[JonathanCohen09]

As many of my fellow posters know, I travel regularly to TLV to visit family and friends so, given that, when flights to TLV resume BA will be operating an A321 NEO on the route with a stop in LCA on the outbound service, I thought it would be interesting to see what that did, if anything, to BA’s pricing on the route compared to EasyJet, who generally use an A320 NEO, my first choice carrier on the route.

I chose travelling outbound on the 24th of April with a return on the 4th of May and it would seem that the downgrade in aircraft and the outbound stop in LCA has not made any difference to BA’s pricing.

The BA select, hand luggage only fare is £500 compared to EasyJet’s £300, El Al want an even more ridiculous £640, business class BA and El Al was around £1100 so it would seem that there is no change in the cost of a flight on BA despite the fact that it is no longer non stop in both directions and that both aircraft and therefore service on board have been downgraded.

It will be interesting to see what happens to the BA service when Virgin start flying on the route again.

I would, as always, be interested to hear what others think about this and whether or not regular BA passengers will vote with their feet on this route because of these changes with no corresponding reduction in cost.

Safe travels everyone!!

[BackOfThePlane]

As Virgin Atlantic are a long way off restarting, I fear that BA won’t be lowering their fares anytime soon.

[JonathanCohen09]

BackOfThePlane – based on my past experience with BA, I am sure you are right.

[BackOfThePlane]

The fact that Ryanair have just announced that they are suspending flights to Tel Aviv clearly won’t help prices.

However, as that is down to a spat over airport charges, that suspension might not last long.

[Mark Caswell]

Ryanair suspends Tel Aviv service in row over passenger charges

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BackOfThePlane

[ASK1945]

JC09 wrote: “………… I chose traveling outbound on the 24th of April with a return on the 4th of May and it would seem that the downgrade in aircraft and the outbound stop in LCA has not made any difference to BA’s pricing…………”

I was booked on LHR-TLV for May 2024, World Traveller Plus, but they cancelled my flights and offered me different ones, with unattractive timings. As you wrote, they will be operating smaller aircraft and stopping at LCA on the outward leg.

I phoned them, getting through in less than 5 minutes and the adviser moved my flights back to June, when anyway they are more likely to be flying there again (but not guaranteed, of course). The timings are currently back to the previous (pre-war) ones, with no LCA outward stop – but still in the smaller aircraft. Because of the this, I was upgraded to the (so called) Business Class – but, hey, it’s only 4 hours or so each way, so no big deal.

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JonathanCohen09

[onajetplane]

Maybe I am being stupid, but what is the reason for the LCA stop outbound for the BA flight? I just checked and it’s not possible to book that same flight/aircraft as just a LHR – LCA so it can’t be to combine pax to LCA and TLV? And they run the same aircraft to AMM so also can’t be distance?

[ASK1945]

OJP – The latest info I have is it’s for insurance purposes. The outward and return flight is too long for one crew, so an overnight was necessary. Before the current problem, I saw BA crew in the David Intercontinental Hotel more than once.

My understanding is that now the outward crew will drop off at LCA, and then the previous day’s outward crew take over and take the aircraft to TLV, to disembark all the outward PAX and then take on board the PAX going to LHR. As that crew don’t leave the plane, they don’t officially enter Israel and thus the crew insurance is much reduced.

Currently, UK government advice is not to enter the sub-region, so most insurers won’t cover crew or PAX – but of course, for an enhanced price some will.

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onajetplane

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