Mileage Advice

[kracked dude]

i would like to accumulate enough miles for 2 people to fly to Israel, atleast!
i currently have:
34500 UR points (freedom)
28400 United (from flying not a CC)
i will also have about 1600 BA points in near future.
the only cc i currently have is Freedom
Please advise on  how to proceed.

[meshugener]

Flying coach or business/first?

[kracked dude]

B/F would be really nice, but if its too big a hassle than coach will have to do

[AJK]

You can fly UA for 80k RT in Y.

You can get two Y tickets if you sign up for Sapphire Preferred (50K) and Ink Bold (50K).

Then transfer all miles to UA.

Done.

[Dan]

Or UA 50K with a match.

[kracked dude]

isnt the Ink Bold a business card? how would that work?
what if we up the ante to include hotels and rental car ?
how much would it be for b/f ?

[kracked dude]

Or UA 50K with a match.

would that be instead of the Ink Bold?

[meshugener]

But UA award availibility to TLV is terrible, for a reasonable connection you'll only find a award ticket of 75k per single trip, so rather do Ink and SP who's points are worth much more and sell the miles to book with cash, especially if you consider coach as an option.

[Dan]

But UA award availibility to TLV is terrible, for a reasonable connection you'll only find a award ticket of 75k per single trip, so rather do Ink and SP who's points are worth much more and sell the miles to book with cash, especially if you consider coach as an option.

Yup, so terrible that I booked a last-minute pesach ticket for a friend for 80K going on US returning on UA.  And another in business on Swiss on their A333 for 120K.

[meshugener]

I was looking "each" day of Aug and first half of Sep, and found only with 15-25 hr stops or a 3hr stop in Turky where theyll flame up my kippah...

[kracked dude]

im still confused about the Ink Bold, isnt it a business card? how would i be able to get it?
also lets say we would want to fly b/f, what would be my options than?
i need enough for 2 people RT.
how about for hotels? if we would stay in jerusalem.

[Yossi.]

I was looking "each" day of Aug and first half of Sep, and found only with 15-25 hr stops or a 3hr stop in Turky where theyll flame up my kippah...

I flew through Istanbul at least 5-10 times for the past 3 years and never had any problem B"H. If you don't feel comfortable just wear a cap... Also THY fleet is pretty new based on the airplanes I flew on and the airport amenities are pretty decent (including starbucks) and a nice size"open" duty free...

[satturn]

Yup, so terrible that I booked a last-minute pesach ticket for a friend for 80K going on US returning on UA.  And another in business on Swiss on their A333 for 120K.

No proof-
UA is famous for opening up rewards tickets very close the day of departure. IMHO searching for a ticket in prime time, (E.X. flying to israel for elul zman this year) you really have nothing, i have checked for the last 3 weeks, almost every day and found 2 options that got grabbed in seconds. have not seen anything in over 2 weeks. I was able to one of them leaving 2 days after the zman started.

[satturn]

im still confused about the Ink Bold, isnt it a business card? how would i be able to get it?
also lets say we would want to fly b/f, what would be my options than?
i need enough for 2 people RT.
how about for hotels? if we would stay in jerusalem.

ink bold is a business card- you can sign up as a sole proprietor by putting in your ss number as your llc, (or whatever that numbers called), Anyone who has ever sold anything in their life, can be a sole proprietor.

[kracked dude]

ink bold is a business card- you can sign up as a sole proprietor by putting in your ss number as your llc, (or whatever that numbers called), Anyone who has ever sold anything in their life, can be a sole proprietor.

Thanks for the insight

[kracked dude]

@Dan do you still stand by your advice of getting SP and UA cards?
what about for short haul flights? in a different thread you mentioned a Amex card to get BA miles.
and how about for hotels while in Israel?   

[123ablack]

And I have a similar (as OPs) question:

Planning to fly NYC –TLV end Nov 2011 and return mid December 2011

We’re 4 adults (wife, Father/mother-in-law and myself) and my 2 children (ages 4 and 5).
Would like to fly Business or First

Here is what I have:
200,000 MR Points
250,000 UR points (will probably be at least 300,000 by that time)
76,000 AA miles
125000 United miles (between me and my father-in-law)

What’s the right approach? Do I have enough or do I need some other fat signups?

[Dan]

And I have a similar (as OPs) question:

Planning to fly NYC –TLV end Nov 2011 and return mid December 2011

We’re 4 adults (wife, Father/mother-in-law and myself) and my 2 children (ages 4 and 5).
Would like to fly Business or First

Here is what I have:
200,000 MR Points
250,000 UR points (will probably be at least 300,000 by that time)
76,000 AA miles
125000 United miles (between me and my father-in-law)

What’s the right approach? Do I have enough or do I need some other fat signups?

Have you tried searching on UA.com to get an idea?

[123ablack]

Have you tried searching on UA.com to get an idea?

of course i did and i would need 900,000 UA miles for this journey which i cannot reach...

[123ablack]

Dan, i sent you a PM, when you have a free moment (which i doubt you do have...), i'd appreciate your input