to go back to Israel, she was getting a bit sus so I tried to explain to her I’m a status member and I like flying but now I’m just going back and she let it go without really understanding.

The next security line was a disaster as well, waiting on line for nearly 15 minutes with 5

minutes until my gate closes made me really nervous this game won’t pay off. I ran to my flight, with no line shortcut either and discovered I was in first class. I still do not know if I picked it or they just upgraded me for free.

I am now on the way back with a morning gone, but surprisingly all the work I needed to get

done, done already back to Israel to train my afternoon clients. While there were some

frustrating aspects, overall it was a pleasant experience, would have brought a snack next time in case lounges don’t work out, and try to understand and gamify the seat situation a bit better.

Being that Cyprus is only an hour flight, I can’t actually complain. Considering I got much more done than I normally do taking on business mode.

Would I do this again? I technically need to do at least one more round trip but with my packed schedule it may be iffy in the next month and with a hard deadline of April 1st I am hesitant as to when I can do it. Would have to look at flight options, ideally I would just spend half a day traveling back and forth twice but I would go crazy as it’s too much and that would definitely raise some red flags.

First travel blog.

Sean out.