Israel Matzav

If you bought one of those $330 El Al tickets, congratulations

For about three hours on Monday, a computer glitch had El Al tickets from New York to Israel on sale for $330 round trip. If you happened to buy one of those tickets, you're in luck. El Al has decided to honor them.

El Al Airlines said it will honor all tickets purchased during a glitch that had thousands of round-trip tickets selling for as low as $330.

The airline also announced Thursday that those who purchased tickets three days earlier at the hugely discounted fare would be given the opportunity to convert their tickets to a direct flight provided by El Al for an additional $75 each way rather than fly with a codeshare partner with a connecting flight in Europe.

“Although a review of this occurence 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 Danny Saadon, El Al's vice president of North America, in a statement released Thursday. "Hopefully we have provided an opportunity to many first timers to visit Israel as well as reconnect family and friends.”

A full refund without penalty also will be offered to passengers who wish to cancel their ticket.

The glitch was the result of a third party subcontracted by El Al to post the Israeli airline's winter promotional fares online. According to El Al, the discounted airfares were the result of the subcontractor failing to add the fuel surcharge to the total price.

I told someone this morning that I thought El Al had little choice but to honor the tickets, although the Israeli way would have been to say 'ta'iti' (I made a mistake) and refuse to honor them.

Maybe there's hope for customer service at this end too? Don't hold your breath.

Labels: customer service, El Al

posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 1:55 AM