By COLlive reporter
It’s a go!
Israel’s national airlines El Al has announced that it will be honoring the estimated thousands of tickets that were sold at a dirt cheap rate online as a result of a miscalculation.
As COLlive.com first broke the news on Monday, August 6, prices for flights from New York’s JFK to Tel Aviv were being offered on travel sites for as low as $350 round-trip.
Many were quick to snatch the offer, although it was a connection flight with a stopover in Europe and operated by an El Al affiliate American Airlines. As told, some booked over 15 tickets for a family vacation and simcha.
The story hit national news and over the last 3 days, El Al representatives have been sending out mixed messages as to whether or not they will be honoring the reduced price tickets.
On Thursday, they said the tickets were indeed valid and offered passengers the option of upgrading their flight to a non-stop flight, from either JFK or Newark, for an additional $75 each way, VIN News reported.
El Al also said that passengers who wish to cancel their tickets may do so without penalty. All cancellations or ticket changes must be made by emailing El Al at [email protected], between August 14 and 31.
“Although a review of this occurrence has not been finalized, a decision was made to accommodate El Al passengers who purchased these low fares because we value our reputation of offering excellent customer service,” said the airline’s Vice President/General Manager Danny Saadon.
“Hopefully, we have provided an opportunity to many first timers to visit Israel as well as reconnect family and friends,” he said in said a statement.
Yaacov Behrman of Crown Heights was one of the lucky ones who was able to quickly snag a ticket before the airline got hip,
He then posted it on his Facebook page with the dates of his trip. Before he knew it, three of his friends also decided to join him, Bed-Stuy Patch reported.
“We are traveling together,” Behrman told the website. “I know approximately 60 people from Crown Heights that bought tickets, and I’m sure there are many more.”
“I am excited that I have this opportunity to visit Israel once again. I plan on spending a few days in the beautiful settlement of Bat Ayin. It is always inspirational to visit our friends who live in Bat Ayin unafraid of the security concerns,” he said.
if you bought them, use them. israel needs our tourism. just go, enjoy, hashem meant for this to be. that is the halacha!
these fall under the category of Mekach to’us which you have to return to a jew….maybe its different if they are kaskim after the mekach but thats highly questionable
What is the Halacha in using (or taking advantage) of these tickets, knowing there was a pricing mistake when you brought the ticket? Does this present a concern for Halacha?
I don’t understand how a fuel “surcharge” can be twice the cost of the ticket itself. Posting a low fare and then tacking on this enormous surcharge is misleading to the customer. For once they got a taste of their own medicine.
“because we value our reputation of offering excellent customer service,”
Please, what happened to honesty? They’ll get a huge fine if they don’t honor these tickets…it’s law. Perhaps we should start writing ‘honest’ with four letters…then it would make sense.
Question: Is there a Halachic problem with this?
Too bad we didn’t buy these tickets. 🙁