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 1838722 times)

Offline hvaces42

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Re: Need help finding a ticket? Post here! Award ticket edition (Master thread)
« Reply #8360 on: October 17, 2017, 05:13:46 PM »
Haha yes that would be helpful.

11/16

Thanks.
Only Business available which would make your itinerary all business.
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Offline Menachemfrombp

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Re: Need help finding a ticket? Post here! Award ticket edition (Master thread)
« Reply #8361 on: October 18, 2017, 12:34:24 AM »
hi

i need help finding the following, i would very much appreciate if anyone can help me, i only found reg availability not savor award,

Round trip
Non stop
From:  jfk/ewr
To:  TLV
Departure dates:10/29 - 10/30 - 11/1
Return dates:11/8 - 11/9
Class: Business
 Total number of people traveling, 2
Alliance/Airline: any direct flight

i Have
130k SPG
130K UR
90k Marriott
no status or united cc

thanks

Offline reuben

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Re: Need help finding a ticket? Post here! Award ticket edition (Master thread)
« Reply #8362 on: October 18, 2017, 04:49:33 PM »
Hi,
I tried finding business saver award flights for Hawaii but only finding regular non-saver, economy, mixed cabins. Have been looking at the airlines calendars with flexible calendars to find saver award but I'm out of ideas. Any help would be very appreciated!
Round trip
Up to one stop each way preferably
From: JFK, EWR, PHL
To: OGG, LIH
Departure dates: Flexible. Originally wanted around Dec 24 but due to holidays, can't find any availability at all so looking for Dec-Mid Jan
Return dates: Looking to spend about 10 days including flying time. Less than two weeks.
Business class saver award
2 seats
Alliance/Airline: Any. Have mostly chase but would consider other options. Would really like to spend as little as possible-for example, going Singapore Krisflyer rather than Delta, otherwise it's really high in points
Thank you!

Offline basketnarb

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Re: Need help finding a ticket? Post here! Award ticket edition (Master thread)
« Reply #8363 on: October 18, 2017, 05:00:11 PM »
Only Business available which would make your itinerary all business.
Oh well. Thanks a lot for the help.

Offline rzmala1919

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Re: Need help finding a ticket? Post here! Award ticket edition (Master thread)
« Reply #8364 on: October 18, 2017, 08:26:10 PM »
Looking for 2 business class award tickets using chase points
Lax-tlv April 29 - may 23
Don’t mind stopping in Europe for a couple hours or 2-3 days.
We have about 300,000 miles
Happy to compensate for help

Offline yelped

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Re: Need help finding a ticket? Post here! Award ticket edition (Master thread)
« Reply #8365 on: October 18, 2017, 10:39:17 PM »
Looking for 2 business class award tickets using chase points
Lax-tlv April 29 - may 23
Don’t mind stopping in Europe for a couple hours or 2-3 days.
We have about 300,000 miles
Happy to compensate for help
Keep your eyes open on Star Alliance partners. There's availability right now on business for the return flight with Swiss. Is your departure date set in stone?

Offline exasahi

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Re: Need help finding a ticket? Post here! Award ticket edition (Master thread)
« Reply #8366 on: October 19, 2017, 11:12:06 AM »
One way/Round trip: OW
Non-stop/Maximum stops/Any: max 1
From: SYD
To: PHX
Departure dates: Apr 2/3/4


Class: Business or better
Seats: 2
Alliance/Airline: no preference

Delta: 175k
AA: 175k
United: 175k

Can anyone recommend a better price for these tickets?  I'm having a heck of a time trying figure out a cheaper option.

Thanks!

Offline TobLef

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Re: Need help finding a ticket? Post here! Award ticket edition (Master thread)
« Reply #8367 on: October 20, 2017, 11:37:12 AM »
Round trip: multi city - MIA - FCO - TLV - MIA
As few stops as possible:
From: MIA or FLL
To: TLV - with a stop in FCO
Departure dates: MIA/FLL - FCO 2/4 or 2/5
FCO - TLV  2/8
TLV - MIA 2/18 or 2/20
Class: Business  or Coach
Seats: 2
Have a companion pass on BA (but fees/fuel seem very high)
Have UR (200,000+), AA points (300,000+);
Afraid of Alitalia bankruptcy and won't go thru Turkey or Russia
Thanks!

Offline shloimis

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Re: Need help finding a ticket? Post here! Award ticket edition (Master thread)
« Reply #8368 on: October 22, 2017, 02:38:55 PM »
Round trip:
Non-stop/
From: Newark (EWR)
To: Toronto all airports
Departure dates:nov 3rd at around 11 AM

Return dates: Nov 5th at around noon
Class: Coach
Seats:  2
 I have plenty of Avios (200 K+) but ba doesn't support this route, anything i can do with the miles for this flight?

Offline Tiger02

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Re: Need help finding a ticket? Post here! Award ticket edition (Master thread)
« Reply #8369 on: October 22, 2017, 06:12:06 PM »
Hoping someone can help.

I'll admit I am getting overwhelmed with the award/points process.

Round trip
Stops: max 2, prefer 1
From: Mia, Mco
To: Tlv
Departure dates: 12/6 or 12/7
Return dates: 12/16-12/18
Class: coach
Seats: 6
Alliance/Airline: almost any (not turkish)

Have amex business platinum points

Thank you so much for your help!

Offline shemaya770

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Re: Need help finding a ticket? Post here! Award ticket edition (Master thread)
« Reply #8370 on: October 23, 2017, 09:44:16 PM »
I am looking for two tickets round trip to Israel. My dates are flexible, but I would like to go after Chanukah and I would need to get back before January 10th. I am looking to be in Israel for at least a week.
I have Chase miles, around 400,000, what would be the best way to get a reward ticket to Israel?
Should I purchase it direct through Chase Reserve, or would it be better to transfer to an award partner?

Offline hvaces42

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Re: Need help finding a ticket? Post here! Award ticket edition (Master thread)
« Reply #8371 on: October 23, 2017, 09:45:51 PM »
Class of service? Number of stops?
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Offline shemaya770

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Re: Need help finding a ticket? Post here! Award ticket edition (Master thread)
« Reply #8372 on: October 23, 2017, 10:43:08 PM »
Class of service? Number of stops?
I am looking at either economy or business. I am coming from pi Pittsburgh, so preferable no more than two stops.

Offline Israel Traveler

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Re: Need help finding a ticket? Post here! Award ticket edition (Master thread)
« Reply #8373 on: October 24, 2017, 05:30:26 PM »
Q: Can someone please help me find a ticket?
A: No! Find it yourself.  ;D ;D Just kidding. Please copy the following lines, and fill it out in your post.

One way/Round trip:    RT
Non-stop/Maximum stops/Any:   nonstop/1 stop
From: All airports from which you can depart          SF Bay Area
To: All airports which you can arrive at. For multiple destinations, just keep adding this line    Tel Aviv, Israel
Departure dates: All possible dates that you can depart on. Please be as specific as possible.   around 11.11, return around 11.27
Class: First/Business/Coach/Any    Any
Seats: Total number of people traveling over the age of 2   1 adult
Alliance/Airline: What airline or alliance are you looking to fly with         don't care.  United.

Offline shemaya770

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Re: Need help finding a ticket? Post here! Award ticket edition (Master thread)
« Reply #8374 on: October 24, 2017, 05:57:31 PM »
Q: Can someone please help me find a ticket?
A: No! Find it yourself.  ;D ;D Just kidding. Please copy the following lines, and fill it out in your post.

One way/Round trip:    RT
Non-stop/Maximum stops/Any:   nonstop/1 stop
From: All airports from which you can depart          SF Bay Area
To: All airports which you can arrive at. For multiple destinations, just keep adding this line    Tel Aviv, Israel
Departure dates: All possible dates that you can depart on. Please be as specific as possible.   around 11.11, return around 11.27
Class: First/Business/Coach/Any    Any
Seats: Total number of people traveling over the age of 2   1 adult
Alliance/Airline: What airline or alliance are you looking to fly with         don't care.  United.
One way/Round trip:    RT
Non-stop/Maximum stops/Any:   nonstop/1 stop
From: Pittsburgh
To:   Tel Aviv, Israel
Departure dates: Any time after 12/20, for around 8 days, O need to be back before 1/11/18. Possible date example 12/30/17 - 1/8/18
Class:  Any
Seats:  2 adult
Alliance/Airline: I don't care, but I have 400,000 chase miles.

Offline yhaller14

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Re: Need help finding a ticket? Post here! Award ticket edition (Master thread)
« Reply #8375 on: October 24, 2017, 09:33:40 PM »
Round trip:
Non-stop/
From: Newark (EWR)
To: Toronto all airports
Departure dates:nov 3rd at around 11 AM

Return dates: Nov 5th at around noon
Class: Coach
Seats:  2
 I have plenty of Avios (200 K+) but ba doesn't support this route, anything i can do with the miles for this flight?
They do look for award travel
"In the end we only regret the chances we didn't take"

Offline newcomer

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Re: Need help finding a ticket? Post here! Award ticket edition (Master thread)
« Reply #8376 on: October 26, 2017, 09:34:26 AM »
Round trip:
Non-stop/
From: Newark (EWR)
To: Toronto all airports
Departure dates:nov 3rd at around 11 AM

Return dates: Nov 5th at around noon
Class: Coach
Seats:  2
 I have plenty of Avios (200 K+) but ba doesn't support this route, anything i can do with the miles for this flight?

You have to search differently.  Click on executive club and look for spend miles and look for flights thru that.  It will show you the partner airlines routes.

Offline ME17

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Re: Need help finding a ticket? Post here! Award ticket edition (Master thread)
« Reply #8377 on: October 27, 2017, 12:44:30 PM »
One way: TLV-ORD Nov. 26
Non-stop/Maximum stops/Any: any but prefer no more than 2 as it is important to be back by Sunday evening

Departure dates: My issue is that I have a paid ticket that I cannot use fully. I have two options- pay change fee for the return ticket or book another one way award ticket home. Outbound is 11/15 Need to be back by 11/27 so I am very limited on the date- needs to be 11/26. Change fee is $275 plus change in fare so I would prefer if possible to try an award route.


Class: coach
Seats: 2
Alliance/Airline: Any- I only have CSR points

any help is appreciated- I have never booked an award ticket and don't know where to start and am overwhelmed.

Offline mmgfarb

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Re: Need help finding a ticket? Post here! Award ticket edition (Master thread)
« Reply #8378 on: October 27, 2017, 01:09:24 PM »
One way: TLV-ORD Nov. 26
Non-stop/Maximum stops/Any: any but prefer no more than 2 as it is important to be back by Sunday evening

Departure dates: My issue is that I have a paid ticket that I cannot use fully. I have two options- pay change fee for the return ticket or book another one way award ticket home. Outbound is 11/15 Need to be back by 11/27 so I am very limited on the date- needs to be 11/26. Change fee is $275 plus change in fare so I would prefer if possible to try an award route.


Class: coach
Seats: 2
Alliance/Airline: Any- I only have CSR points

any help is appreciated- I have never booked an award ticket and don't know where to start and am overwhelmed.
How much is the change in fare?
"JS [is] a fetid cesspool of unvarnished linguistic manure, with lots of useless drivel and post-padding." -Moishebatchy

Offline ME17

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Re: Need help finding a ticket? Post here! Award ticket edition (Master thread)
« Reply #8379 on: October 28, 2017, 10:07:25 PM »
How much is the change in fare?
sorry for the delay- between $500-$600. Plus the change fee of $275