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 1838947 times)

Offline chanymo

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I'm looking for a mileage ticket from London to Tel Aviv in August.  British Airways is a lot of cash. Any ideas?

Offline Saveabuck

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  • Location: Rockland County
One way/Round-trip: Round-trip
Non-stop/Maximum stops/Any: 1 stop or less
From: NYC
To: BUD
Departure dates: Jul 4 : Jul 7
Class: Coach/Premium
Seats: 3
Alliance/Airline: Star, United, Qantas

I have united, chase sapphire reserve points, Amex Platinum

Offline waterpri

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One way/Round-trip: Round trip
Non-stop/Maximum stops/Any: Non-stop
From: NYC area
To: Las Vegas
Departure dates:August 14
Return dates: August 18
Class: Business
Seats:2
Alliance/Airline: Any

Thanks for the help!!

Offline KJ

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One way/Round-trip: Round Trip
Non-stop/Maximum stops/Any: Non-Stop
From: All airports from which you can depart Any NY/NJ area
To: All airports which you can arrive at. For multiple destinations, just keep adding this line Israel
Departure dates: All possible dates that you can depart on. Please be as specific as possible. Aug 9-16
Return airports:If different from 'To' line. Delete this line for One-way tickets Any NY/NJ
Return dates: Delete this line for One-way tickets Aug 16-23
Class: First/Business/Coach/Any Any
Seats: Total number of people traveling over the age of 2 2
Alliance/Airline: What airline or alliance are you looking to fly with- We have Capital One Venturex points/Chase Sapphire/ Amex. Any airline

Offline chanymo

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I'm trying to book on Turkish air.i don't have enough miles to book but I don't want to transfer miles till I know there is availability. Online its offering me a flight but I can't go further without the miles, on the phone they tell me that there's no availability. Does anyone know if it shows you a flight,does it mean it's on available?

Offline DealJew

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I'm looking for a mileage ticket from Zurich to TLV on or around august 23. I have united miles and British airways Avios (i also have Amex points that i can transfer). I'm willing to do a stopover if its reasonable.
PM me for airline compensation help. Your case is not lost!

Offline world2see

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  • Location: israel
One way/Round-trip: Round-trip
Non-stop/Maximum stops/Any: Direct only
From: NYC
To: TLV
Departure dates:Aug 16-31st
Class:Premium/Business
Seats: 8
Alliance/Airline: Star, United

I have united, chase sapphire reserve points, Amex Platinum ,Marriott.
Happy to pay for this service if someone can help maximize my points. thank you!

Offline shmooz

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One way/Round-trip: Round-trip
Non-stop/Maximum stops/Any: Direct only
From: NYC
To: TLV
Departure dates:Aug 16-31st
Class:Premium/Business
Seats: 8
Alliance/Airline: Star, United

I have united, chase sapphire reserve points, Amex Platinum ,Marriott.
Happy to pay for this service if someone can help maximize my points. thank you!

You're not likely to find any saver awards during peak season on United, and definitely not 8. You'll need to expand your possibilities like stopovers, E+ seats etc

Offline flyingBlue

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One Way
Prefer NON STOP But Would Do 1 Stop
From: BRU or AMS
To: NYC
Departure dates: July 19
Class: Eco
Seats: 3
Alliance/Airline: Any

Offline world2see

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You're not likely to find any saver awards during peak season on United, and definitely not 8. You'll need to expand your possibilities like stopovers, E+ seats etc
Not married to United:)

Offline Moshe_N

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What's the best way to get to India from America?
I have a bunch of Chase and Avios points.

...or any other ideas?
We have a family of 4 that need roundtrip tickets for August

Offline 1avigrun

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Trying to fly j or f in emirates jfk to dxb august 8 one way no reward that day if I book in economy what are my chances to be able to upgrade

Offline grodnoking

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From: NYC
To: TLV
Departure dates: August 22
Return dates: August 24-25
Class: Economy
Seats: 1

Cap1 Points
-----

From: NYC
To: TLV
Departure dates: August 16-17
Class: business/economy
Seats: 1
Cap1 preferred, otherwise ur or mr
I'm not who you think I am.

Offline belle

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One way/Round-trip: multi leg
Non-stop/Maximum stops/Any: nonstop
From: nyc area
To: mxp or vce or paris
Departure dates: July 28 +- 1 day
Return airports: from nce or nearby, to nyc
Return dates: august 18 +- 3 days
Class: Any
Seats: 1
Alliance/Airline: Delta, followed by any other

Offline killamatic12

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  • Location: New York City
trying to get from TLV-NYC july 27-28. found an award there for 46k but the return is around 150k. Any suggestions will be greatly appreciated! have UR points TIA

Offline Moshke

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One way/Round-trip: Round trip
Non-stop/Maximum stops/Any: Non-stop
From: All airports from which you can depart YUL
To: ZRH or MUC
Departure dates: August 14
Return dates: August 21
Class:Any
Seats: 2
Alliance/Airline: Swiss, Lufthansa Air Canada

I have a lot of Aeroplan with their new system the amount of points is crazy high

Offline nothingeagle

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  • Location: miami
One way/
Non-stop/
From:Lax, LGB
To: JFK, LGA, EWR
Departure dates: Aug 12th


Class: Business
Seats: 1
Alliance/Airline: American airlines has good times for me.

first time trying this, many thanks ahead of time

Offline Abebee

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  • Location: New York
  • Programs: National EE
One way/Round trip: Roundtrip
Non-stop/Maximum stops/Any: 1
From: NYC
To: NCL
Departure dates: 8/9
Return dates: 8/11
Class: Coach
Seats: 2
Alliance/Airline: Any that I can transfer from Chase/Amex etc.

I have a wedding in Gatehead on the 10th, I am looking to fly in and out as quick as possible. There are no direct flight from NYC to NCL -  after clicking around the best i was able to find was Aer Lingus 20k + $107 points NYC-DUB and then DUB-NCL  + $50 with Ryanair. The way back I am having issues finding availably - I am ok stopping anywhere, doesn't have to be DUB. Any help is appreciated.

Thank you,

Offline mikel1

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I am seeing a lot of TAP air portugal flights being offered here in business, anyone flew with them and how as their experience?

Offline pghtown

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EXCURSIONIST PERK on United: I am trying to book flight to Israel from US on United, with an outbound stop in Europe (e.g. Paris). I am trying to get an Excursionist Perk on United for the Europe to TLV leg of the trip, but nothing comes up on United's website when I use the MultiCity search. Does United still offer this perk? Any suggestions as to what I should do?