Thursday, November 20, 2008

To Fly or Not To Fly?

No, this isn't a debate between the best way of going from New York to Miami, Chicago, Boston or LA.

It reminds me of the "new immigrant rights," which probably still are given to olim chadashim. You don't pay taxes on certain consumer items. In our day, many immigrants bought new cars, which they could barely afford to maintain, because they got a hefty discount. Even today, you can take lots of cabs for what it costs to own a car.

Back in New York, my mother complains of stores which send out periodic gift certificates for less than any item on sale in the store. So, the only way of using it, is to spend money.






Yes, I'm talking about those El Al frequent flyer points. There's no way I'll have enough points for a free flight, so in order to use the points, I have to spend a lot of money. And in a couple of months, I'll be losing points. They "evaporate," get deleted.

4 comments:

Esser Agaroth said...

B"H

Sounds like a messed up system.

You can't use them for shorter distances that the U. S.?

There's Europe, but then you'd have to pay for hotels if you don't know anyone there.

Doesn't El Al have flights to Eilat?

I have always heard that El Al has a weird system.

The last time I flew was 10 yrs. ago, so no points for me.

Batya said...

Basically, the advantage is prebooking the seats. If they ever tell me that I have to pay again, I may change airlines.

A vacation in Eilat sounds great. I've never been there.

Esser Agaroth said...

B"H

Kind of interesting that between us, we've been in Israel 50 years and neither one of us has been to Eilat.

Oh, well. I'll go when I go.

Don't give up paying for flying so fast.

There's a program called El Al Spontani. If you're willing to leave within a day or two, you can get great prices. A friend of mine flew round trip to NY late summer/Ellul for only 800 dollars.

Batya said...

I thought that I'm the only one who has never been there.
El Al Spontani? Never heard of it, but it sounds good. It must be on the Hebrew site. I guess all the seats are rotten, but the price sounds right.