booking family to Israel- different airlines

[airfly]

Have collected some miles and would like to use for family to go to TLV, from NYC. Just looking for ideas of how to do this because it's a little convoluted. We would like to travel on two airlines, CO and Elal.

How many economy tickets can you get from these?

My miles
United- 59k
CO 35k
AA 31k
Sapphire Pref -35k
Sapphire reg(could be converted to pref, hence CO) 24k

Wife's miles
AA 154k (could transfer some of my miles to here or wait for 40 more to come from opening banking)
CO 38k
United 50k
AMex MR 59k (25k to come soon for opening card , so should be able to borrow some miles?)

[Dan]

For each 90K AA you'll have an El Al ticket.
For each 75K CO you'll have a CO/Star Alliance ticket.
For each 60K ANA (AMEX-ANA=1:1) you'll have a CO/US ticket.

The Sapphire and AMEX can be transferred to either CO account, but there's no good way to transfer between CO account.

[YOSEF]

Assuming that all of the AMEX and Sapphire can transfer to CO, which I believe they do, you have 143K that can be moved into CO.
So...
using 77K of that to top off both CO accounts (2 tickets), you will have 66K left,
which you can transfer to either maybe ELAL (see http://www.dansdeals.com/archives/10371) or definately ANA (meaning CO) to get enough for a ticket (1 ticket).

Using United new OW star alliance award, assuming they don't block it, you can use 37.5K from each of your accounts to book two OWs on CO (1 ticket)

Your wifes AA should provide two more once the 40K post.

But thats only 6....
How many do you need?

[airfly]

This is all very helpful, 6 tickets would be great, I was able to get rid of my 80k delta miles by giving to a friend who was able to find a ticket in the low season and they reimbursed me for the $1,000 it would have cost, so I have that $ also.

How can I coordinate it all? meaning if I book a ticket with CO and then go to United(I have to call them, i guess?) how can I be sure that the flights would still be available? Or on ANA? Do any of these airlines allow a hold or 24 change?

[YOSEF]

This is all very helpful, 6 tickets would be great, I was able to get rid of my 80k delta miles by giving to a friend who was able to find a ticket in the low season and they reimbursed me for the $1,000 it would have cost, so I have that $ also.

How can I coordinate it all? meaning if I book a ticket with CO and then go to United(I have to call them, i guess?) how can I be sure that the flights would still be available? Or on ANA? Do any of these airlines allow a hold or 24 change?

MR transfer instantly to CO, I dont think the same is true for ANA.
CO and UA I believe allow for a 24hour change or cancel.
AA definately allows you to put on hold.

[flyingace]

You might not be able to get everyone on the same flights. When booking, try to pair up those who can travel together, should you not find the same availability. I don't know if United is still *net blocking, but they did not always have the same availability as ANA and CO. And of course the AA flights will not be the same as the CO/ANA/UA flights. UA will hold an award ticket for three days(I think).  I would book them first and then see if you can get CO and ANA to match the itineraries.  You can ask the agent how many seats he sees available so that you know if it is somewhat doable. Also, I cancelled the same  United hold three times and it always went right back into the award pool. I called back and rebooked...

[airfly]

You might not be able to get everyone on the same flights. When booking, try to pair up those who can travel together, should you not find the same availability. I don't know if United is still *net blocking, but they did not always have the same availability as ANA and CO. And of course the AA flights will not be the same as the CO/ANA/UA flights. UA will hold an award ticket for three days(I think).  I would book them first and then see if you can get CO and ANA to match the itineraries.  You can ask the agent how many seats he sees available so that you know if it is somewhat doable. Also, I cancelled the same  United hold three times and it always went right back into the award pool. I called back and rebooked...

So it looks like to put flights on hold I have to book by phone, correct?
ANA - if I transfer MR to them which takes a few days, is there anyway I be sure the availability will still be there when the miles come in?

[Dan]

So it looks like to put flights on hold I have to book by phone, correct?
ANA - if I transfer MR to them which takes a few days, is there anyway I be sure the availability will still be there when the miles come in?

You can have CO hold the flights for 3 days and hope when you cancel that they go back into inventory.
Or you can just hope that noone else takes it.

[flyingace]

So it looks like to put flights on hold I have to book by phone, correct?
ANA - if I transfer MR to them which takes a few days, is there anyway I be sure the availability will still be there when the miles come in?

Either way there is some risk in doing it with so many different programs- that you might not get exactly what you prefer.  You just have to weigh the risks and figure out what you can live with in the worst case scenario.

[YOSEF]

So it looks like to put flights on hold I have to book by phone, correct?
ANA - if I transfer MR to them which takes a few days, is there anyway I be sure the availability will still be there when the miles come in?

You have pm.

[airfly]

I have no miles in the ANA account and cant seem to check any partner flights, is there a minimum amount needed in that account to search these flights?

[Dan]

I have no miles in the ANA account and cant seem to check any partner flights, is there a minimum amount needed in that account to search these flights?

Read the sticky *A thread for 2 workarounds.

[airfly]

Thanks for the help, the workaround worked fine.

Right now I have 4 tickets held from ewr through toronto on the Air canada flight. I'm hoping  that over time the CO flight non-stop might open up and I can change to that for no fee. One of the tickets is on United, two one ways(using two separate accounts). If  I could change that flight to the CO non-stop, would there be two separate $150 fees applied($300 total)? It would be a change in connections but not in origin/destination and it's one person.

[YOSEF]

Thanks for the help, the workaround worked fine.

Right now I have 4 tickets held from ewr through toronto on the Air canada flight. I'm hoping  that over time the CO flight non-stop might open up and I can change to that for no fee. One of the tickets is on United, two one ways(using two separate accounts). If  I could change that flight to the CO non-stop, would there be two separate $150 fees applied($300 total)? It would be a change in connections but not in origin/destination and it's one person.

I believe UA charges for any routing change. ( http://www.dansdeals.com/archives/8734 )
And because it is on two separate itineraries, there would be two charges.
Sorry.
However, if you have the tickets on hold with CO onepass, you might as well book them if you will fly the EWR-YYZ-TLV if the direct flight doesn't open up, because they allow you to change for free unless its within 21 days, in which case they charge to book anyway.

[airfly]

I held a particular flight with united miles, but now I want to book that same flight using onepass miles instead, but it is not available(I guess because I am holding it) if I cancel it with united, is there any way to know if it will becme available with onepass? Thanks

[flyingace]

There is no way to know what will happen to that award seat. It may become available and may not. Why not just use the United miles?

[airfly]

There is no way to know what will happen to that award seat. It may become available and may not. Why not just use the United miles?

Looks like I will have to, but the onepass allows changes in advance as long as no change to origin/destination, while the united will charge me if there is any change in the routing at all. Since I'm booking now for much later, i'm hopeful non-stops will open up.

[Dan]

There's a decent chance that when you cancel a hold it will go back into inventory, but no guaranty.