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 1839103 times)

Offline Moishel

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Re: Need help finding a ticket? Post here! Award ticket edition (Master thread)
« Reply #7660 on: September 25, 2016, 01:42:27 PM »
Type: Two-way
Class: Any
Date: 10/13-10/26
Time: Any
Route: NYC (any)-MIA/FLL
Seats: 11
Alliance/Airline: Any
Points: MR (biz plat), UR (Sapphire, Ink), SPG, AA, BA, UA, TY, SW.

Thanks in advance!

Doesn't seem BA has any award availability, or anything on AA bookable with BA points.
Cheapest I found was booking through Chase UR website for around 21K round trip.

Offline Yossisgirl

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Re: Need help finding a ticket? Post here! Award ticket edition (Master thread)
« Reply #7661 on: September 25, 2016, 03:31:08 PM »
One way/Round trip: Round trip

Non-stop/Maximum stops/Any: we want to fly "someplace warm" with a stopover in Maui or Kauai (of at least a week) from WA state.

From: All airports from which you can depart: Seattle, Bellingham are the two Dan mentions in his post on Hawaii where I found this link to this forum

To: All airports which you can arrive at. For multiple destinations, just keep adding this line : We want a stopover in Maui or Kauai on our way to or from "someplace warm" as my husband states it....possible Cook islands, Fiji, NZ or Australia (or other places like that I don't know can be combined with a Hawaiian island stopover.

Departure dates: All possible dates that you can depart on. Please be as specific as possible.: We can depart anytime in December, January or Feb.  Dates are totally flexible for us (retired folks) but we want to go on this trip for at least 4 weeks duration with at least 1 week (or more) on stated Hawaiian islands.

Return airports: If different from 'To' line. Delete this line for One way tickets: return to Seattle or Bellingham

Return dates: Delete this line for One way tickets: anytime in Dec 2016, Jan or Feb 2017

Class: First/Business/Coach/Any: Coach (unless miles are close for a better class)

Seats: Total number of people traveling over the age of 2:  2 seniors

Alliance/Airline: What airline or alliance are you looking to fly with:  We have Alaska, BA, United and Chase Ultimate Rewards and AMEX points that can be used

Please add any other information you feel might be useful: Husband has never been to Hawaii so we want to go there but just as a stopover on the way to a further warm location such as those I mentioned above.  We are open to any other suggested locations other than those mentioned above to include with our Hawaii stopover as long as the weather in that location is 50 degrees at least in those months as an average.

Thanks so much for helpful advise to this senior lady who loves to travel but knows little about how to do stopovers on award tickets :)

Offline Ryan the Yid

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Re: Need help finding a ticket? Post here! Award ticket edition (Master thread)
« Reply #7662 on: September 26, 2016, 02:13:30 AM »
Type: Roud trip
Class: Any
Date: 10/13-10/24
Time: Any
Route: EWR to SYD or MEL AUstralia
Seats: 2
Alliance/Airline: Any
Points: MR (biz) 80k, UR (Sapphire, Ink) 160k, SPG, AA, BA, UA, TY, SW.



Offline high end hobo

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Re: Need help finding a ticket? Post here! Award ticket edition (Master thread)
« Reply #7663 on: September 26, 2016, 06:34:09 PM »
Just bumping this post
If anyone wants expert help with finding routings and availability,  how to maximize your miles, especially for premium cabins, and are willing to give me a miles/cash tip. Feel free to PM me
I have lots of references from satisfied DDFers

Offline chopapeih

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Re: Need help finding a ticket? Post here! Award ticket edition (Master thread)
« Reply #7664 on: September 27, 2016, 08:25:43 AM »
Hi,

Never booked anything with award miles nationally. I want to fly from NYC to LA either from 11/20-11/21 leaving NYC early in the morning or from 11/18 to 11/21. I have about 75K Amex points, any ideas where to transfer and where to book from? Is it even a good point value to redeem for this national flight? Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Offline David Smith

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Re: Need help finding a ticket? Post here! Award ticket edition (Master thread)
« Reply #7665 on: September 27, 2016, 08:50:09 AM »
Hi,

Never booked anything with award miles nationally. I want to fly from NYC to LA either from 11/20-11/21 leaving NYC early in the morning or from 11/18 to 11/21. I have about 75K Amex points, any ideas where to transfer and where to book from? Is it even a good point value to redeem for this national flight? Any help would be greatly appreciated.
Transfer 25k to Singapore, and book through them on united. I would value the MR points at 1.4 minimum, so I wouldn't book this unless the flights are over $363
Who do you think you are fooling? You think you are going to pull a quick one on your Creator? Good luck with that.
JTZ

Offline pashakym

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Re: Need help finding a ticket? Post here! Award ticket edition (Master thread)
« Reply #7666 on: September 27, 2016, 01:39:51 PM »
Looking for 4 biz tickets with AA miles to Europe. Frome anywhere in the US to anywhere in Europe anytime between June 10th and June 18th. Could be on separate flights (2+2). Please help.

P.S. I tried searching from ORD, JFK, DFW to AMS, HEL, FRA, LON and nothing...

Offline danzz72

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Re: Need help finding a ticket? Post here! Award ticket edition (Master thread)
« Reply #7667 on: September 27, 2016, 04:57:42 PM »
looking to book the cheapest award ticket from NYC to SXM for october 21-26 flexible on the dates +/- 1 day... i have MR/UR/AA/UA POINTS
thank you !!!

Offline stmark

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Re: Need help finding a ticket? Post here! Award ticket edition (Master thread)
« Reply #7668 on: September 27, 2016, 05:46:12 PM »
JFK-HNL Jan 19-Jan 26 2ppl in biz/first
MR, UR, UA, DL, SPG

Thanks

Offline pashakym

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Re: Need help finding a ticket? Post here! Award ticket edition (Master thread)
« Reply #7669 on: September 27, 2016, 08:17:42 PM »
JFK-HNL Jan 19-Jan 26 2ppl in biz/first
MR, UR, UA, DL, SPG

Thanks

No chance on those dates.

Offline motec bb

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Re: Need help finding a ticket? Post here! Award ticket edition (Master thread)
« Reply #7670 on: September 28, 2016, 08:17:54 AM »
Looking for TLV - LHR Oct 13 .
 How many Amex MR points are required?
(Economy)

Offline motec bb

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Re: Need help finding a ticket? Post here! Award ticket edition (Master thread)
« Reply #7671 on: September 28, 2016, 08:18:28 AM »
 .

Offline Emkay

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Re: Need help finding a ticket? Post here! Award ticket edition (Master thread)
« Reply #7672 on: September 28, 2016, 08:25:30 AM »
Looking for TLV - LHR Oct 13 .
 How many Amex MR points are required?
(Economy)
I believe 12.5 on BA.

Offline SJW

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Re: Need help finding a ticket? Post here! Award ticket edition (Master thread)
« Reply #7673 on: September 28, 2016, 02:30:15 PM »
Total reward newbie thinking about spending Select Reserve signup miles on a trip with the Mrs. in January 2018. How far in advance should I be looking for Delta Level 1 Reward flights, JFK->HNL roundtrip?

Thanks in advance,
SJW

Offline zbeyda

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Re: Need help finding a ticket? Post here! Award ticket edition (Master thread)
« Reply #7674 on: October 06, 2016, 04:37:15 PM »
One way/Round trip: Round
Non-stop/Maximum stops/Any: Any
From: NYC Area
To: LAS
Departure dates: 11/1 AM
Return dates: 11/2 PM
Class: Coach
Seats: 2
Alliance/Airline: Any/ Have plenty of AMEX points that I can use if is a better option than a paid ticket
Thank you

Offline Z56

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Re: Need help finding a ticket? Post here! Award ticket edition (Master thread)
« Reply #7675 on: October 07, 2016, 03:08:34 PM »
One way/Round trip: One way
Non-stop/Maximum stops/Any: perfer direct
From: NYC Area
To: TLV
Departure dates: 10/30-10/31
Return dates:
Class: coach or biz saver award
Seats: 1
Alliance/Airline: Perfer UA, have lots of UA, Amex and UR
“I have nothing in common with lazy people who blame others for their lack of success. Great things come from hard work

Offline Hjay

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Re: Need help finding a ticket? Post here! Award ticket edition (Master thread)
« Reply #7676 on: October 24, 2016, 05:12:58 PM »
One way
Non-stop/Maximum stops/Any
From: preferably venice or anywhere else in that area
To: tlv
Departure dates: oct. 31 nov. 1
Class: Any
Seats: 2
Alliance/Airline: i have avios & ur

I really don't know much about booking award tix & wtvr basics i do know didn't get me anywhere. This is time sensitive TIA
« Last Edit: October 24, 2016, 05:16:16 PM by Hjay »

Offline Emkay

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Re: Need help finding a ticket? Post here! Award ticket edition (Master thread)
« Reply #7677 on: October 24, 2016, 06:40:56 PM »


One way
Non-stop/Maximum stops/Any
From: preferably venice or anywhere else in that area
To: tlv
Departure dates: oct. 31 nov. 1
Class: Any
Seats: 2
Alliance/Airline: i have avios & ur

I really don't know much about booking award tix & wtvr basics i do know didn't get me anywhere. This is time sensitive TIA

It's more often than not more worth it to buy a revenue ticket to Europe over an award. That being said VCE is one of the most expensive places to fly in Europe to/from TLV.
Your cheapest option with miles is prob FB which depending on availability can be less than 10K OW. The current promo awards are for flights starting Nov 1st and VCE is included so that can be a good deal if available.
If tickets from MXP are significantly cheaper (and they usually are as that's one of the cheapest places to fly to/from) it may be worth it to take a 2hr train to there from VCE.

Offline Hjay

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Re: Need help finding a ticket? Post here! Award ticket edition (Master thread)
« Reply #7678 on: October 26, 2016, 03:04:10 AM »

It's more often than not more worth it to buy a revenue ticket to Europe over an award. That being said VCE is one of the most expensive places to fly in Europe to/from TLV.
Your cheapest option with miles is prob FB which depending on availability can be less than 10K OW. The current promo awards are for flights starting Nov 1st and VCE is included so that can be a good deal if available.
If tickets from MXP are significantly cheaper (and they usually are as that's one of the cheapest places to fly to/from) it may be worth it to take a 2hr train to there from VCE.
Thx I got sick instead

Offline Emkay

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Re: Need help finding a ticket? Post here! Award ticket edition (Master thread)
« Reply #7679 on: October 26, 2016, 04:57:37 AM »
Thx I got sick instead
Travel heals.