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 1838917 times)

Offline aussiebochur

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I've read through all of the posts on in this thread and I'm still stuck.  I don't mind doing the legwork on my own, but I would like to know how to properly search for this award.  When I try this on Aeroplan, it says that I've built an invalid itinerary.  I can't figure out how to book a reward ticket with a stopover on ANA (the "transit city" option doesn't seem to be doing the trick).

I'm looking to go CLE-LAX-HNL-CLE (stopover in LAX) on *A for 2 passengers.  I'm assuming this is a proper itinerary and will not incur extra miles/fees since HNL is outside the 48US/Canada.  I've got the CO OPP Card so I'd like CO to be the originating flight to avoid baggage fees.  I have 200,000 CO miles and 180,000 MR points.  Just got approved for the Chase Sapphire Preferred so I'll have 50,000 more coming my way some time in the future.

I am extremely flexible in my dates (travel is for the first half of January 2012).  As I am flexible, I want to book a SaverPass reward in Business or higher.

On the CO website I've been able to price out each leg one at a time for a SaverPass reward in First/BusinessFirst:

01/08: CLE-LAX   CO1161
01/10: LAX-HNL   UA935
01/16: HNL-DEN-CLE  CO134-CO1278

If I call CO and have them build that itinerary, assuming the SaverPass rewards are still available, will I be able to get this itinerary at 80,000 per passenger?  Is there an easier way to accomplish this search?  Do you have any better suggestions?


If all the flights are available in easypass when searched individually then together it would be 80,000.
Looking at your itinerary, you should be able to get it to come up on co.com.

Offline aussiebochur

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trying to Book BA
Depart the US: EWR to TLV sept 5
Separt TLV: TLV to EWR sept 11
On ONEWORLD it shows available but on BA it wont let me book.
Oneworld?

Offline TC610

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If all the flights are available in easypass when searched individually then together it would be 80,000.
Looking at your itinerary, you should be able to get it to come up on co.com.

Thanks.  When I book a multiple-destination trip on CO.com, *many* of the flight options disappear...Specifically, LAX-HNL.  If I try to book just a round trip ticket LAX-HNL using the 1/10 and 1/16 dates, I am presented with many more options

Offline aussiebochur

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Thanks.  When I book a multiple-destination trip on CO.com, *many* of the flight options disappear...Specifically, LAX-HNL.  If I try to book just a round trip ticket LAX-HNL using the 1/10 and 1/16 dates, I am presented with many more options
If the flight you want doesn't show, search individually, write down the flights you want and call.

Offline world2see

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i'm trying to book for tomorrow night 3 business class seats tlv-nyc i need direct only,the only thing coming up is for 230,000 a person,anyone know any ways of getting the mileage down?i recall once hearing if you book within 48hrs before the price of award tickets go down?thanks!return on august 30th btw,i tried searching for one ticket at a time ,no difference :(

Offline devastor

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Please forgive me if this is the wrong place to post.
I want to fly Air New Zealand from Houston (IAH) to Auckland (AKL). I would like to buy my tickets directly from Air New Zealand and use my *A miles (possibly CO) to upgrade my economy ticket to business class so I can sit next to Peter Jackson or Evangeline Lilly. Is this possible? I would also settle for upgrading my economy ticket to a skycouch, but I have seen other threads and it looks like this isn't possible.

Help me Obi-Wan Kenobi, you’re my only hope.

Offline Eli

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I just booked a 3-legger - ORD-YYZ(stop)YYZ-LGA(stop)LGA-ORD. I thought it would price out at 37,500 on CO (12,500 one way per leg) but it priced out at 35,000 (well, actually first the rep told me 47,500 and I told her she was wrong so she had her rate desk manually price it), but I was thikning... Why can't it be considered ORD-LGA and back with a stopover in YYZ? Do they not allow domestic stopovers?
-Eli

Offline Dan

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I just booked a 3-legger - ORD-YYZ(stop)YYZ-LGA(stop)LGA-ORD. I thought it would price out at 37,500 on CO (12,500 one way per leg) but it priced out at 35,000 (well, actually first the rep told me 47,500 and I told her she was wrong so she had her rate desk manually price it), but I was thikning... Why can't it be considered ORD-LGA and back with a stopover in YYZ? Do they not allow domestic stopovers?
No domestic stopovers on us48/canada tickets.  A stopover makes it 35K.
Which made Hawaii a huge bargain back when it was 35K because that has a free stopover, but even at 40K it ain't bad.
Save your time, I don't answer PM. Post it in the forum and a dedicated DDF'er will get back to you as soon as possible.

Offline Devorah

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Looking for a 1 way ticket from LHR to MEL for 7/31 - economy.  The only thing I am able to find is using CO miles - LHR-NRT-BKK-MEL for 55K miles.  I've got miles in both alliances as well as *wood and MR point.  If you are able to find me anything better, it would be greatly appreciated.

Offline Chaikel

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Looking for a 1 way ticket from LHR to MEL for 7/31 - economy.  The only thing I am able to find is using CO miles - LHR-NRT-BKK-MEL for 55K miles.  I've got miles in both alliances as well as *wood and MR point.  If you are able to find me anything better, it would be greatly appreciated.

Which Two? Star and...
Create professional looking itineraries.
Check out eliteitinerary.com

Offline andrew

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posting for a friend
looking for a one way TLV - NYC economy ticket direct 1 stopover or direct (if only business is available then thats good also) for sunday july 24th with any frequent flyer program,
thanks for the help

Offline yare

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posting for a friend
looking for a one way TLV - NYC economy ticket direct 1 stopover or direct (if only business is available then thats good also) for sunday july 24th with any frequent flyer program,
thanks for the help
LY         27      TLV   00:30     EWR   05:10     744   has 4 coach seats open
or
DL         269     TLV   00:05     JFK   04:45   to book the one way you'll need to transfer amex mr into airfrance/klm, 25k points plus prob about $350 in taxes/fees

Offline andrew

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Yare, thanks

Offline Dan

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DL         269     TLV   00:05     JFK   04:45   to book the one way you'll need to transfer amex mr into airfrance/klm, 25k points plus prob about $350 in taxes/fees
25K miles+$58.
Save your time, I don't answer PM. Post it in the forum and a dedicated DDF'er will get back to you as soon as possible.

Offline yare

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25K miles+$58.
i automatically assumed they charged yq on all dl redemptions.  thats a sick deal!    but it's only for coach, on a biz ow on dl it's pricing at $346.
« Last Edit: July 22, 2011, 07:58:23 AM by yare »

Offline Dan

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i automatically assumed they charged yq on all dl redemptions.  thats a sick deal!    but it's only for coach, on a biz ow on dl it's pricing at $346.
Hmm..........never book a JFK-TLV RT on FB! Split and save!

Coach:
TLV-JFK one-way, 25K+$58.65
TLV-JFK round-trip, 50K+$77.45
Business:
TLV-JFK one-way, 50K+$58.65
TLV-JFK round-trip, 100K+$77.45
Coach:
JFK-TLV one-way, 25K+$285.80
JFK-TLV round-trip, 50K+$611.45
Business:
JFK-TLV one-way, 50K+$339.
JFK-TLV round-trip, 100K+$719.45

Save your time, I don't answer PM. Post it in the forum and a dedicated DDF'er will get back to you as soon as possible.

Offline whatsdoing

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One way/: nyc to lax,
Non-stop/Maximum stops/Any: nonstop
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: 8/16
Return airports: san to nyc
Return dates: 8/12
Class: First/Business/Coach/Any
Seats: 1
Alliance/Airline: any

looking for a ticket under $400. any ideas?

Offline elikay

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Wrong thread this is for award bookings.

Offline Monsey

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Looking for a one way tlv-jfk,ewr,phl for one passenger on aug 24th or 25th preferably economy but if not then business is ok using any alliance. Maximum 2 stops. Thanks

Offline goodenglewood

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Looking for a one way tlv-jfk,ewr,phl for one passenger on aug 24th or 25th preferably economy but if not then business is ok using any alliance. Maximum 2 stops. Thanks


Using CO Miles = 120k

1    8/24
(WE)   LX257   
Tel Aviv       Zurich
05:00    08:20    332    Business    1
2    8/24
(WE)   LX018   
Zurich       New York(EWR)
17:00    20:10    73H    Business    1