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 1839217 times)

Offline Ask5599

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  • Location: Nj
One way/Round trip: round trip
Non-stop/Maximum stops/Any: any
From: NYC
To: Tel Aviv
Departure dates: 6/7 or 6/8
Return airports: NYC
Return dates: 6/11 or 6/12
Class: Any (preferred business)
Seats: 1
Alliance/Airline: any

Offline JL35

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  • Location: New York
$100 to anyone who can  help me find a ticket before end of day Monday (see post above for details)

Offline hvaces42

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$100 to anyone who can  help me find a ticket before end of day Monday (see post above for details)
Plenty of availability on any choice of airlines with your points/miles.
FB has wide open availability with AF for PE (50k pp) or J (62.5k pp) probably gonna cost you ~$1k in fees and YQ
You can use your AA routed through LHR with AA metal for 57.5k in J on the 77W OW if you can find another 15k AA to cover 2 seats. There is availability CDG-LHR-JFK during the first week you are looking at. 
You can use UR for United for JFK-DUB-CDG for 57.5k in (angle flat?)J or for 70k for JFK-BRU-CDG in real J.

These are just samples.
Fair warning - Any PMs sent in response to forum posts are fair game for ridicule in public.

Offline mdb629

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I need help booking from LHR to TLV for Sukkos. I have 300K UR. Booking through Chase will cost be about 60K per ticket. Is there a better way to do this by switching to a mileage partner? Thanks.

Offline eli1571

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I need help booking from LHR to TLV for Sukkos. I have 300K UR. Booking through Chase will cost be about 60K per ticket. Is there a better way to do this by switching to a mileage partner? Thanks.
Only direct airline with mileage is BA.

Offline mdb629

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  • Location: Baltimore
Only direct airline with mileage is BA.
There aren't any direct flight showing up on BA.com to book. On chase, there are 2!

Offline eli1571

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There aren't any direct flight showing up on BA.com to book. On chase, there are 2!
Which airline is chase showing ?

Offline eli1571

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There aren't any direct flight showing up on BA.com to book. On chase, there are 2!
You can also check out lcc's, easyjet, monarch, certain times there's arkia, and Ryanair to ovda.

Offline mdb629

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Which airline is chase showing ?
Chase is showing 2 direct with El-AL and 2 direct with BA. Of course, there are a number of stopover flights available. On BA's site, they aren't showing those 2 direct flights when trying to book with Avios.

Offline mdb629

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You can also check out lcc's, easyjet, monarch, certain times there's arkia, and Ryanair to ovda.
Thanks! Are those bookable on Chase? Is it from LHR or will I have to transfer airports?

Offline eli1571

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Thanks! Are those bookable on Chase? Is it from LHR or will I have to transfer airports?
Don't know if they can be booked on chase.
They're not from lhr, IIRC from gtw

Offline ponsey

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  • Location: Flatbush
Round trip:
Non-stop:
From: Mia, FLL
To: Either CUN, AUA, SJU
Departure dates: Any weekend in end of July / August - Thursday through Sundau / Monday
Return airports: Mia, FLL
Class: Coach
Seats: 2 Seats
Alliance/Airline: Have SPG and Ultimate Rewards Points

Offline chayie

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I am trying to book an award flight on United with an open jaw - IAD-TLV round trip in August, but I want to stop in Switzerland (ZRH) for 3 days.
United is telling me that a 3 day stopover is too much for an open jaw.
Should I try a different agent, or is that true? I have never done an open jaw before.

Thanks for any help anyone can offer.

Offline fa243

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  • Location: EST
One way/Round trip: RT
Non-stop/Maximum stops/Any: up to 1. Departing stop up to a 3 hr in any European city.
For return flight prefer OVN stopover in GVA or ZRH (leaving TLV on 7/3/2017,  departing GVA/ZRH afternoon of 7/4/2017)

From: NYC
To: TLV
Departure dates: Jul 3, 2017
Return airports: TLV
Return dates: Jul 9-10,2017
Class: Lowest fare
Seats: 4, But looking for 2 or more tickets.
Alliance/Airline: Any European or US or CAN or ElAl that transfers from the following, CSP-UR: 61,062 points, AMX/PRG-MR:52,383, SPG:28,268

Have CSP, Amex PRG, and Amex SPG

Thank you!
Willing to paypal $100 for successful find.
Note: I've found from NY to GVA but nothing connecting to TLV only if I do a paid ticket separately which I am hoping to avoid.

Offline Jack out of the box

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  • Location: ארצינו הקדושה
  • Programs: Chase UR, BA Avios, AAdvantage, UA Mileage Plus, SPG
One way/Round trip: RT (One way may help. I've been having more trouble finding NYC-TLV.)
Non-stop/Maximum stops/Any: No limit
From: TLV
To: NYC (anywhere from Boston to Washington, DC if I have to)
Departure dates: June 18-22 (must arrive in NYC by 22nd afternoon)
Return airports: SAME
Return dates: June 25-29
Class: Coach
Seats: 1
Alliance/Airline: OneWorld (AA or BA points) not on RJ or expensive BA flights.

Please only Saver awards. On the going I've seen availability on AY over HEL and either MAN or CDG. On the return I've haven't found anything. I'm trying to avoid paying the $75 late booking fee (or at least to not have to pay twice).

Offline BCL

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This is what I have now.
Depart New York, NY to Tel Aviv, Israel
Sunday, July 16, 2017 to Tuesday, July 18, 2017


 120 American Airlines   9:05 PM JFK - 10:40 AM CDG  Arrives July 17 7h 35m   757   Economy   

Stop: change airports in Paris, France (CDG)

 797 Finnair   8:05 PM HEL Departs July 17 - 12:30 AM TLV Arrives July 18 4h 25m   320   Economy   

I see AY 880 CDG-HEL 12:20-16:15 to connect the 2, but it is only available on BA.com in Y for 20k pp.
Should I take it (cancellation is 42 EUR pp, I think) or hope something opens.


On the return:
7/23 TLV-MAD 17:40-22:05 J on IB
7/24  MAD-JFK 10:55-13:20 Economy AAnytime so it is not combinable. So costs 42.5k+65k

I could go 7/24 MAD-LHR-JFK on milesaver, but it is another $234 pp because it is BA.

Any thoughts?

Offline tammytee

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  • Location: Brooklyn
One way
Non-stop/Maximum stops/Any: any stops
From: All airports from which you can depart:  JFK or Newark
To: Saigon (SGN) or Hanoi (HAN) Vietnam
Departure dates: 08.06.17 or 08.07.17
Class: Business/Coach
Seats: 1
Alliance/Airline: American Airline points 

AA currently has a one way business class ticket for 70k or coach 37.5k miles. Would appreciate any findings. Is this a fair price or can a better ticket be found?

Offline sim

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Looking for Biz or first class From NYC-BKK
2 people Aug-2 -17

Thank you
Can possibly go from sfo or sea

Offline Wizard

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  • Location: New York
One way/Round trip: round trip with open return date if that's possible
Non-stop/Maximum stops/Any: Any
From: JFK, LGA, EWR
To: TLV
Departure: 10/17/17 or 10/18/17
Return dates: Don't know yet. Sometime in March 2018
Class: Business/Coach (preferably business)
Seats: 1 or 2
Alliance/Airline: Any safe comfortable and reliable airline.

Thank you!!
If you are trying to get my attention/assistance and I'm not responding, please feel free to PM me. :)

Offline Scmcodes

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One way/Round trip: one way
Non-stop/Maximum stops/Any: max 2
From: TLV
To: NYC preferably ewr
Departure dates: July 20 only (and must get in b4 10am Friday the 21st)
Return airports
Return dates:
Class: business
Seats: 1
Alliance/Airline: star alliance ua/ur

Please only Saver awards. looking to spend 80k I saw availability on the 20th for 80kUA via VIE 1hr stop but when I tried booking online didn't go through called cs and they saw the flight he tried booking it didn't go through so he called Austrian but they said no longer available also called Singapore and aeroplan no avail