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El Al Will Fly Its Newest Dreamliner to America Later This Year

Darren Murph
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Darren Murph holds a Guinness World Record as the planet's most prolific professional blogger. He's an explorer at heart, having traversed nearly 50 countries and all 50 US states. He's flown over one million miles on Delta alone, and serves as a senior writer at TPG.
March 25, 2019
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4 min read
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El Al Will Fly Its Newest Dreamliner to America Later This Year
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Just as United and KLM are going large with extended-length 787-10 Dreamliners, El Al is preparing to launch a number of Boeing's smallest 787-8s later this year. Per Routes Online, the airline recently filed operational plans for late 2019 and early 2020, suggesting that it will fly the 787-8 between its home in Tel Aviv (TLV) to Boston (BOS), Chicago (ORD), Mumbai (BOM), Paris (CDG), San Francisco (SFO) and Toronto (YYZ).

To get a bead on the differences between the three primary variants of the Dreamliner, we've compiled a guide comparing the 787-8, 787-9 and 787-10 by the numbers. El Al already has 8 787-9 planes in operation, with 282 total seats split between business class (32), premium economy (28) and economy (222).

El Al's business class seat on its Dreamliner (Photo by Emily McNutt / The Points Guy)

While the carrier has yet to showcase the seating configuration for its smaller 787-8, we anticipate that the same refreshed business class product found on the 787-9 will be used — a huge upgrade over El Al's outgoing seat in the forward cabin.

El Al's initial 787-8 routes (rendering courtesy of Great Circle Mapper)

Here's a look at El Al's first 787-8 routes, all of which appear to be bookable via the carrier's online reservation portal.

  • Tel Aviv (TLV)-Boston (BOS) — starting Dec. 15, 2019
  • Tel Aviv (TLV)-Chicago (ORD) — starting March 22, 2020
  • Tel Aviv (TLV)-Mumbai (BOM) — starting April 2, 2020
  • Tel Aviv (TLV)-Paris (CDG) — starting Dec. 16, 2019
  • Tel Aviv (TLV)-San Francisco (SFO) — starting March 30, 2020
  • Tel Aviv (TLV)-Toronto (YYZ) — starting Nov. 17, 2019
The inaugural BOS-TLV flight is already being shown as operated by El Al's newest Dreamliner

Cash rates for these flights are pricing out in the typical $4,000 to $6,000 window one-way. You can redeem miles for El Al flights is through its Matmid program, and it isn’t known for being all that rewarding. Amex Membership Rewards points can be transferred to Matmid at a sub-par transfer rate of 1,000 Membership Rewards to 20 Matmid points. Redemptions from the US start at 900 Matmid points (45,000 Membership Rewards points) one-way for economy, 1,400 (70,000 Membership Rewards points) for premium economy and a whopping 2,000 (100,000 Membership Rewards points) for business.

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While you can go that route, we recommend using Qantas, which allows award bookings on El Al. If you’re looking to boost your Qantas Frequent Flyer balance, the Capital One Venture Rewards Credit Card currently offers 100,000 bonus miles when you spend $20,000 on purchases in the first 12 months from account opening, or still earn 50,000 miles if you spend $3,000 on purchases in the first 3 months.

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Editorial disclaimer: Opinions expressed here are the author’s alone, not those of any bank, credit card issuer, airline or hotel chain, and have not been reviewed, approved or otherwise endorsed by any of these entities.