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 1839284 times)

Offline ygift

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Re: Need help finding a ticket? Post here! Award ticket edition (Master thread)
« Reply #1680 on: January 28, 2013, 03:18:55 PM »
is that 7500 avios points or American ? I don't even have an avios acct

Offline Yaalili

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Re: Need help finding a ticket? Post here! Award ticket edition (Master thread)
« Reply #1681 on: January 28, 2013, 03:20:01 PM »
is that 7500 avios points or American ? I don't even have an avios acct

No, on AA it will be 12,500, on BA it will be 7,500.

Offline MEIR613

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Re: Need help finding a ticket? Post here! Award ticket edition (Master thread)
« Reply #1682 on: January 28, 2013, 03:20:07 PM »
You have MR?

Offline ygift

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Re: Need help finding a ticket? Post here! Award ticket edition (Master thread)
« Reply #1683 on: January 28, 2013, 03:44:06 PM »
I do have Mr
 

Offline MEIR613

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Re: Need help finding a ticket? Post here! Award ticket edition (Master thread)
« Reply #1684 on: January 28, 2013, 03:47:52 PM »
I do have Mr
You can transfer MR to BA which is cheaper than AA.

Offline meshugener

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Re: Need help finding a ticket? Post here! Award ticket edition (Master thread)
« Reply #1685 on: January 29, 2013, 02:30:55 PM »
Looking now for tomorrow TLV-PHL, nothing avail, they say it should open up within a few hours.
  is this a route that often opens up last minute only?
1 biz saver seat just opened!
Grabbed!
Love me or hate me. I still love you.

Offline mmermss

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Re: Need help finding a ticket? Post here! Award ticket edition (Master thread)
« Reply #1686 on: January 29, 2013, 02:39:42 PM »
1 biz saver seat just opened!
Grabbed!
Nice!

Hope he enjoys  :)
It's not about the quantity of your posts.  It's about the quality.

Offline ari9

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Re: Need help finding a ticket? Post here! Award ticket edition (Master thread)
« Reply #1687 on: January 29, 2013, 03:14:33 PM »
I'd like to go TLV - CDG(stop 2-3 days) - AMS(stop 1-2 days) - NYC (over pesach) - VCE (stop over shabbos) - TLV
I don't really understand the UA OJ rules - how much of this trip can I do on a UA award?
I can use avios to do part

dates:
TLV-CDG  3/10 night or 3/11
CDG-AMS 3/12 or 3/13 (can AMS be done as a layover?)
AMS-NYC 3/14
NYC-VCE 4/10
VCE-TLV 4/14

class-coach
seats-2

I have united, chase, avios, some spg (would rather save for hotels)
I would pay for a segment that can't be included in the award

obviously it all depends on availability, but if anyone can help me with best way to do this would greatly appreciate it

Offline Drago

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Re: Need help finding a ticket? Post here! Award ticket edition (Master thread)
« Reply #1688 on: January 29, 2013, 05:02:06 PM »
I'd like to go TLV - CDG(stop 2-3 days) - AMS(stop 1-2 days) - NYC (over pesach) - VCE (stop over shabbos) - TLV
I don't really understand the UA OJ rules - how much of this trip can I do on a UA award?
I can use avios to do part

dates:
TLV-CDG  3/10 night or 3/11
CDG-AMS 3/12 or 3/13 (can AMS be done as a layover?)
AMS-NYC 3/14
NYC-VCE 4/10
VCE-TLV 4/14

class-coach
seats-2

I have united, chase, avios, some spg (would rather save for hotels)
I would pay for a segment that can't be included in the award

obviously it all depends on availability, but if anyone can help me with best way to do this would greatly appreciate it
You're going to struggle w/ s/t like this, especially if you have little flexibility due to chagim.
I'd recommend working with an award booking svc. It'll be easily worth the 100-150 it costs if they can find you a routing.

Offline ari9

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Re: Need help finding a ticket? Post here! Award ticket edition (Master thread)
« Reply #1689 on: January 29, 2013, 05:20:19 PM »
You're going to struggle w/ s/t like this, especially if you have little flexibility due to chagim.
I'd recommend working with an award booking svc. It'll be easily worth the 100-150 it costs if they can find you a routing.

thanks
any recommendations of a svc? I checked the links on first page of this thread - which is best?

Offline Shmelly

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Re: Need help finding a ticket? Post here! Award ticket edition (Master thread)
« Reply #1690 on: January 29, 2013, 08:34:52 PM »
I'm trying to book LGA-CLE via BA for 2/4 but its only showing the 8:50 AM flight, which does not work for me. Are there any tricks to get the other flights to appear?
You have brains in your head. You have feet in your shoes. You can steer yourself any direction you choose. - Dr. Seuss

Offline Saver2000

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Re: Need help finding a ticket? Post here! Award ticket edition (Master thread)
« Reply #1691 on: January 29, 2013, 08:40:39 PM »
I'm trying to book LGA-CLE via BA for 2/4 but its only showing the 8:50 AM flight, which does not work for me. Are there any tricks to get the other flights to appear?
Do you see saaver availability on AA.com?

Offline Shmelly

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Re: Need help finding a ticket? Post here! Award ticket edition (Master thread)
« Reply #1692 on: January 29, 2013, 08:59:08 PM »
Got it. There's only 1 seat available on the later flights and I needed 2. Any chance of seats opening?
« Last Edit: January 29, 2013, 09:04:35 PM by Shmelly »
You have brains in your head. You have feet in your shoes. You can steer yourself any direction you choose. - Dr. Seuss

Offline Ergel

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Re: Need help finding a ticket? Post here! Award ticket edition (Master thread)
« Reply #1693 on: January 29, 2013, 09:37:18 PM »
Book one each on separate flights and sdc
Life isn't about checking the boxes. Nobody cares.

Offline Shmelly

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Re: Need help finding a ticket? Post here! Award ticket edition (Master thread)
« Reply #1694 on: January 29, 2013, 11:41:59 PM »
Book one each on separate flights and sdc
SDC AA or BA?
You have brains in your head. You have feet in your shoes. You can steer yourself any direction you choose. - Dr. Seuss

Offline Ergel

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Re: Need help finding a ticket? Post here! Award ticket edition (Master thread)
« Reply #1695 on: January 29, 2013, 11:55:02 PM »
AA, or just miss the first flight and ask to be put on the later one
Life isn't about checking the boxes. Nobody cares.

Offline Shmelly

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Re: Need help finding a ticket? Post here! Award ticket edition (Master thread)
« Reply #1696 on: January 30, 2013, 12:04:37 AM »
Aren't both of those options risky? There's a chance one of the passengers will be left without a flight in either scenario.
You have brains in your head. You have feet in your shoes. You can steer yourself any direction you choose. - Dr. Seuss

Offline KidOOO

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Help getting flights from NYC to LAX
« Reply #1697 on: January 30, 2013, 11:32:47 PM »
i Have many UR and MR points as well as SPG points

I want to fly with my wife to Lax this Saturday night for about 4-5

what are my best options for transferring my points into miles, i tried doing BA avios on AA came out to 50K for both of us

is that a good rate? and can  transfer my points to BA instantly?

are there any better airline/mileage options?

Offline MEIR613

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Re: Help getting flights from NYC to LAX
« Reply #1698 on: January 30, 2013, 11:37:18 PM »
i Have many UR and MR points as well as SPG points

I want to fly with my wife to Lax this Saturday night for about 4-5

what are my best options for transferring my points into miles, i tried doing BA avios on AA came out to 50K for both of us

is that a good rate? and can  transfer my points to BA instantly?

are there any better airline/mileage options?

If your not elite in UA and they have availability on AA, that would be your best bet it terms of points.

Offline daganster

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Re: Help getting flights from NYC to LAX
« Reply #1699 on: January 30, 2013, 11:38:15 PM »