Flying to Israel for Pesach through Heathrow - Transfer Question

[misterstuf]

So because I started making my plans for Pesach this year very late, I am stuck with an interesting routing dilemma and I was wondering if anyone with experience can help.

I wound up putting a mileage flight on AA on hold with my wife to LHR, and I found a round trip from LHR to TLV on ElAl, which I also have on hold.
The AA flight arrives in LHR at 8:40pm on Sunday April 17th, and the ElAl flight leaves from LHR at 10:30pm.
I have been assured by AA that the baggage can be checked through, but I wanted to know if anyone with practical experience might have a better idea of 1) the possibility of getting my bags checked through from AA to ElAl, and 2) How long it should take to transfer from Terminal 3 (where AA lands) to Terminal 1 (where ElAl leaves from) at that time of the evening (both assuming I can check my baggage through, and if G-d forbid, I can't)

I do not have elite status, and I am flying coach, so as far as I understand, I won't be able to go through the fast track security. Please let me know if this well be doable with my time constraints.


Thanks,
Misterstuf

[aussiebochur]

AA will check your bags all the way through.

Assuming you arrive on time, you shouldn't have a problem connecting.

[Dan]

Not sure what other miles you have, but I've helped a few people get nonstop tickets on CO to TLV for Pesach.

[misterstuf]

Thanks for your help.
I went ahead and booked the tickets on American and ElAl thanks to Aussiebochur's comment. American has assured me that they can check my bags through with a 110 minute connection, so IY"H this will work out.

Dan, I don't have enough miles on anything else right now to get to Israel (I have about 30K on SPG too).
We just bought a condo recently, so I'm less stressed about my credit report than previously, so I'm considering making the jump into Continental and United miles credit cards starting this month.
Can you recommend which other cards are good for churning so that my wife and I can build up miles more quickly?

[Dan]

Thanks for your help.
I went ahead and booked the tickets on American and ElAl thanks to Aussiebochur's comment. American has assured me that they can check my bags through with a 110 minute connection, so IY"H this will work out.

Dan, I don't have enough miles on anything else right now to get to Israel (I have about 30K on SPG too).
We just bought a condo recently, so I'm less stressed about my credit report than previously, so I'm considering making the jump into Continental and United miles credit cards starting this month.
Can you recommend which other cards are good for churning so that my wife and I can build up miles more quickly?

CO Onepass Plus and AMEX Plat will give you a quick 81K miles for spending $1,001.
Chase Sapphire Preferred is a great MC with 28K after spending $3K and they give a 7% point bonus on spending.
All those cards can transfer miles to CO.
Tons of other cards as well are out there.  The AA offers are great but are hard to churn these days.
Do you have SPG consumer or SPG business or both?

[misterstuf]

My wife and I each have SPG Amex Consumer.
And I just got the Amex Platinum, which helps since I'll be traveling internationally twice on the next few months (thanks for the tipoff on the JFK-CDG deal on Iberia, BTW).

I am definitely leaning toward applying for the Business SPG Amex and the Continental OnePass Plus. Do you think that if I already have a couple of chase cards (I have the Hyatt card and will be applying for the CO One Pass) that they will approve me for the Chase Sapphire Preferred, or will I need to negotiate moving some of my credit limit?

Also, what do you know about churning the SPG Amex. Has it been done successfully? Would you recommend it?