Topic Wiki

Please follow the following rules when posting in this thread. Failure to do so may result in you request being ignored or deleted.

(If you are looking to purchase a paid ticket, please post here)

FAQs:

Q: How can I use my credit card points to book a USA-TLV ticket?
A: Please read Dan's very helpful and informative guides found here and here

Great tool to see the mileage cost for a route http://www.awardhacker.com

Q: Do I have to pay a lot of money when using miles for a ticket?

A: Sometimes. For more information read this

Q: How do I find award availability?
A: For Star Alliance (United, AirCanada, Lufthansa, Swiss, and others) see this guide

For OneWorld (AmericanAirlines, BritishAirways, Iberia, Malev, and more) You can use BA's award search engine (you need to have a free BA account to access the engine). In addition, you can use Qantas' engine (free account needed as well), which will (to an extent) search Elal. As of this posting, the Elal business flights that show up are coach, and vice verse.

For Delta and AirFrance, use their respective sites. While not perfect, they are quite manageable for the casual searcher.

And of course, many of us here will take time out to help someone who is trying to learn.

Q: All this searching is making me crazy. Is there an easier way?
A: Yes, but it might cost you. Check out AwardNexus.com, KVStool.com, and expertflyer.com.

Q: I see AirCanada availability, but when I call AirCanada they say I can't use my United miles with them. Aren't they partners?
A: You can only use miles with the airline that issued them. Through that airline (in our case United) they can issue a ticket on a partner (ie AirCanada). Trying to call AirCanada with United miles, is like trying to use shekels in Mexico.

Q: I can't find availability on my dates. What should I do?
A: You should try to be as flexible as possible. Can you add a stop or 2? Can you be more flexible with your dates? The airports?
If all else fails, keep trying. Availability is constantly opening up.

Q: Can someone please help me find a ticket?
A: No! Find it yourself.  ;D ;D Just kidding. Please copy the following lines, delete the non bolded parts, and fill it out in your post.

One way/Round-trip:
Non-stop/Maximum stops/Any:
From: All airports from which you can depart
To: All airports which you can arrive at. For multiple destinations, just keep adding this line
Departure dates: All possible dates that you can depart on. Please be as specific as possible.
Return airports:If different from 'To' line. Delete this line for One-way tickets
Return dates: Delete this line for One-way tickets
Class: First/Business/Coach/Any
Seats: Total number of people traveling over the age of 2
Alliance/Airline: What airline or alliance are you looking to fly with

IF you have any airline status or credit cards (Ie, United CC or status) that gives extended seat availability, please add that. Would be helpful to find you correct availability.

An additional note about using miles for direct flights from NYC-TLV

NYC-TLV is only served by 3 carriers non-stop, United, Delta, and El Al. Saver availability on Delta is non-existent. Saver availability on United is rare but sometimes available close-in. It is almost never available on or near holidays or holiday weekends, or around yomim tovim. Any award space that opens will be snatched up immediately so you have to constantly be checking if you hope to snag it if/when it opens. El AL awards are more readily available but prohibitively expensive using Matmid points (El Al's frequent flyer program) but may be able to be booked using Quantas points (transfers from Citi & Amex) at a much more reasonable rate.

This leaves the following options if no saver availability:

The Chase travel portal will let you use Ultimate Rewards, or a combination or UR and cash to book flights. If you have a Sapphire Reserve or a Sapphire Preferred, the redemption rate will be 1.5 cents per point or 1.25 cents per point respectively, instead of the regular 1 cent per point without them. (A, Ink cash or Ink Preferred will also give you the 1.25 cpp redemption rate.)

The Amex travel portal will let you redeem points at 1 cent per point towards the cost of air travel. If you have a grandfathered Business Platinum card, you will get 50% of the points you redeem back around a month after you book the ticket. If you have a non-grandfathered card, you will get 35% of your points back. (This is only available when redeeming points for tickets on your selected American carrier in economy class or on any airline in business or first class.)

The Citi travel portal also lets you redeem points at 1 cent per point towards travel and seems to have better pricing on El Al in business class.

Alternatively, you can sell your points (not here on DDF) and use the cash to buy regular tickets. This is usually the best option for people without either a Chase Sapphire Reserve or grandfathered Business Platinum who are flying economy.

Those are your only options for nonstop travel. For options with a stopover and more information in general, see https://www.dansdeals.com/points-travel/milespoints/the-ultimate-israel-mileage-award-chart/

This keeps on getting asked over and over. Besides Dan's comprehensive list of how to get to, or from, TLV here is a short list of options for travel to or from NYC in Y:
Lowest point per RT is FB 50K (less with promo, but YQ of ~$500 unless you can find unicorn DL availability), AA 80k (AA metal for transatlantic), AC 80k (LX or LO for low YQ) and UA 85k. Half that for OW.

Please add any other information to this wiki that you feel might be useful.



Author Topic: Need help finding a ticket? Post here! Award ticket edition (Master thread)  (Read 1838970 times)

Offline chamushk

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Hi,
I'm looking to book a bit of a complicated award route with a family of 6 including 2 under 2.
I'm willing to pay a reasonable fee for someone to help me work out the best and cheapest way to work this out.

We want to fly from NYC to London, stay there about a week, and then continue on to Israel for a few days during the summer, and then back straight to NY.
Dates are NYC-LON week of Aug 20 (exact day flexible), on to Israel around the 31st, and back to NY on Sep 5/6.
I have a fair amount of MR point, UR points, some SPG and AA.

Please excuse me if this is the wrong place or way to post, any guidance would be appreciated!

TIA

Offline JamesIV

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Hi,
Trying to book First to Hawaii. Sometime in the next few months.
Any help greatly appreciated!

One way/Round trip: RT
Non-stop/Maximum stops/Any: Any
From: All NYC airports
To: HNL (Other islands too)
Departure dates: Anytime in the next 3 months besides 6/8-6/20
Return dates: 7-10 days after departure
Class: First/Business
Seats: 2
Alliance/Airline: Delta or United
I have a fair amount of MR point, UR points, some Delta, United, and AA.

Thanks!

Offline isrealsuits

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One way/Round trip: RT
Non-stop/Maximum stops/Any:none
From: ewr
To: chicago
Departure dates: 5/18 after6pm (pref later)
Return dates: 5/22 early morning
Class:economy
Seats: 2
Alliance/Airline: any
i have amex ba ur united and aa
or cash

Offline killamatic12

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NYC-FLL/PBI aug. 2/3/4(in the morning) I have BA,MR,chase, Star points
I looked for it with BA and AA and they had no Milesaver awards. TIA

Offline hvaces42

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Is it me, or is this thread sometimes a hiding place for laziness?
Fair warning - Any PMs sent in response to forum posts are fair game for ridicule in public.

Offline JamesIV

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Is it me, or is this thread sometimes a hiding place for laziness?
It's a thread for people to do some Chessed and help out beginners.
Most of us Ameratzim don't know all the ins and outs and every trick in the book.

Online mochjas

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It's a thread for people to do some Chessed and help out beginners.
Most of us Ameratzim don't know all the ins and outs and every trick in the book.
That is why there is something called reading and learning. No one started out as an expert.

Pretty sure this thread was started for someone to post in After he did his due dilligence and could not come up with anything good

Online mmgfarb

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That is why there is something called reading and learning. No one started out as an expert.

Pretty sure this thread was started for someone to post in After he did his due dilligence and could not come up with anything good
+1000
"JS [is] a fetid cesspool of unvarnished linguistic manure, with lots of useless drivel and post-padding." -Moishebatchy

Offline CreamofSoup

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That is why there is something called reading and learning. No one started out as an expert.

Pretty sure this thread was started for someone to post in After he did his due dilligence and could not come up with anything good
+1000

Definitely not trying to defend anybody but do we really have any way of knowing how much DD an OP put in? Demonstration of DD is definitely on the OP but you can only demonstrate so much via a couple lines of text in a forum.

Online mmgfarb

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Definitely not trying to defend anybody but do we really have any way of knowing how much DD an OP put in? Demonstration of DD is definitely on the OP but you can only demonstrate so much via a couple lines of text in a forum.
True, you would think at some point people would stop asking though after almost nobody gets a response.
"JS [is] a fetid cesspool of unvarnished linguistic manure, with lots of useless drivel and post-padding." -Moishebatchy

Offline CreamofSoup

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True, you would think at some point people would stop asking though after almost nobody gets a response.

That's a different issue altogether  ;D

Online mochjas

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Definitely not trying to defend anybody but do we really have any way of knowing how much DD an OP put in? Demonstration of DD is definitely on the OP but you can only demonstrate so much via a couple lines of text in a forum.
absolutely you can tell. Lots of times you have people say I found x and x but it doesnt work does anyone have better ideas.

If its a guys first post and he wants to go to TLV than most likely he didnt do any research and wants to be spoon-fed

Offline hvaces42

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Im glad to help and glad to be corrected when my advice or suggestions are wrong or missed something. But if you're looking for award space NYC-FLL, NYC-LHR or NYC-TLV and you dont state why you couldnt find anything for the dates or times you are searching and why revenue isnt an option dont expect a response. Chesed has a limit. Compensation may change the foregoing.
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Offline hvaces42

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NYC-FLL/PBI aug. 2/3/4(in the morning) I have BA,MR,chase, Star points
I looked for it with BA and AA and they had no Milesaver awards. TIA
One way/Round trip: RT
Non-stop/Maximum stops/Any:none
From: ewr
To: chicago
Departure dates: 5/18 after6pm (pref later)
Return dates: 5/22 early morning
Class:economy
Seats: 2
Alliance/Airline: any
i have amex ba ur united and aa
or cash

what are my options for booking from nyc/phl/bwi regions to yvr nonstop? I have BA, Alaska & United miles. Thanks
A question like this doesnt deserve a response. How many times has Dan discussed YVR on the main site...recently.
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Offline killamatic12

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Is it me, or is this thread sometimes a hiding place for laziness?
I apoligize for coming off as lazy or if I wasnt so clear with my request. I looked for 2 1/2 hours at different posts from here, the points guy, and DDMS as well as the BA and AA site. The only thing I found was 20k OW on the AA site  for my dates and was just wondering if I was doing something wrong and if it was possible to still do 7.5k OW

Offline hvaces42

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I apoligize for coming off as lazy or if I wasnt so clear with my request. I looked for 2 1/2 hours at different posts from here, the points guy, and DDMS as well as the BA and AA site. The only thing I found was 20k OW on the AA site  for my dates and was just wondering if I was doing something wrong and if it was possible to still do 7.5k OW
Simple concept: 7.5k BA availability is only applicable if there is SAAVER availability on AA. Same goes for every partner search on every airline as far as I am aware. No awards will be available on a partner airline unless therebis saver level availability on the partners own program. CMIIW
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Offline Berenstein Bear

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Simple concept: 7.5k BA availability is only applicable if there is SAAVER availability on AA. Same goes for every partner search on every airline as far as I am aware. No awards will be available on a partner airline unless therebis saver level availability on the partners own program. CMIIW
Thanks for that. It clarifies everything in one short sentence.

Offline menachemf

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Emirates is showing availability of Award FLights for Athens to EWR (Alaskair does not) in the beginning of Aug.
Called JAL and was told the entire time period is blocked. Have they not loaded month of Aug yet?

Offline Epop

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Round trip:
Non-stop:
From: All airports from which you can depart: JFK, Laguardia (NYC)
To: LAX (Los Angeles)
Departure dates: 6/11   or  6/18
Return dates:      6/18   or  6/25   (open to any approx week long trips between 6/11 and 6/25)
Class: First/Business
Seats: 2

I have 100,000 Chase Points, was considering using them for 2 first/business class tix to take my father to LA. He came to America on a ship and has only flown economy since then!
Is that a waste of points considering that NYC to LA is not a very long flight (like Hawaii)?




Offline Epop

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To be more precise- I found that Dan wrote about transferring Chase points to either Delta first class via Korean or United lie flat business class via Singapore; which I cld then use for JFK to LAX.

Anywhere I can find a good comparison on the value differences between them?

Or any other 1st/business class options?