Sydney to Tel Aviv

[chanteuse]

Hi everyone

Not sure if this is the right forum for this question. I was wondering if anybody knows the most direct route from Sydney to Tel Aviv, and which airline to be looking at.

I would prefer oneworld, however Qantas don't seem to fly there and BA go through LHR which looks exhausting.

Any help would be great

 

[browski]

For OW:
If you are familiar with driving in Israel then one of the best options is to fly Qantas to BKK/HKG and then RJ to AMM. Then Just drive from AMM to Tel Aviv. If you are not comfortable with driving over the border then just fly there on RJ. You could also fly El Al from BKK/HKG and earn QFF points, but no status credits.

For *A, fly Turkish Airlines from SIN/BKK/HKG (or Egypt Air, I guess)

For Skyteam, fly Korean Airlines (but the direct flight from ICN does not travel every day, connection may be difficult)

 

[chanteuse]

Thank you so much. Very helpful reply!

 

[Aussie_flyer]

El Al fly to Tel Aviv from Bangkok....

oops, somebody already mentioned that.

what dates are you looking at?

 

[cove]

El Al out of Bangkok is the way chosen by the majority of our suppliers from Israel as they consider it the most secure for them.
It is not a price thing.

 

[browski]

El Al out of Bangkok is the way chosen by the majority of our suppliers from Israel as they consider it the most secure for them.
It is not a price thing.

Ahhhh no.

To the OP, only fly El Al for the (cheaper) price, but definitely do not fly them for security - that is absurd. They'd be the most targeted airline imaginable.

 

[Aussie_flyer]

Ahhhh no.

To the OP, only fly El Al for the (cheaper) price, but definitely do not fly them for security - that is absurd. They'd be the most targeted airline imaginable.

Well,they have extraordinary amounts of security to counter that. Read the El Al wiki (security subsection) to get some idea! Amazing.

 

[browski]

Well,they have extraordinary amounts of security to counter that. Read the El Al wiki (security subsection) to get some idea! Amazing.

By that logic, Baghdad's Green Zone should be taken off the DFA's travel destination warnings.

 

[medhead]

By that logic, Baghdad's Green Zone should be taken off the DFA's travel destination warnings.

Dare I suggest that the green zone doesn't have Mosad looking after it.
Of course, it isn't that easy to drop a mortar round onto an aircraft at 10000 m. In fact is there a green zone anymore?

 

[browski]

Dare I suggest that the green zone doesn't have Mosad looking after it.
Of course, it isn't that easy to drop a mortar round onto an aircraft at 10000 m.

True, but I understand the RPG are the preferred MO.

Terrorists planned to blow up El Al plane - Israel News, Ynetnews
Thwarted Attack Against El Al Flight. | Asia > South East Asia from AllBusiness.com
CNN.com - Kenya missile attack sparks new urgency - Dec. 4, 2002

Anyway, I fly El Al often, I just didn't think it was responsible that the OP should be lead to believe that they are the safest choice.

 

[Moody]

...Anyway, I fly El Al often, I just didn't think it was responsible that the OP should be lead to believe that they are the safest choice.

Why? They have the most stringent passenger and baggage checks of any airline I have seen. Yes - a SAM/RPG can target any plane, but I wouldn't put it past El Al to equip their 747s with flares and chaff. Plus the pilots know a thing or two about evasive manoeuvres!

 

[browski]

Why? They have the most stringent passenger and baggage checks of any airline I have seen. Yes - a SAM/RPG can target any plane, but I wouldn't put it past El Al to equip their 747s with flares and chaff. Plus the pilots know a thing or two about evasive manoeuvres!

RPGs can target any plane, but El Al would be targeted the most.
"Pilots knowing how to dodge RPGs", certainly has won the argument. I apologize.

 

[medhead]

Umm no point confusing your SAM and your RPG. RPG is unguided so flares and chaff are useless. RPG has a range of the order of 1 km. Any heavy aircraft within that range isn't going to have much scope to take evasive action. Given the likely targeting locations and short range it would be difficult to deploy an RPG to use against el al. Of course anything is possible.

Now a SAM on the other hand is a different kettle of fish. But still
Some difficulties; for example deployment is likely to be location limited and hence likely to be used against any passing passenger aircraft.

 

[rechoboam]

Based on my SE Asia and ME experience I think you would be at much higher risk from the traffic in Bangkok should you leave the airport (or the roads and driving between Amman and Tel Aviv) than from RPGs or SAMs. I think the actual risk of any given flight on El Al or RJ would be close enough to zero not to be terribly concerned. The RJ option was taken by a friend recently and sounded pretty good but a little drawn out.

 

[dathoang]

The shortest journey would be through BKK/HKG the El Al to TLV, and only 3 hours wait in transit.

If you do AMM, then you would have to wait for 6 hours in AMM for another 45 minutes flight (both ways). If you decide to drive, then you may have problems with stamp on your passport when you arrive in Israel problem (or so I've been told by my Israeli friends).

Cheers

 

[Rockvegas]

Travelled from Brisbane to Tel Aviv last Jan. Went via Hong Kong. BNE to HHK on Cathay and ElAl to Tel Aviv. Awarded QF FF points on Brisbane - Tel Aviv return. Friends who travelled Royal Jordanian - not so good.

 

[kkutasi]

when i flew to TLV in 2005 i went SYD-HKG on QF and then El-Al the rest of the way. This seems to be the easiest way to get there.

Something that no one has mentioned on this thread though is that is this is not the quickest way. Because of the security issues, ElAl avoids flying over Arab airspace, so you make a very long detour over Russia before the flight turns south over the Black Sea and then the Mediterranean. This adds 5 hours or so to the flight.

There must be a way to fly to IST on Turkish and then to TLV from there.

Other than that though, El Al is just as safe as any other western airline. Although i wasn't a big fan of the service, it was adequate.

 

[cbourl]

My presonal preference is Lufthansa - biz if u can afford it - the Z class fares are very cometetive and u can fly to or from South Africa,USA,canada,South america with star alliance partners from Sydney/Melbourne/Adelaide and then to Tel Aviv LH have 2 flights daily to/from Tel Aviv from Frankkfurt and1 flight daily to/from Munich - and they fly 747s or A340-600 depending upon which flights u choose
Im a Star Alliance gold - so I only fly *A
The other option is to do SQ to Athens - then using Aegean (*A) or El Al to/from Athens Of late ElAl have severely inflated their eprices from athens to Tel Aviv so aegean Is a much better option (except for the greek jewish killer barbie stewardesses who are cold as ice queens) - el al does much better in this repect from my experience
Id would avoid the whole Amman thing - in my experience its rude,poor servie and really who would want to drive 4 hours or so (or more!!!!!) from Amman to Tel aviv through Jerusalem - with the jetlag and the bad drivers (ive just spent almost the whole day driving to/from Tel aviv to the Galilee to see Kapernoum, its rosh Hashanah and my freinds told me traffic would be much less than normal) and around the Kinneret - I wouldnt wish this on my worst enemy - then 2.5 hours to do the 150 or so km back into Tel aviv this evening - i needes 2 glassess of nice chile Barkan Emerald Riesling before i could regain my composure(btw its a great wine try it)

 

[chanteuse]

Thank you so much everyone. El Al sounds like it might be the way to go. Love the wealth of knowledge on these boards!