Earning/Crediting strategy to achieve US-Israel award flight

[more2life]

*moderator please feel free to move this to the appropriate forum, though I didn't see one that talked about destination-oriented earnings strategy*

Hi folks,

I will be taking several business trips this year and want to consult with the community on what airline/alliance to credit the flights in order to save up for an Israel redemption next summer. I have flexibility in choosing which airlines to fly. My accounts are generally empty, so I can start fresh and complement the flight miles with cc sign up bonuses.

I've been researching DDFs and Dan's excellent past posts, but most of the information is out of date, given the 2014/2015 devaluations, changes since the US/AA merger, etc.

On the redemption side: here is what I've compiled for SFO-TLV (see attachment). Its about 25k more r/t UA miles to get to Israel, but lower taxes/fees.

What I've found so far is that earnings for my business trips is about the same regardless of alliance/airline.

Any thoughts about which alliance to credit to (*A or OW), and which airline (United/A3/ANA or AA)?

Thank you

[ShlockDoc]

This is up to date:

http://www.dansdeals.com/archives/51626

[burryhood]

Burn

[more2life]

This is up to date:

http://www.dansdeals.com/archives/51626

Thank you! Would you agree UA on *A is the best place to credit flights for this purpose? Considering award availability, ease of booking, etc.

ANA also looks good for the 90k r/t pricing.

[yitrap]

Thank you! Would you agree UA on *A is the best place to credit flights for this purpose? Considering award availability, ease of booking, etc.

ANA also looks good for the 90k r/t pricing.

Just keep in mind with ANA you can't book 4 days out

[Chapshnell]

And even if you see availability it takes a few days (2 usually from MR) for the points to transfer over if you need to top it off.

[more2life]

Yea I've had nightmare scenarios (mostly my fault) when learning how to book via ANA - I transferred MR to book a waitlist that never cleared and had to resort to UA miles for a flight.

Scenario-wise, I can imagine collecting enough points to do the booking around November this year for travel March/April 2016 (low season?). I'll keep checking availability and hope to secure something until the sweet spot of 2 months out. I don't have much risk-tolerance for last minute bookings considering the other planning aspects of a trip to Israel.

That being said, would you recommend collecting UA miles instead? Wish I could credit my flights to Chase UR or Amex MR! =)

[Chapshnell]

Singapore has some sweet redemption options.. Maybe look into that

[more2life]

Yea, I might attempt to try out their redemption. Is it still 115k R/t even using non-SQ metal? I heard the price goes up if the entire itinerary includes some non-metal legs.

Did you/anyone have success redeeming on SQ?