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 1839917 times)

Offline yuneeq

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For those who asked, there are currently no moderator tools for the wiki. Dan assumed that anyone with enough posts would know how to use it. He can probably raise the post count if neccesary, but anything else will likely require more custom coding

Just wondering: What was in the wiki?
If it was a personal flight request, it's been that way for a while...
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Offline smart brit

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Just wondering: What was in the wiki?
If it was a personal flight request, it's been that way for a while...
It was that way until today thanks goodness

Offline yuneeq

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It was that way until today thanks goodness

Didn't bother me for some reason. There are plenty of wikis that are run the same way by design.
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Offline Twin

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It was that way until today thanks goodness
You can edit the wiki yourself and just delete the flight info.

Offline btab

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Round trip. Any stops (but if stopping would prefer to stay in that place for a day or two).
From: MIA, FLL
To: TLV
Departure dates: June (1st week onward)
Return dates: July (we would like to be there for at least a month)
Class: Any
Seats: 2 Adults (1 Infant - Lap)
Alliance/Airline: Any

I have a lot of AMEX MR and Chase Points that are readily transferable.
I have searched ANA and United. I am looking for a flight where I can use the least amount of points and have found that united offers the 40k for one way + taxes.

Thank you for your help.
learning about churning

Offline smart brit

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Round trip. Any stops (but if stopping would prefer to stay in that place for a day or two).
From: MIA, FLL
To: TLV
Departure dates: June (1st week onward)
Return dates: July (we would like to be there for at least a month)
Class: Any
Seats: 2 Adults (1 Infant - Lap)
Alliance/Airline: Any

I have a lot of AMEX MR and Chase Points that are readily transferable.
I have searched ANA and United. I am looking for a flight where I can use the least amount of points and have found that united offers the 40k for one way + taxes.

Thank you for your help.
there are no direct flights from Mia to tlv
So in any case you will make a stop. And if you want your stop to be more than 24 hrs it would have to be 2 separate tickets so it won't be 40k ua points.
Your cheapest option in terms of points is with flying blue and I see availability there but the yq for the rt would be min 600$.
With ab it's 50k avios ow but no yq and they have availability departing jun 1.
But couldn't find anything yet for return.
Although it's 50k with the amex promo going on now it would only be 37500 Mr points so it's probably what you should be looking at
« Last Edit: May 02, 2013, 03:17:36 PM by smart brit »

Offline aacracksam

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  • Location: nyc
need 2 round trip non stop
NYC-HOU
5/30-6/03
leaving evening
Returning Morning

Offline E-MAN

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Round trip
Non-stop/Maximum stops/Any: Preferably Non stop but max one stop each way
From: NYC
To: HNL
Departure dates: May 26 or July 21
Return dates: June 2 or July 28
Class: Preferably First or Business, but would settle for coach if direct flight
Seats: 2
Alliance/Airline: I'm looking to transfer MR to Sigapore Airlines and book a flight on United

Offline Banana

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  • Location: Buffalo
 Multi-city
Prefer few stops as possible (senior)
TLV-BUF on 5/12/13
BUF-MIA on 5/20/13
MIA-TLV on 5/26/13
Class: Any
Seats: 1
Alliance/Airline: DONT CARE - Using MR points

I found UNITED award availability on the following flights and they work well with what we want but when I called UNITED I was told it was 150 points plus some other extra fees because it was within 21 days and a couple other add-ons.
From: TLV->EWR flight# 85 on 5/12/13
From: EWR->BUF flight #3886 on 5/12/13
From: BUF-> IAD flight# 4889 on 5/20/13
From IAD->MIA flight# 3905 on 5/20/13
From: MIA->EWR flight# 1415 on 5/26/13
From: EWR->TLV  flight# 84 on 5/26/13


I have a over 300k MR points that I'm capable of transferring. I thought that United has the best stopover policy (sorry if that was misinformation). When I called United they said that it was 150 points instead of the 80k. What am I missing here? I don't care what airline it's on. I just want the cheapest and most direct route for each segment (am I shooting for a star?? ::)) The ticket is for a senior and I just want it to be as simple as possible. Any help would be really appreciated! Thank you!!!!!!!
« Last Edit: May 05, 2013, 01:43:29 AM by Banana »

Offline smart brit

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You can't transfer Mr points to ua.
A stopover longer than 24 hrs will be considered a new trip with ua.

Offline Banana

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You can't transfer Mr points to ua.
A stopover longer than 24 hrs will be considered a new trip with ua.
What if I transferred to ANA miles? Wouldn't I then be able to use those miles for UA award travel?
But tell me then, regardless if I use ANA or UA, so long as I stop for longer than 24 hours it would be considered a new ticket? That's not what was understood from previous postings I've read. Saw the posting about a dude that went to SA via TLV for 2 weeks...Or something to that effect. That's essentially what I'm trying to do. I was to utilize the 2 stopover thing.  Albeit though, I'm super new to the point usage thing so my "facts" might be a bit off. Sorry!
« Last Edit: May 05, 2013, 02:49:20 AM by Banana »

Offline Cbs

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if i have 110k Marco Polo points, and i want to fly JFK-HKG in business/first.

i see availability for one way in first and return in business (thru YVR)

what are my options?

Offline Twin

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Non-stop/Maximum stops/Any: Any
From: CLE
To: TLV
Departure dates: June 20
Return dates: One Way
Class: Economy
Seats: One
Alliance/Airline: Any

Offline Bostener

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  • Location: NYC

From:NYC
To: TLV
 
Departure dates: 5/12

Class: Business

Alliance/Airline: What airline or alliance are you looking to fly with? Any
Airlines sending me "We're in this together" emails.

Bruh, where were you when my suitcase weighed it 51.50 pounds?

Offline Let3

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Non-stop/Maximum stops/Any: Max one stop
From: All NYC airports
To: Tlv
Departure dates: June 16,17,18
Return dates:June 23,24
Class: Coach
Seats:1
Alliance: we have ba points (and city Ty points)

Tried finding at on ba website (was told to look for air Berlin) but confusing and not very helpfull (ones I found stopped in London each way=3 stops each way)

Offline smart brit

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Non-stop/Maximum stops/Any: Max one stop
From: All NYC airports
To: Tlv
Departure dates: June 16,17,18
Return dates:June 23,24
Class: Coach
Seats:1
Alliance: we have ba points (and city Ty points)

Tried finding at on ba website (was told to look for air Berlin) but confusing and not very helpfull (ones I found stopped in London each way=3 stops each way)
search on aa.com for availability on air Berlin it's very simple

Offline Let3

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Ahhh, thanks!
Still trying with ba (was told I try each leg separately..) and getting nowhere..

Offline smart brit

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Ahhh, thanks!
Still trying with ba (was told I try each leg separately..) and getting nowhere..
probably nothing available for those dates with ab

Offline Cbs

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HKG-NYC  -   7/22 or 23 --- one way

preferably non stop - or 1 small stop

Class: Business/First

Alliance - any.

1 pax



Offline easy48

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I am sure people here have done this, can you tell me how.  I would like to fly Singapore Airlines to LAX on 11/21/13 in business or first.  I plan to transfer AMEX MR to Singapore Air.  How can I search for availability first?  What should be my plan to secure the seats I am looking for.  Thanks.