First things first..if you want to stay in Israel after your trip, you're going to have to extend your ticket. It's easy to do. After you've been accepted on a trip and your flight assigned, you can fill out an extension request with official travel agent Gil Travel. Their FAQ page is a great place to go for more information. It may be a good idea to get the flight extension taken care of as soon as you can. But what if you're not sure about your dates or don't realize you want to spend more time abroad until you get to Israel? That's okay too! Once your on the ground, you can extend your ticket by calling your airline directly. Open ended return dates are not allowed. To extend, you need to have an actual date in mind to change your ticket to. If you change again, you pay again.
How many shekels is it going to cost you? That depends on the airline your flying. A friend recently wasn't able to extend her trip, flying on Austrian Airlines, because they wanted to charge an astronomical $500 or so. But at least she had a choice, even if it was a very expensive one. Another friend reported there was simply no availability to get home on any of the days he wanted. They both ended up returning on their scheduled group flight.
On several trips I've saved money over what the travel agent told me it would cost by waiting and calling my airline to make the change myself after I got to Israel. On one trip I knew exactly when I wanted to come back, but waited until I landed at Ben Gurion to call El Al to change my flight. Got what I wanted and saved a few bucks. On another journey, I remember being shocked how inexpensive the Continental (now United) agent my new flight would cost. I thought I really had it figured out with my 'wait to change' philosophy and advised friends there was no rush to modify their ticket. Sure air travel is crowded these days. But there's always a seat to be had.
That's until a recent trip where I landed in Israel unsure of exactly what day I wanted to fly back to the States and telling myself I had all the time in the world to decide. Things were a pretty standard $200-something the first time I called El Al to check availability. When I made a decision and called back to book, that class of ticket was gone and we were looking at the $300's for any day in my window. My heart sunk and I hung up. But I wasn't going to not stay for a few days. I called back and confirmed that a cheaper seat on one of their planes wasn't available for well after I needed to be back home. And the fare for the days I did want had gone up again. I'm not going to tell you how much I ended up paying. Okay, it was in the $400s. It sucked, but I wasn't going to just fly home on time! Don't forget to factor in the time I spent on hold, trying to talk via scratchy WiFi connections or the rental cell phone minutes I blew through, and the stress.
The moral is 1) do things in advance with the travel agent if you can to save yourself stress and keep costs predictable, and 2) changing on your own in Israel may save or cost you a little money but it is best if you do it as soon as you land with as much time as possible between your target new flight, and 3) flexibility does help.
How many shekels is it going to cost you? That depends on the airline your flying. A friend recently wasn't able to extend her trip, flying on Austrian Airlines, because they wanted to charge an astronomical $500 or so. But at least she had a choice, even if it was a very expensive one. Another friend reported there was simply no availability to get home on any of the days he wanted. They both ended up returning on their scheduled group flight.
On several trips I've saved money over what the travel agent told me it would cost by waiting and calling my airline to make the change myself after I got to Israel. On one trip I knew exactly when I wanted to come back, but waited until I landed at Ben Gurion to call El Al to change my flight. Got what I wanted and saved a few bucks. On another journey, I remember being shocked how inexpensive the Continental (now United) agent my new flight would cost. I thought I really had it figured out with my 'wait to change' philosophy and advised friends there was no rush to modify their ticket. Sure air travel is crowded these days. But there's always a seat to be had.
That's until a recent trip where I landed in Israel unsure of exactly what day I wanted to fly back to the States and telling myself I had all the time in the world to decide. Things were a pretty standard $200-something the first time I called El Al to check availability. When I made a decision and called back to book, that class of ticket was gone and we were looking at the $300's for any day in my window. My heart sunk and I hung up. But I wasn't going to not stay for a few days. I called back and confirmed that a cheaper seat on one of their planes wasn't available for well after I needed to be back home. And the fare for the days I did want had gone up again. I'm not going to tell you how much I ended up paying. Okay, it was in the $400s. It sucked, but I wasn't going to just fly home on time! Don't forget to factor in the time I spent on hold, trying to talk via scratchy WiFi connections or the rental cell phone minutes I blew through, and the stress.
The moral is 1) do things in advance with the travel agent if you can to save yourself stress and keep costs predictable, and 2) changing on your own in Israel may save or cost you a little money but it is best if you do it as soon as you land with as much time as possible between your target new flight, and 3) flexibility does help.