Comments on: Breaking Down Which Miles To Use To Fly To Israel

By: "work arounds"

"work arounds" — Wed, 24 Apr 2013 02:00:49 +0000

Dan you’re awesome!!
can you elaborate a tad on how the workarounds work??
thanx in advance

By: zoken uksil

zoken uksil — Tue, 23 Apr 2013 06:41:37 +0000

Dan, i read carefully the above comments. i see that you are not answering the “Don’t forget to book a free domestic trailing flight anytime in the year after you arrive back to your destination” what does that mean (you wrote in a different place as well but no explanation)? also, if you piece the pieces together of different segments (united airlines), you need to call an agent to book it and they are charging me $75 for booking with a live person

By: elgnt

elgnt — Tue, 23 Apr 2013 04:49:21 +0000

How do you book singapore to tlv from jfk? on which website?

By: gibjew

gibjew — Mon, 22 Apr 2013 21:10:22 +0000

hi. i have 82000 delta skymiles through am ex. i need two tickets from jfk to israel from july 21-july 28, 2013. what’s my best option? i no longer have a gold am ex card, just the options card. thanx.

By: Judy

Judy — Sun, 21 Apr 2013 20:54:05 +0000

I just called Starwood Preferred Guest program and they told me you can no longer redeem points for ELAL flights; I was under the impression that you could and have accumulated lots of points. Did something change recently or is it not possible to fly ELAL using SPG points?

By: yoely

yoely — Sun, 21 Apr 2013 18:38:37 +0000

whats the best option to fly from Montreal to Swiss in august

By: elki hass

elki hass — Thu, 18 Apr 2013 17:27:01 +0000

Question Have a Sapphire and Starwood coming up for renewal for 95.00 Do I try to negotiate and if all else fails pay the fee?

By: AbieBaby

AbieBaby — Thu, 18 Apr 2013 14:15:30 +0000

Dan, I have about 2500 Matmid points. Yesterday I tried to get see if my dates in August are available, and the ElAl site said that I could get the tickets for 1400 points rt. I didnt book on the spot because i needed to check my schedule. Today I go back to ElA site and low-and-behol, the samedates now costs 5000 points. This is for a flight 6 months from now! Is ElAl playing games? When they see someone inquiring on dates they then boost the fare? Also, have you ever heard of the points cost going down? In other words, is there any point in holding out to see if ElAl will reduce the cost?

Thanks for everything!

By: Frozy

Frozy — Thu, 18 Apr 2013 05:21:21 +0000

Dan:
I have a Visa Sapphire Preferred and got the 40k sign up bonus. I was told by cs that I could get the Visa converted to MC as a new account w/o a credit pull. Will I get a sign up bonus by switching?

By: Joseph

Joseph — Thu, 18 Apr 2013 00:26:40 +0000

Hi Dan, 2 comments on this post re miles and more
1. I know this sounds weird but trust me i am right if you book miles and more tkt round trip to Israel thru europe as 4 seperate 1 way tkts it will require less miles then if you book it straight to TLV business class.
2. The fuel surcharges are less when you book separate flights than if you book them straight thru 1 ways or round trip. Check it out its totally crazy makes no sense.

By: DL2

DL2 — Wed, 17 Apr 2013 21:51:41 +0000

I have a very large UR balance of points. I need to fly to Israel in August. I have tried to follow and read up on the ways above, but not sure what might be my best options. Can someone shed some light if they know specifically for this time of year what I can do with a large sum of UR points? I dont mind a stop over.

By: Yitz

Yitz — Wed, 17 Apr 2013 20:55:21 +0000

@Uncle Mo: Sell the points

By: Uncle Mo

Uncle Mo — Wed, 17 Apr 2013 20:19:21 +0000

I have hundreds of thousands of HAS credit card points that are transferable to ELAL Matmid miles (56,000 points = 1400 Matmid points) but ELAL never has any seats available. Does anyone have any ideas how to somehow get seats on ELAL or any other way i can use these?

By: Yitzy

Yitzy — Wed, 17 Apr 2013 20:06:56 +0000

@Yitzy: talking about united (or ana?)

By: Yitzy

Yitzy — Wed, 17 Apr 2013 20:05:43 +0000

@Dan: Please note: if you can't find united availability tlv-ewr you can book tlv-phl with a stop in ewr and miss the last seg.

By: chanie

chanie — Wed, 17 Apr 2013 19:59:50 +0000

on another note- what can happen if i open up the amex business card with the 50,000 bonus points now even though i don’t make any money? is it good enough if my husband makes money on the books? thanks!

By: Michael

Michael — Wed, 17 Apr 2013 19:52:11 +0000

I have booked 2 RT tickets JFK-Tel Aviv using AA Miles (90,000 each)end of May… Iberia – Madrid – Tel Aviv… Was this the best use of all these miles? How can I best get the seats I want for all legs of the flight?

By: Chaim

Chaim — Wed, 17 Apr 2013 19:45:22 +0000

When u fly peak season with 90k AA points can that get u direct or do u need via europe?

By: molly

molly — Wed, 17 Apr 2013 19:38:20 +0000

I need two one-way tiks from Israel to JFK….and want to fly MAY 1st [flexible]
I have 96,000 Amex premier reward points in one account and 38,000 and 49,000 Amer Aadvantage point in 2 separate accounts.
I called Amex Travel–was told my 96,000 Amex points are worth only $960 against a Delta ticket. ..so I’m not using them.
I know I need 40,000 for 1 stopover and 45,000 nonstop thru AA and flying ELAL with minimal surcharges…but I’d need to buy 2000 or 7000 AA miles for one of the tix.

Any suggestions re my AMEX premier reward points?

Any suggestions

By: jacky

jacky — Wed, 17 Apr 2013 18:59:41 +0000

what is the best credit card to use to book tickets. i am booking tomorrow? thanks