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 1839566 times)

Offline PlatinumGuy

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I dont see that flight available on united
Just disappeared for me too
weird no i didnt add it i added it 10 seconds after i posted but i dont see it available for even one person
I pressed quote right when u posted, then went to search. It was within less than 10 seconds apparently
״וזה כלל גדול: שישנא אדם כל דבר שקר. וכל מה שיוסיף שנאה לדרכי השקר – יוסיף אהבה לתורה.״ - אורחות צדיקים

Offline myb821

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Just disappeared for me too
damn i sfo couldn't find anything

Offline myb821

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Really need to find something

Offline PlatinumGuy

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Really need to find something
Go through these one by one
״וזה כלל גדול: שישנא אדם כל דבר שקר. וכל מה שיוסיף שנאה לדרכי השקר – יוסיף אהבה לתורה.״ - אורחות צדיקים

Offline myb821

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just to update I called UA and they found a flight from jfk-fra on the 26th not my ideal date but it will work if i cant find anything better. The weird thing is that it didnt show this flight being available online.

Offline Daniel

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Is it possible to book a one-way from PHl-TLV using UA miles? If so, is there a way to search for availability online?

Offline PlatinumGuy

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Is it possible to book a one-way from PHl-TLV using UA miles? If so, is there a way to search for availability online?
Yes, and yes. United.com
״וזה כלל גדול: שישנא אדם כל דבר שקר. וכל מה שיוסיף שנאה לדרכי השקר – יוסיף אהבה לתורה.״ - אורחות צדיקים

Offline Daniel

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Yes, and yes. United.com

Everytime I do the search it only will show me flights with a stop in NYC. I keep on checking "non-stop only" but that doesn't help

Offline PlatinumGuy

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Everytime I do the search it only will show me flights with a stop in NYC. I keep on checking "non-stop only" but that doesn't help
That's probably because the US Airways flight is sold out (for miles) on your date.
״וזה כלל גדול: שישנא אדם כל דבר שקר. וכל מה שיוסיף שנאה לדרכי השקר – יוסיף אהבה לתורה.״ - אורחות צדיקים

Offline Daniel

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Is it possible to find availability for LHR-TLV (on ElAL) on AAs website? It keeps searching for BA flights. Is it even possible to book the route on ELAL or do they not allow it since BA flies that route?

Offline Devorah

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Is it possible to find availability for LHR-TLV (on ElAL) on AAs website? It keeps searching for BA flights. Is it even possible to book the route on ELAL or do they not allow it since BA flies that route?
AA won't show Elal availability on its website.  You can search on qantas.com or call AA to ck availability.

Offline myb821

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Thanks. For the record, they now show direct NYC-TLV Availability (they used to not)
who does?

Offline Daniel

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When doing an award search- does anyone know how to stop United.com from searching for flights with connections. Checking the "non-stop" checkbox does not work. It keeps showing flights with connections AND non-stop.

Offline PlatinumGuy

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AA.com - What I mean is you can now search for NYC-TLV on ELAL using AA miles.
Seems like you can't search for LHR-TLV though.
Eh? That's news. What date did u find a seat available on?
״וזה כלל גדול: שישנא אדם כל דבר שקר. וכל מה שיוסיף שנאה לדרכי השקר – יוסיף אהבה לתורה.״ - אורחות צדיקים

Offline Daniel

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Eh? That's news. What date did u find a seat available on?

I think I was mistaken. Can you or can you not search NYC-TLV on AA.com (flying on ELAL)?

Offline PlatinumGuy

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I think I was mistaken. Can you or can you not search NYC-TLV on AA.com (flying on ELAL)?
You can search, but AA will never show an Elal flight.
״וזה כלל גדול: שישנא אדם כל דבר שקר. וכל מה שיוסיף שנאה לדרכי השקר – יוסיף אהבה לתורה.״ - אורחות צדיקים

Offline Daniel

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You can search, but AA will never show an Elal flight.

Thanks. Is there a post that describes the best way to search on Qantas? Or, is the only real way to do it over the phone with AA?

Offline PlatinumGuy

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Thanks. Is there a post that describes the best way to search on Qantas? Or, is the only real way to do it over the phone with AA?
There's only one way to search qantas. (Qantas.com & make an acct)...

Expertflyer.com and elal (for matmid seats) both will show elal availability. AA can't book First class, but if they show biz or coach it likely that AA can book it too.
״וזה כלל גדול: שישנא אדם כל דבר שקר. וכל מה שיוסיף שנאה לדרכי השקר – יוסיף אהבה לתורה.״ - אורחות צדיקים

Offline Daniel

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There's only one way to search qantas. (Qantas.com & make an acct)...
Expertflyer.com and elal (for matmid seats) both will show elal availability. AA can't book First class, but if they show biz or coach it likely that AA can book it too.

So what's the advantage of using Qantas instead of ELal's site?