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 1838679 times)

Offline yo

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how do i get to lake tahoe from newark is there any airports close by with a southwest or aa ticket auguts 5th-9

Offline skyguy918

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how do i get to lake tahoe from newark is there any airports close by with a southwest or aa ticket auguts 5th-9

Search EWR-RNO (Reno/Tahoe Airport). That's the closest airport. Both Southwest and American fly there, but not non-stop from EWR (no one has non-stop).

ETA: American only has availability at the AAnytime level, which is 50k/ RT ticket and not worth using points on. Southwest is showing tickets for your dates with the cheapest being a little under 30k/ RT ticket.
« Last Edit: July 22, 2012, 06:54:40 PM by skyguy918 »

Offline ajs625

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Looking to get a one way award ticket and wanted to know if this itinerary is possible. NYC-HKG w/ a stop off in Sydney at no extra charge for the stop.

Offline Drago

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If El Al shows award availability on their site, does that translate into AA having it available?

Offline Drago

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I have an AA reservation booked for TLV to BKK leaving August 6. Due to the bad stopover, I'm interested in switching it to either August 5, or doing a diff initiatory for the same day. Qantas isn't showing anything. Any advice?

Offline Marco Polo

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I am looking to get tickets to Morocco for Pesach. I have 100k BA miles and looking to get the best possible seats without having to spend too much in additional fees and surcharges. I do not care to fly on BA, anything in the alliance should be fine. Any help on this will be greatly appreciated.
Thanks in advance!

p.s. will be happy to give some compensation to someone who can make this happen.


Round trip:
Non-stop/Maximum stops/Any:Any
From: LGA,EWR,JFK
To: CMN
Departure dates: 3/21,23,24/12  (leaving on 3/23 as long as it is after shabbat)
Return airports: LGA,EWR,JFK
Return dates: 4/3,4,5/12
Class: First/Business/Coach/Any
Seats: 2
Alliance/Airline: British Airways
Quaerite et Invenietis.

Offline AJK

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P.S. How much? :P
2015: 116K bkd | 1.6M brnd | F: OZ,NH,AA,EK | J: UA,CA,TK,DL,TN,AF,VA | LIH,NRT,ROR,PEK,CNS,BOB,MEL,TLV & Pacific Hopper

Offline yehuda S

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Round trip from NYC to HKG
December 23 - 30

Direct or with stops

I have United Miles so any Star Alliance member I guess.

Any help is appreciated
Work is what you do between vacations.

Offline smart brit

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I am looking to get tickets to Morocco for Pesach. I have 100k BA miles and looking to get the best possible seats without having to spend too much in additional fees and surcharges. I do not care to fly on BA, anything in the alliance should be fine. Any help on this will be greatly appreciated.
Thanks in advance!

p.s. will be happy to give some compensation to someone who can make this happen.


Round trip:
Non-stop/Maximum stops/Any:Any
From: LGA,EWR,JFK
To: CMN
Departure dates: 3/21,23,24/12  (leaving on 3/23 as long as it is after shabbat)
Return airports: LGA,EWR,JFK
Return dates: 4/3,4,5/12
Class: First/Business/Coach/Any
Seats: 2
Alliance/Airline: British Airways
First open an IBERIA account so after having it for 3 months u will be able to transfer your ba miles into iberia thus saving yourself some of the fuel surcharges
In any case u have enough time until pesach to open and churn a few star alliance cards to open other options

Offline brotha123

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have 200k+ Ba miles looking to fly from jfk to costa rica for a week in August? How much would it be? Have people flown usinng avios?

Offline Marco Polo

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P.S. How much? :P

Something around what it would cost to use one of the award search engines like awardnexus or KVS.



which star alliance cards would make the most sense to churn?

Quaerite et Invenietis.

Offline Marco Polo

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P.S. How much? :P

I can also offer a dinner at Sushi Metsuyan in Monsey.
Quaerite et Invenietis.

Offline AJK

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Something around what it would cost to use one of the award search engines like awardnexus or KVS.

There's more to it than just using a for-cost search engine, obviously.

If it were that easy, all the professional booking services wouldn't cost $150.
2015: 116K bkd | 1.6M brnd | F: OZ,NH,AA,EK | J: UA,CA,TK,DL,TN,AF,VA | LIH,NRT,ROR,PEK,CNS,BOB,MEL,TLV & Pacific Hopper

Offline Marco Polo

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There's more to it than just using a for-cost search engine, obviously.

If it were that easy, all the professional booking services wouldn't cost $150.

What would you be looking to get?
Quaerite et Invenietis.

Offline AJK

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It's not me necessarily, nor do I have a particular number in mind.

I'm just saying it's going to likely cost you more than the $10/mo that Expert Flyer costs.
2015: 116K bkd | 1.6M brnd | F: OZ,NH,AA,EK | J: UA,CA,TK,DL,TN,AF,VA | LIH,NRT,ROR,PEK,CNS,BOB,MEL,TLV & Pacific Hopper

Offline Marco Polo

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Ok, will keep that in mind. Thank You.
Quaerite et Invenietis.

Offline ajs625

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Round trip or Two One ways
Non-stop/Maximum stops/Any:Any
From: LGA,EWR,JFK
To: SYD via HKG
Departure dates: 11/18
Return airports: LGA,EWR,JFK
Return dates: 11/28
Class: First/Business/Coach/Any
Seats: 2
Alliance/Airline: ANY

Offline wanna good ticket

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looking for a ticket to LAX from NYC for aug 6 sometime in the pm hours til aug 12, take red-eye back, arrive in NYC aug 13 am. help??? everyhting i saw is prohibitive!

Offline WhyAich

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looking for a ticket to LAX from NYC for aug 6 sometime in the pm hours til aug 12, take red-eye back, arrive in NYC aug 13 am. help??? everyhting i saw is prohibitive!

how much?
For great Airfare deals - PLEASE contact me via PM or email: whyaich@gmail.com

Offline txtmax4

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how much?
How much is he paying finders fee or what is your question?
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