El Al is very creative when it comes to upgrades to the next class of service. It lets you pay a flat fee and upgrade in advance or at the airport; á la Priceline, it lets you submit an upgrade offer, which it may accept or not depending on the offer; and it even lets you change cabins on board for a fee. We can’t analyze the values of the last two, given the lack of a fixed value for an auction and a paid upgrade while already on board the aircraft and flying, but we did go over the “Upgrade for Money in Advance or at the Airport” details and we think the economy-to-Business upgrade is a bad deal. It can actually cost more than buying El Al’s lowest Business or First Class ticket outright.
El Al flies to Tel Aviv from New York and Los Angeles. The upgrade from New York costs $700 one-way and from Los Angeles $750, on top of the ticket cost. The one-class upgrade is available with S, M, and Y economy fares, and I and C Business Class fares.
On NY-Tel Aviv, the lowest upgradeable economy fare is $1,829 (M class) plus taxes. Add that to the $1,400 upgrade to Business Class and the ticket comes to $3,229 plus taxes. But the lowest published Business Class fare is $2,767 (J class) plus taxes, $462 cheaper than buying an upgrade.
Small Savings: The Business-to-First upgrade does offer savings, from 10% to 25% depending on the route.