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 1838796 times)

Offline YaakovR

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Re: Need help finding a ticket? Post here! Award ticket edition (Master thread)
« Reply #7060 on: November 05, 2015, 12:58:33 AM »
Looking for round trip to Australia
01/24/2016-02/01/2016
2-3 seats
Economy class
Any amount of stops is fine
I have, SPG, United, Avios, UR, MR, Delta, Thank you Points.
Any help will really be appreciated.

Offline Dawie

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Re: Need help finding a ticket? Post here! Award ticket edition (Master thread)
« Reply #7061 on: November 05, 2015, 11:39:16 AM »
Looking for round trip to Australia
01/24/2016-02/01/2016
2-3 seats
Economy class
Any amount of stops is fine
I have, SPG, United, Avios, UR, MR, Delta, Thank you Points.
Any help will really be appreciated.
there's saver award on 1/26 the way back is wide open for 2/2 2/3 2/4
ewr-mel and ewr-syd
sq will set you back 110k per segment

Offline ein oid melvado

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Re: Need help finding a ticket? Post here! Award ticket edition (Master thread)
« Reply #7062 on: November 05, 2015, 12:31:20 PM »
need help finding las to tlv one way for 2 in business on Nov 11 on any alliance
thanks

Offline yochiek93

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Re: Need help finding a ticket? Post here! Award ticket edition (Master thread)
« Reply #7063 on: November 05, 2015, 12:46:46 PM »
need help finding las to tlv one way for 2 in business on Nov 11 on any alliance
thanks
Follow the wiki
What do you have

Offline ein oid melvado

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Re: Need help finding a ticket? Post here! Award ticket edition (Master thread)
« Reply #7064 on: November 05, 2015, 01:26:21 PM »
Follow the wiki
What do you have
united, amex aa, chase, thank you, spg, lufthansa, ba,and so on

Offline YaakovR

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Re: Need help finding a ticket? Post here! Award ticket edition (Master thread)
« Reply #7065 on: November 05, 2015, 04:37:38 PM »
there's saver award on 1/26 the way back is wide open for 2/2 2/3 2/4
ewr-mel and ewr-syd
sq will set you back 110k per segment
Yeah but the latest I can leave is, 1/24.
Any other ideas?

Offline Dawie

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Re: Need help finding a ticket? Post here! Award ticket edition (Master thread)
« Reply #7066 on: November 05, 2015, 05:11:57 PM »
you can find tickets for as low as $1200

Offline YaakovR

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Re: Need help finding a ticket? Post here! Award ticket edition (Master thread)
« Reply #7067 on: November 06, 2015, 12:05:12 AM »
you can find tickets for as low as $1200
Where? The only thing I found in that range, were flights with crazy long layover.

Offline Dawie

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Re: Need help finding a ticket? Post here! Award ticket edition (Master thread)
« Reply #7068 on: November 06, 2015, 11:02:35 AM »
etihad, not long layovers

Offline yitzy93

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Re: Need help finding a ticket? Post here! Award ticket edition (Master thread)
« Reply #7069 on: November 08, 2015, 12:41:10 PM »
Round trip
Don't care how many stops (as long as its not more expensive)
From: BRU
To: NYC/YUL
Departure dates: Flexible around March 3rd
Return airports: From YUL/NYC to BRU
Return dates: Flexible around March 13
Class: Coach
Seats: 1
Alliance/Airline: Any/Cheapest

I'm still pretty much a beginner with booking long-haul awards so any further insight would be greatly appreciated
TIA

Offline EliteMavin

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Re: Need help finding a ticket? Post here! Award ticket edition (Master thread)
« Reply #7070 on: November 08, 2015, 02:56:19 PM »
Need help with this:
One way, Cancun-NYC, next Sunday (Nov. 15)
For 2 passengers, any class (preferably non-stop, flexible if necessary).
Thanks!

Offline pixi

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Re: Need help finding a ticket? Post here! Award ticket edition (Master thread)
« Reply #7071 on: November 09, 2015, 08:56:04 PM »
need help with this ,
nyc-tlv ,
mid Jan ,
non stop
round trip
business class .
money doesn't talk......      it SCREAMS !

Offline pcgeek

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Re: Need help finding a ticket? Post here! Award ticket edition (Master thread)
« Reply #7072 on: November 09, 2015, 10:00:27 PM »
Not sure if this is the right topic, please LMK if it should be in another thread:
I'm looking to book a flight NYC-DFW on 1/24/2015 . It needs to be have free (or almost free) cancellation even after 24 hours. Would BA Avios ($5.60 to cancel) be my only option, or am I missing something?
TIA

Offline jds

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Re: Need help finding a ticket? Post here! Award ticket edition (Master thread)
« Reply #7073 on: November 09, 2015, 11:46:11 PM »
Hi, I'm looking for the following ticket. I checked the websites for the Airlines I have miles for and didn't find decently priced mileage tickets. Is there any way to find the reduced awards even when they're not coming up on the website of the airline?

One way
Maximum stops: 1
From: BDL
To: ATL
Departure dates: 11/29/15
Class: Any- cheapest
Seats: 1
Alliance/Airline: Any

I have:

146,543 UR
35,779 MR
160,000 AA
85,000 United
50,000 BA

Any help appreciated.

Offline palm tights

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Re: Need help finding a ticket? Post here! Award ticket edition (Master thread)
« Reply #7074 on: November 10, 2015, 12:43:00 AM »
Round trip
Non stop
Nyc/ewr
Argentina
November 11
Any class
Any airline
Have all points

Offline Dawie

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Re: Need help finding a ticket? Post here! Award ticket edition (Master thread)
« Reply #7075 on: November 10, 2015, 02:42:22 PM »
Round trip
Non stop
Nyc/ewr
Argentina
November 11
Any class
Any airline
Have all points
when do you want to return
There is 20k on AA 11/10 @10pm and the same 11/12
UA has 55k for Business with one stop 11/12 in the morning

Offline palm tights

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Re: Need help finding a ticket? Post here! Award ticket edition (Master thread)
« Reply #7076 on: November 10, 2015, 02:44:23 PM »
when do you want to return
There is 20k on AA 11/10 @10pm and the same 11/12
UA has 55k for Business with one stop 11/12 in the morning
Thanks so much
To return on the 17th
How many tax on aa ?
And is there a way to avoid the 75 dollar fee?

Offline manymiles

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Re: Need help finding a ticket? Post here! Award ticket edition (Master thread)
« Reply #7077 on: November 10, 2015, 03:16:52 PM »
to israel from nyc
jan 13
to jan 21
lowest mileage
maybe business
or lowest value miles

Offline Dawie

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Re: Need help finding a ticket? Post here! Award ticket edition (Master thread)
« Reply #7078 on: November 10, 2015, 05:33:09 PM »
Thanks so much
To return on the 17th
How many tax on aa ?
And is there a way to avoid the 75 dollar fee?
the mileSAAver not avail on 11/11
you can still go tonight or thurs
11/17 is available going back

Offline Dawie

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Re: Need help finding a ticket? Post here! Award ticket edition (Master thread)
« Reply #7079 on: November 10, 2015, 05:34:37 PM »
Thanks so much
To return on the 17th
How many tax on aa ?
And is there a way to avoid the 75 dollar fee?
and as far as the fee goes... look around in the forum there are ideas