I won gold!
The date is August 11, 2026. The location is the King David Lounge in Ben Gurion airport. The subject is a female, middle aged, averse to Ozempic but should be on it. Writer from Bergen County.
The air conditioning is perfect. The orange juice had just the right amount of pulp. The ability to figure out how to charge her phone took her slightly longer than if she were 20 years younger, but she figured it out, and that is all that matters.
Yes, folks, after flying back and forth and back and forth to the Holy Land to see Danish and her family and Matzo Ball and his family, this columnist is beyond excited to announce her new class status: Gold. Yes, I have finally reached gold status in the El Al Matmid program.
I was so excited to find out that I would be able to relax in the lounge that I got to the airport more than three hours before my flight and wasn’t even able to check in when I got there. Who knew that was possible?
But how many free drinks can I actually consume? And why am I not allowed to bring liquid onto the plane? And why, if there are a zillion empty seats, did someone just come and sit next to me? Oh wait, she moved. All good.
For those of you who are annoyed by my bragging, there is a reason behind it. Like many of you who have flown El Al, you know that their customer service is, well, sometimes great and sometimes very not great. I only recently found out that I had a Matmid number and after being on hold for a 3 1/2-mile walk, a very nice man helped me log in some of my previous flights.
He was extremely helpful, and after being on the phone with him for almost an hour (which was less time than I was on hold for) he told me he would continue to find my older flights and add them to my total.
Fast forward a few months, I logged in to my number, all excited to find out where I stood in the land of El Al, and I discovered that I stood absolutely nowhere. I was in the land of Silver. I did not understand what I was entitled to because, basically, I was entitled to nothing. But in reviewing my past flights, I knew, for certain that there was one missing.
August 20, 2025. I treated myself to premium because it was my 30th wedding anniversary and I was flying home from Israel by myself. And though you may think that should be gift enough, I decided to spend the extra $185 (yes, that was the difference between economy and premium, don’t ask me why because I have no idea) because I deserved it.
And even if I really didn’t, I did it anyway. So I knew that I was entitled to some extra points because of this flight.
I call El Al. I am put on hold. 30 minutes, 40 minutes, 50 minutes…my walk is over and I hang up. I try again the next day, take a longer walk, finally get someone on the phone and he cannot help me. He has no record of my flight.
I was not happy.
I try looking it up on my “newer” computer (thank you, brother, for the hand-me-down) and I cannot find the email from El Al. So I go on my “older” computer (the one I had to stop using because it no longer supported Netflix, and you know how I feel about my Netflix) and there it was. I found the flight number, the ticket number, the whole shebang.
I entered it into my Matmid form and waited for approval of the points. And a few days later, I got them. And yet, I was still Silver. Very disappointing.
And then I landed on July 15, 2026. I was overjoyed to see my kids and all of the brachot that I have been so, so lucky to be blessed with. I do not take any of this for granted, not for one minute. I might not write about the not-so-funny-stuff in my life, but it is there. Everyone has something, and no one has everything.
But forget about that, I logged onto my Matmid account and I was GOLD!!!!!!
And now I am on my second beverage in the King David Lounge.
The end.
Banji Ganchrow is looking forward to several weeks of Camp Babka.