Good afternoon everyone.  I just received an email from Alaska Airlines regarding a promo with El Al Israel Airlines.  If you are flying El Al Israel Airlines from San Francisco (SFO) to Tel Aviv, Israel (TLV), you can earn double Alaska Airlines miles when you add your Alaska Airlines Mileage Plan number to the reservation.  But, you must register for the promo first before registration ends on December 15 and travel by June 30, 2020.

Here are the complete terms and conditions of the promo:

Offer valid on flights operated and marketed by EL AL Israel Airlines and credited to a Member’s Mileage Plan account. Members must register and book flights for this promotion through December 15, 2019 to receive double base miles. Percentage of base miles earned can be viewed on the corresponding EL AL Israel Airlines partner page; only miles listed under “Base miles earned” are doubled (class of service and additional bonus miles are issued at the normal rate). Double miles offer is valid only on qualifying paid flights booked in fare class I, C, Z, D, J, W, B, Q, P, M, S, Y, H, L, V, K, U, O, G and N from October 15, 2019 through June 30, 2020. All travel must be completed by June 30, 2020. Member must register for the promotion at www.alaskaair.com/promo/LY1901 before the first qualifying flight. Not valid on free or award travel. Double miles do not count toward Mileage Plan elite status. Please allow four to six weeks for miles to be credited to your Mileage Plan account. All terms and conditions of the Mileage Plan program apply. Offer subject to change without notice.

I checked Great Circle Mapper and the SFO-TLV route is 7,422 miles, so with the promo, you would earn 14,844 Alaska Airlines miles.  I value Alaska Airlines miles at 1.5 cents each, so the value of the miles earned from that one way flight would be $222.66 (or $445.32 for a roundtrip flight).

Image source: http://www.gcmap.com/mapui?P=SFO-TLV

I then checked Google Flights to see how much roundtrip SFO-TLV flights would be on El Al Israel Airlines.  Over the next several months, I saw many options priced around $800.  If you take into account the value of the Alaska Airlines miles earned (~$445), the flight is closer to ~$355.  That is a terrific price for roundtrip, nonstop flights to Israel.

I don’t have any plans to go to Israel in the next few months, but if I needed to get to Europe or the Middle East, I might considering flying El Al Israel Airlines into Tel Aviv and then connecting to another flight.  There are plenty of destinations you can get to from Tel Aviv (Wikipedia list of destinations from Tel Aviv).  If you have any questions about this Alaska Airlines partnership or promo, please leave a comment below.  Have a great day everyone!