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 1839144 times)

Offline skyguy918

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Re: Need help finding a ticket? Post here! Award ticket edition (Master thread)
« Reply #6900 on: August 22, 2015, 10:17:48 PM »
On vacation with my wife and kids in Miami and I got word that my grandmother, who has been in the hospital, has taken a turn from the worse. I need to fly home tomorrow (8/23) the earlier in the day the better. My return is currently booked on Frontier several days out. Their next flight is Sunday night, and it's sold out anyway, so I probably have to get a refund from them and find another flight. I'm posting here on the off chance someone actually finds something with miles - I already posted on the paid thread. I don't have much in the way of miles, except United and a little Delta, but I can probably get whatever I'd need from a friend.

TIA

One way/Round trip: One way
Non-stop/Maximum stops/Any: Non-stop
From: MIA, FLL
To: JFK, LGA
Departure dates: 8/23
Class: Any
Seats: 4
Alliance/Airline: Any

Offline voyager

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Re: Need help finding a ticket? Post here! Award ticket edition (Master thread)
« Reply #6901 on: August 23, 2015, 08:28:42 PM »
Need help finding 2 sets of tickets to Florida for a simcha, cheapest possible.  West Palm Beach is closest, but willing to go to other airport if cheaper. Also willing to be flexible about departing airports:

Set One:

One way/Round trip: round trip
Non-stop/Maximum stops/Any: non-stop preferable
From: Anywhere accessible to Lakewood (Newark, LGA, Philly)
To: West Palm Beach (or Ft Lauderdale, Miami)
Departure dates: 9/06/15
Return dates: 9/7/15
Class: Coach
Seats: 2
Alliance/Airline: Any

Set Two

One way/Round trip: round trip
Non-stop/Maximum stops/Any: non-stop preferable
From: Boston
To: West Palm Beach (or Ft Lauderdale, Miami)
Departure dates: 9/03/15 (or early 9/04/15)
Return dates: 9/7/15
Class: Coach
Seats: 3
Alliance/Airline: Any

Offline DMYD

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Re: Need help finding a ticket? Post here! Award ticket edition (Master thread)
« Reply #6902 on: August 23, 2015, 08:45:02 PM »
Need help finding 2 sets of tickets to Florida for a simcha, cheapest possible.  West Palm Beach is closest, but willing to go to other airport if cheaper. Also willing to be flexible about departing airports:

Set One:

One way/Round trip: round trip
Non-stop/Maximum stops/Any: non-stop preferable
From: Anywhere accessible to Lakewood (Newark, LGA, Philly)
To: West Palm Beach (or Ft Lauderdale, Miami)
Departure dates: 9/06/15
Return dates: 9/7/15
Class: Coach
Seats: 2
Alliance/Airline: Any

Set Two

One way/Round trip: round trip
Non-stop/Maximum stops/Any: non-stop preferable
From: Boston
To: West Palm Beach (or Ft Lauderdale, Miami)
Departure dates: 9/03/15 (or early 9/04/15)
Return dates: 9/7/15
Class: Coach
Seats: 3
Alliance/Airline: Any
Did you check on BA? I saw from PHL-PBI on 9/6 didn't check the other dates, but check and see what you find.

Offline thecandybox

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Re: Need help finding a ticket? Post here! Award ticket edition (Master thread)
« Reply #6903 on: August 24, 2015, 09:04:06 PM »
I want to go to CUN in February. As of now (which it could be gone already), can get 9500 each way jetblue. problem is, I need 4 tickets which is about 80k points round trip..I have bunch of amex and chase points but chase doesnt transfer and amex is a bad transfer rate...jetblue have any partners which i could book using my amex or chase points? or are there brokers/companies that would trade me 1:1 jetblue for amex/chase points?
thanks for any advice

Offline mackf55

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Re: Need help finding a ticket? Post here! Award ticket edition (Master thread)
« Reply #6904 on: August 25, 2015, 10:46:55 PM »
Non-stop
From: nyc
To: tlv
Departure dates:12/14/15
Return dates: 12/23/15 can be a few days before or after stay is 9-10 days
Class: Business
Seats: Total number of people traveling over the age of 2
Alliance/Airline: I have Amex points and chase sapphire points i dont know how to find the best award trips i was hoping some one can help me get there
Thanks

Offline Aaaron

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Re: Need help finding a ticket? Post here! Award ticket edition (Master thread)
« Reply #6905 on: August 26, 2015, 01:52:24 PM »
I have tickets to DXB (well, actually AUH) but we're leaving Saturday night, 9/5.

Thinking about just going to Europe for Shabbos and leaving straight to DXB Sunday morning.  Any good redemption options for ~90k in F or ~75k in J?  Preferably using AA or AS or any UR transfer partners.  Other options are welcome too.  FRA, CDG, FCO, etc.  Any and all options welcome.

Ideally I'd like to get F on one of EK's A380s...

It's Labor Day weekend so things are probably tight but I'm willing to book pretty last minute since I have alternative plans anyway.

Offline Azis Papa

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Re: Need help finding a ticket? Post here! Award ticket edition (Master thread)
« Reply #6906 on: August 28, 2015, 02:44:34 PM »
One way/Round trip: One way
Non-stop/Maximum stops/Any: Non-stop, please
From: All airports from which you can depart:  FLL, PBI, MIA
To: All airports which you can arrive at. LGA, JFK
Departure dates: (1)September 10 2015, (2) September 9 2015
Class: First/Business/Coach/Any Coach
Seats: Total number of people traveling over the age of 2: Only 1
Alliance/Airline: I have a reservation on Delta, September 10th, FLL- LGA.  12,500 pts.  I couldn't find anything better - nothing was available on BA - I'm pretty OK with what I have but I don't have many Delata pts.  Have a lot of UR/AA/SW. 

Offline jagr07

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Re: Need help finding a ticket? Post here! Award ticket edition (Master thread)
« Reply #6907 on: August 30, 2015, 05:12:04 PM »
Please help! Booked a bunch of flights and hotels for honeymoon in December/January but can't seem to get my return flight figured out. There just seem to be no awards for saver prices and prices for purchasing tickets keeps going up! Need 2 tickets - for me and my wife. Any help greatly appreciated, just figuring out the points world. Thank you!

One way/Round trip: One Way
Non-stop/Maximum stops/Any: Max 1 stop most preferable
From: Beijing, China
To: New York City or Philadelphia (very much prefer NYC)
Departure dates: 1/3/2016 preferably in afternoon, but must get back to NYC in time for work Monday morning 1/4
Class: Coach
Seats: 2
Alliance/Airline: I have a bunch of Chase Ultimate Rewards points (~150k) and some Starwood points (~40k). Also have about 60k american airlines miles.

Offline mechayamom

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Re: Need help finding a ticket? Post here! Award ticket edition (Master thread)
« Reply #6908 on: August 30, 2015, 07:12:05 PM »
One Way/Round Trip:  One Way
Non-Stop/Maximum Stops/Any:  1 stop
From:  LIH
To:      KOA
Departure Date:  10/25  early AM
Class:  Coach
Seats: 2
Alliance/Airline:  Hawaiian   I have AA miles as well as UR, MR, Starwoods.
When I look at in under AA saver awards it is showing as 2 legs at 5,000 points each.  Is there a way to do better on points? 
And if using points does it not allow for the checked bags if using the AA card?

Thanks

Offline Krow81

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Re: Need help finding a ticket? Post here! Award ticket edition (Master thread)
« Reply #6909 on: September 01, 2015, 04:29:05 PM »
Looking for help booking this trip with miles/points. Please let me know if you have any thoughts. Thanks in advance for any help you can provide.

One Way/Round trip:Round trip
Non-Stop/Maximum Stops/Any:  Nonstop
From: JFK
To: PUJ
Departure dates: 10/29
Return dates: 11/1 or 11/2
Class: Any
Seats: 2
Alliance/Airline: No Preference

I see Delta and Jetblue have direct flights. I have ample UR & MR points to use. I also have about 30k skymiles and 28k Emirates Miles which expire soon.

Offline nanach09

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Re: Need help finding a ticket? Post here! Award ticket edition (Master thread)
« Reply #6910 on: September 01, 2015, 11:26:27 PM »
one way
nonstop
 nyc/phl to lon
 sep.2
 economy
 1 passenger
 have united/aa/ba miles
TIA

Offline mercaz1

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Re: Need help finding a ticket? Post here! Award ticket edition (Master thread)
« Reply #6911 on: September 02, 2015, 03:43:25 PM »
roundtrip
nonstop
nyc to dallas
economy
2 adults
2 kids
1 lap
have 160k chase
30k spg
sept 30- october 7 or chol hamoed

thanks

Offline Chief Rabbi of New York

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Re: Need help finding a ticket? Post here! Award ticket edition (Master thread)
« Reply #6912 on: September 02, 2015, 04:34:37 PM »
one way
phx to ewr
I have chase ur points
united miles
amex points.
sunday may 1st
direct flights
for 2 people
whats the best option to book?

TIA
Show Some Respect for Me, I am The Chief Rabbi of New York :)

Offline deal_rider

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Re: Need help finding a ticket? Post here! Award ticket edition (Master thread)
« Reply #6913 on: September 03, 2015, 01:27:41 AM »
One way/Round trip: RT
Non-stop/Maximum stops/Any: up to 2 Stops
From: MAA
To: BOS
Departure dates: Around 15 Oct
Return dates: Around 15 Dec
Class: Any
Seats: 2
Alliance/Airline: Any

Have 170K MRs

TIA

Offline Tom Brady

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Re: Need help finding a ticket? Post here! Award ticket edition (Master thread)
« Reply #6914 on: September 03, 2015, 04:47:49 AM »
roundtrip
nonstop
nyc to dallas
economy
2 adults
2 kids
1 lap
have 160k chase
30k spg
sept 30- october 7 or chol hamoed

thanks

I'd recommend that you book asap with cash. Virgin America has non stop for $81 round trip, and even AA at $149 for the non stop round trip, is a MUCH better value than you would get with points.

Offline princea143

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Re: Need help finding a ticket? Post here! Award ticket edition (Master thread)
« Reply #6915 on: September 03, 2015, 04:56:16 AM »
One way/Round trip: OW
Non-stop/Maximum stops/Any: Any
From: AUH
To: LHR, BRS
Departure dates: We arrive at AUH on 9/15/15 at 19:40, so very late that day or 9/16/15 as early as possible; will try to be flexible, but trying for these dates
Class: Coach
Seats: 2
Alliance/Airline:
AA - 105k
DL - 35k
BA - 11k
UR - 110k (would rather save these for Hyatt stays)
MR - 205k

Thanks for your help!

Offline Tom Brady

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Re: Need help finding a ticket? Post here! Award ticket edition (Master thread)
« Reply #6916 on: September 03, 2015, 05:07:53 AM »
one way
phx to ewr
I have chase ur points
united miles
amex points.
sunday may 1st
direct flights
for 2 people
whats the best option to book?

TIA
Delta for 12.5k pp to JFK (transfer the points from MR). Nothing available on United (only points option to Newark). Also nothing available on AA.

Offline Tom Brady

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Re: Need help finding a ticket? Post here! Award ticket edition (Master thread)
« Reply #6917 on: September 03, 2015, 05:42:54 AM »
One way/Round trip: OW
Non-stop/Maximum stops/Any: Any
From: AUH
To: LHR, BRS
Departure dates: We arrive at AUH on 9/15/15 at 19:40, so very late that day or 9/16/15 as early as possible; will try to be flexible, but trying for these dates
Class: Coach
Seats: 2
Alliance/Airline:
AA - 105k
DL - 35k
BA - 11k
UR - 110k (would rather save these for Hyatt stays)
MR - 205k

Thanks for your help!

Gulf Air probably has availability via BAH, though the only way for me to check would be to call up. Would be 20k pp with aa or 24.5k with ba. One advantage of booking with ba would be no additional $75 close in fee. Also keep in mind that even if there isn't economy availability with GF, there is almost certainly business available with GF, which is not a terrible value at 30k aa.

Offline princea143

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Re: Need help finding a ticket? Post here! Award ticket edition (Master thread)
« Reply #6918 on: September 03, 2015, 05:57:01 AM »
Gulf Air probably has availability via BAH, though the only way for me to check would be to call up. Would be 20k pp with aa or 24.5k with ba. One advantage of booking with ba would be no additional $75 close in fee. Also keep in mind that even if there isn't economy availability with GF, there is almost certainly business available with GF, which is not a terrible value at 30k aa.
Thanks.  I just found BA for 16.5k + $73 pax AUH-STR-LHR with AB and BA.  What do you think?  Cash is $398 pax so award is definitely the go-to.  BA seems to be better choice between AA/BA because of close-in fee and more AA miles.  Have any other options, or should I just jump on this?
Also, is the way AA works this: economy-20k, biz-30k, first-40k for middle east to europe?

Offline Tom Brady

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Re: Need help finding a ticket? Post here! Award ticket edition (Master thread)
« Reply #6919 on: September 03, 2015, 06:06:35 AM »
Looking for help booking this trip with miles/points. Please let me know if you have any thoughts. Thanks in advance for any help you can provide.

One Way/Round trip:Round trip
Non-Stop/Maximum Stops/Any:  Nonstop
From: JFK
To: PUJ
Departure dates: 10/29
Return dates: 11/1 or 11/2
Class: Any
Seats: 2
Alliance/Airline: No Preference

I see Delta and Jetblue have direct flights. I have ample UR & MR points to use. I also have about 30k skymiles and 28k Emirates Miles which expire soon.


Truthfully a paid ticket may be the best option, though for your way back on the 2nd, Delta has your seats available. It's 15k Delta or Flying Blue miles per person.