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 1838871 times)

Offline Buruch

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One Way
Max stops: 2
From: TLV
To: lax or hou or anywhere a short southwest flight from there
Departure dates: July 23 or within a few days afterwards
Class: Business
Seats: 3
Points: all except citi

Offline metsgiantsfan

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british website showing no avail even though aa has super saver awards avail..is british site still not displaying aa flights? thought this was resolved...also if the flight is 15k on aa what would it be using avios points?  ny to cun 
thanks

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Isn’t ua supposed to show on sq ? Doesn’t let me input Ewr lax

Offline helpyouamdme

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british website showing no avail even though aa has super saver awards avail..is british site still not displaying aa flights? thought this was resolved...also if the flight is 15k on aa what would it be using avios points?  ny to cun 
thanks
BA always had a problem showing AA flights, you have to call BA to book and tell them that it's not showing up on the website so they will waive you the agent booking fee and approximately it will be around 7.5K miles

Offline hvaces42

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Can someone with Chase United CC with expanded award availability help me? PM for details

Gonna cross post in *A thread as well.

Update: Getting help already. Thanks to all who responded.
Thank you @as2 @davidrotts63 @yelped
« Last Edit: May 22, 2018, 06:31:03 PM by hvaces42 »
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Offline izrib2

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BA always had a problem showing AA flights, you have to call BA to book and tell them that it's not showing up on the website so they will waive you the agent booking fee and approximately it will be around 7.5K miles
Looking for ewr-clt 6-3 to 6-4 on BA for AA saver flight. BA has a message problem with the system, tried calling and they say their system is also down. Has anyone had any luck
Thanks

Offline Abey

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Ua Lax Nyc June 3 looking to fly at least part of the way in j
Researched many routes, anyone know any routes that have good availability?

Offline ygift

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can i still use avios for a american domestic flight from nyc to lax? has that partnership ended? if yes does anyone have a way of using avios for a domestic flight?

Offline Abey

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Is it possible to change a ua ticket booked with sq and m&m for same day with ua ? Saver j is available

Offline BCL

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One way/Round-trip:OW
Non-stop/Maximum stops/Any:Any
From: TLV
To: YEG
Departure dates: July 29 - Aug 6
Class: Any
Seats: 6
Alliance/Airline: I have 153k SPG and 81k UR

Offline sam123

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NYC to TLV for Y"K/Sukkes
Sep 13/16 - Oct 3-4
Max 1 stop
With Amex Membership points

(Is there any updated post like that? https://www.dansdeals.com/points-travel/milespoints/the-ultimate-israel-mileage-award-chart)

Offline sruliL

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One way/Round-trip: Round-trip
Non-stop/Maximum stops/Any: Outbound 1 stop, Return nonstop
From: EWR
To: LAX
Departure dates: July 8, 2018
Return airports: EWR
Return dates: July 12, 2018
Class: Business
Seats: 1
Alliance/Airline: Any
I have United MPE. Points transfer from MR or SPG.
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Offline Ulitkany

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Guys, please help!
Will be traveling with 9 months old from JFK to MSQ by myself and want to make our trip least stressful.
Looking for a business class one way flight with one short connection anytime Btw June 18th and July 4th. I have Chase UR, Amex MR, SPG, United & AA points.

1. What are the best programs to book Austrian airlines flights? United has flight on June 18th and 19th for 70K points + $120. Are there better redemptions with other partners?

2. What is the minimum international layover allowed by Finair? I have a lot of AA points, and was considering AY6 and + AY 375 but they are only 55 min apart and AA site doesn’t pair these two flighta together in one itinerary.
Please help a new mom who doesn’t have a lot of time to do research on her own. 🤪


Offline theyankel

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Guys, please help!
Will be traveling with 9 months old from JFK to MSQ by myself and want to make our trip least stressful.
Looking for a business class one way flight with one short connection anytime Btw June 18th and July 4th. I have Chase UR, Amex MR, SPG, United & AA points.

1. What are the best programs to book Austrian airlines flights? United has flight on June 18th and 19th for 70K points + $120. Are there better redemptions with other partners?

2. What is the minimum international layover allowed by Finair? I have a lot of AA points, and was considering AY6 and + AY 375 but they are only 55 min apart and AA site doesn’t pair these two flighta together in one itinerary.
Please help a new mom who doesn’t have a lot of time to do research on her own. 🤪
put the 2 flights on finair on hold yourself and call aa to combine into one res

Offline theyankel

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One way/Round-trip: one way - i see availability on return which is why i need help for one way out
Non-stop/Maximum stops/Any: 1
From: nyc
To: TLV
Departure dates: 6/6 or 6/7

Class: First/Business/
Seats: 2
Alliance/Airline: i can likely fly with any alliance/airline. lots of aa, lots of dl, sq, m&m i also have MR UR and TY so i can transfer to almost all airlines

i'd obviously rather a real j class from europe if i need to make stop but would consider y if the long haul is economical. just not seeming to find decent availability across the pond.

its next week and was wondering why availability is so scarce. cant even find to europe...
« Last Edit: May 30, 2018, 08:18:23 PM by theyankel »

Offline Ulitkany

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put the 2 flights on finair on hold yourself and call aa to combine into one res
Thank you. Will keep it in mind. The AY6 availability  I saw yesterday is no longer listed :(.
Don’t see any direct Finair flights from JFK to FIN for any days btw June 18th and July 10th 😢😢😢
So tired of searching 🤦🏼‍♀️

Offline theyankel

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Thank you. Will keep it in mind. The AY6 availability  I saw yesterday is no longer listed :(.
Don’t see any direct Finair flights from JFK to FIN for any days btw June 18th and July 10th 😢😢😢
So tired of searching 🤦🏼‍♀️
aa generally lets you hold award tickets for 5 days. no cc needed. if you find space, put it on hold and then cancel later or let it cancel itself

Offline hvaces42

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Thank you. Will keep it in mind. The AY6 availability  I saw yesterday is no longer listed :(.
Don’t see any direct Finair flights from JFK to FIN for any days btw June 18th and July 10th 😢😢😢
So tired of searching 🤦🏼‍♀️
Lesson learned always hold award. No need to book.
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Offline hvaces42

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One way/Round-trip: one way
Non-stop/Maximum stops/Any: 1
From: nyc
To: TLV
Departure dates: 6/6 or 6/7

Class: First/Business/
Seats: 2
Alliance/Airline: i can likely fly with any alliance/airline. lots of aa, lots of dl, sq, m&m i also have MR UR and TY so i can transfer to almost all airlines

i'd obviously rather a real j class from europe if i need to make stop but would consider y if the long haul is economical. just not seeming to find decent availability across the pond.

its next week and was wondering why availability is so scarce. cant even find to europe...
Revenue seems to be your only option. $2362 with LOT is cheapest. There is nothing available to the Continent in premium class. M&M has 2 seats JFK - FRA in J. Didnt check separate connection to TLV
« Last Edit: May 30, 2018, 08:11:43 PM by hvaces42 »
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Offline theyankel

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Revenue seems to be your only option. $2362 with LOT is cheapest. There is nothing available to the Continent in premium class. M&M has 2 seats JFK - FRA in J. Didnt check separate connection to TLV
thank you
m&m is $500 per seat in charges and fees and i didnt see two seats jfk-fra. did i miss that? what day?
i could then connect in coach if nec. would you know if i book the first leg in business and then want to add the second leg in coach by calling, they can add?