I'm a bit of a newbie to travel/miles/deals especially international and trying to get our family of 9 EWR to TLV end of October or early November for our eldest's bar mitzvah. Despite searching forums I'm unclear on a couple of things and hoping someone will be kind enough to spoon feed some information.
1. What are the pros and cons of El Al, United, Delta for EWR to TLV?
2. How horrible is it to save a buck and do a British Airways or Poland stopover with children ages 3 to 13?
3. I've been checking google flights and the prices hobble from $948 (delta) to 1200. How do I gamble securing $950 flights vs waiting on a deal?
4. I have Chase UR, maybe 480,000 and the Ink preferred for 1.25 conversion (not eligible for a sapphire). Are my best/only options to use them to book through Chase or transfer them to United (I have United business card too) depending where a deal drops?
5. What are the advantages to Chase portal vs United Miles vs cash?
Thank yoU!
1. Airport or airline/alliance preference.
2. For 1 or 2 bucks most people wont do a stop. If it's a 500 RT transit thru Russia many will.
3. The closer it is to the flight the higher the price you will pay, usally.
Sales do come and go.
You can call in for a fare drop within 30 days.
If you use United or Delta you can try adding a leg such as ZFV, BOS, YUL, YYZ or another HC on the return to see of it'll price lower.
You can sell your miles to a broker [not on the forums] for about 1.35 and you can book wherever you want. Many times travel agents will have better deals for TLV, call a few of the large ones.
5. Cash or chase is the same, the points is just a currency. United miles will cost you more then the value of the points if sold.