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There are currently flights from Chicago, Houston, or Washington DC to Tel Aviv from November-March for under $650 on United and other airlines.

If you’re creative though you can manufacture a cheaper ticket, though the airlines may not like it and they may punish people who abuse hidden city ticketing repeatedly, so don’t do this every month.

You can use the Travelocity multi-destination search page and search for EWR-TLV in flight #1 (sample date 01/26/14) and then TLV-IAH, TLV-ORD, or TLV-WAS (sample date 02/03/14).

You can choose a nonstop on United from Newark to Tel Aviv. For the return  you can select a United flight from Tel Aviv to Chicago, Houston, or Washington DC that connects in Newark. Your bags will be tagged to Chicago, Houston, or Washington DC but everyone, whether their destination is NYC or anywhere else in the world, must pickup their luggage in Newark on the return and bring it through customs. At that point you can either recheck your bags or just leave the airport.

In the red square is a flight that nobody is going to force you to board.

The price using this “hack” is $756.97.  That’s $112 less than the regular nonstop fare. Usually this hack gives more than $200 off due to the differential of the high cost of flying nonstop from NYC and the low cost from other cities, but the difference is not as great now thanks to the current fare sale between NYC and Israel.  Because of that relatively small difference you may not find it worthwhile to mess around with but I’ll leave that decision up to you.

Of course you can always just fly to DC for 4,500 Avios or Chicago for 7,500 Avios to save yourself another $112 per person by knocking the price down to $644.

Or you can just go to Chicago, enjoy an awesome mean at Shallot’s Bistro or Milt’s BBQ and then use 7,500 Avios to fly back to NYC.

Of course this will work for dozens of other dates as well. The key to finding valid dates is to first search for a cheap outbound flight date from Newark to Tel Aviv and then searching for cheap return flight from Chicago, Houston, or Washington DC to Tel Aviv with flexible dates. Here’s how to find them.

Go to the ITA Matrix.

To find a cheap outbound flight from Newark to Tel Aviv just search for a round-trip with flexible dates using their calendar of lowest fares .  Use the following advanced routing code to limit the calendar search to nonstop United flights only: UA

Here is what I searched for that you can emulate:

And here is the results page with cheap outbound flight dates.

To find a cheap return flight from Tel Aviv to Washington DC  just search for a round-trip with flexible dates starting in Washington DC to Tel Aviv.  Use the following advanced routing code to limit the calendar search to United flights that will connect in Newark: UA, UA

Here is what I searched for that you can emulate:

And below is the results page:

Note that the outbound date doesn’t matter for this search.  You’ll need to hover over an outbound date to be able to see which return dates are cheap.

Armed with that knowledge you’ll be able to then search for a Travelocity multi-destination search and plugin the cheap outbound date from Newark to Tel Aviv and a cheap return date from Tel Aviv to Chicago, Houston, or Washington DC.

HT: SearchGuy, via DDF
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Update: Price drop to $845.97 via this method.

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There are currently flights from Chicago, Houston, or Washington DC to Tel Aviv from November-March for under $650 on United and other airlines.

If you’re creative though you can manufacture a cheaper ticket, though the airlines may not like it and they may punish people who abuse hidden city ticketing repeatedly, so don’t do this every month.

You can use the Travelocity multi-destination search page and search for NYC-TLV in flight #1 (sample date 01/21/14) and then TLV-IAH, TLV-ORD, or TLV-WAS (sample date 01/28/14).

You can choose a nonstop on United from Newark to Tel Aviv. For the return  you can select a United flight from Tel Aviv to Chicago, Houston, or Washington DC that connects in Newark. Your bags will be tagged to Chicago, Houston, or Washington DC but everyone, whether their destination is NYC or anywhere else in the world, must pickup their luggage in Newark on the return and bring it through customs. At that point you can either recheck your bags or just leave the airport.

In the red square is a flight that nobody is going to force you to board.

The price using this “hack” is $845.97, more than $200 off the regular nonstop fare. Now the price for Chicago, Houston, or Washington DC to Tel Aviv via NYC is another $210 less than that, but this allows you to fly nonstop both ways and realize part of that fare differential without flying to another city to start the trip.

Of course you can always just fly to DC for 4,500 Avios or Chicago for 7,500 Avios to save yourself another $210 per person.

Or you can just go to Chicago, enjoy a fantastic dinner at Shallot’s Bistro or Milt’s BBQ and then use 7,500 Avios to fly back to NYC.

Of course this will work for dozens of other dates as well. The key to finding valid dates is searching for cheap flights from Chicago, Houston, or Washington DC to Tel Aviv with flexible dates. The outbound flight date doesn’t need to be cheap but the return flight date does need to be on a cheap date. Once you find a cheap return date just use the Travelocity multi-destination search and plugin any outbound date and any of the cheap return dates to Chicago or Houston. Read about using ITA Software here and use the following advanced routing code to limit the calendar search to United flights that connect in Newark: UA, UA

HT: SearchGuy, via DDF

Several people have been telling me to post the current deals to Israel.  I posted these deals when they came out 2 weeks ago and they’re still going strong for travel on select dates between November 2013 and March 2014.

Read about using ITA Software here as that can really make it easy to find cheap dates if you’re flexible.

Here are the links to the original posts:
-“Hacking” A Newark To Tel Aviv Nonstop For $895.97 Round-Trip…
Sample date 11/24-12/03

-Air Canada/Delta/United: Washington DC To Tel Aviv For $638.97 Round-Trip With Tax!
Sample date 01/26-02/03

-Air Canada/United: Chicago To Tel Aviv For Just $638.97 Round-Trip With Tax
Sample date 02/09-02/17

-Air Canada/United: Los Angeles To Tel Aviv For $712.97 Round-Trip With Tax

-$713 fares are also available from Houston on Air Canada/United.
Sample date 03/02-03/10

-Bookable on Orbitz with full mileage earning and free cancellations until 10pm CT the day after you book.

- Earn 3 MR points per dollar with American Express® Premier Rewards Gold Card, 3 MR points per dollar with The Business Gold Rewards Card® from American Express OPEN, or 2.14 UR points per dollar with Chase Sapphire Preferred.

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This fare is valid on select dates between November 2013 and March 2014. Not valid for departures in December. Availability in January and February is excellent.

Flights on Air Canada are via Toronto, flights on Delta are via JFK, and flights on United are via Newark. You can’t get this fare from Toronto, JFK, or Newark you must pickup the first flight in Washington DC (DCA or IAD)  or else the rest of your itinerary will be cancelled.
You can book a one-way flight from JFK to DCA for just 4,500 Avios (that’s less than 3,500 AMEX MR points with the current 35% bonus).

Nobody will force you to take the last leg to Washington DC.

You will earn full miles for these fares.

Air Canada sample dates:
11/10-11/21
11/17-11/25
11/24-12/05 (Chanukah)
11/27-12/05 (Chanukah)
01/12-01/23
01/15-01/23
01/19-01/27
02/09-02/17

Delta sample dates:
01/12-01/23
01/15-01/23
01/19-01/27
01/27-02/06
03/02-03/11

United sample dates:
01/26-02/04
01/27-02/06
02/02-02/10
02/09-02/17
03/02-03/11
03/09-03/23 (Purim)

HT: EJB, via DDF

Not everyone wants to connect in Turkey…but a nonstop flight to Israel currently runs at least $1,208 for this winter.

If you’re creative though you can manufacture a cheaper ticket, though the airlines may not like it and they may punish people who abuse hidden city ticketing repeatedly, so don’t do this every month.

There are currently flights from Chicago and Houston to Tel Aviv from November-March for under $650 on United.

You can use the Travelocity multi-destination search page and search for NYC-TLV (in flight #1) on 11/24/13 and then TLV-IAH or TLV-ORD (in flight #2) on 12/05/13.  That puts you in the holy land for Chanukah.

You can choose a nonstop on United from Newark to Tel Aviv. For the return on 12/05 you can select a United flight from Tel Aviv to Chicago or Houston connecting in Newark.  Your bags will be tagged to Chicago or Houston but everyone, whether their destination is NYC or anywhere else in the world, must pickup their luggage in Newark on the return and bring it through customs. At that point you can either recheck your bags or just leave the airport.

In the red square is a flight that nobody is going to force you to board.

The price using this “hack” is $895.97, a $312 savings off the regular nonstop fare.  Now the price for Chicago-Tel Aviv via NYC is another $287 less than that, but this allows you to fly nonstop both ways and realize part of that fare differential without flying to Chicago to start the trip.  Of course you can always just fly to Chicago for 7,500 Avios to save yourself another $287 per person.

Or of course you can just go to Chicago, enjoy a fantastic dinner at Shallot’s Bistro or Milt’s BBQ and then use 7,500 Avios to fly back to NYC.

Of course this will work for other dates as well.  For example 01/26-02/03 or 02/16-02/24 or dozens of other dates.  The key to finding valid dates is searching for cheap flights from Chicago or Houston to Tel Aviv with flexible dates.  The outbound flight date doesn’t need to be cheap from Chicago but the return flight date does need to be on a cheap date.  Once you find a cheap return date just use the Travelocity multi-destination search and plugin any outbound date and any of the cheap return dates to Chicago or Houston. Read about using ITA Software here and use the following advanced routing code to limit the calendar search to United flights that connect in Newark: UA, UA

-Bookable on Orbitz with full mileage earning and free cancellations until 10pm CT the day after you book.

- Earn 3 MR points per dollar with American Express® Premier Rewards Gold Card, 3 MR points per dollar with The Business Gold Rewards Card® from American Express OPEN, or 2.14 UR points per dollar with Chase Sapphire Preferred.

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This fare is valid on select dates between November 2013 and March 2014.
Flight on Air Canada are via Toronto, flights on United are via Newark. You can’t get this fare from Toronto or Newark you must pickup the first flight in Chicago or else the rest of your itinerary will be cancelled.
You can book a one-way flight to Chicago for just 7,500 Avios (that’s less than 6,000 AMEX MR points with the current 35% bonus).

You will earn full miles for these fares.

Sample valid dates (Plenty of others are available as well):
-11/24-12/05 (Chanukah)
-12/02-12/11 (Chanukah)
-12/09-12/17
-01/15-01/23
-01/26-02/03
-01/19-01/27
-02/09-02/17
-02/16-02/24
-02/23-03/09
-03/02-03/11
-03/09-03/17

HT: WhyAich, via DDF

Update: DEAD!

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-Bookable on Orbitz with free cancellations until 10pm CT the day after you book.

- Earn 3 MR points per dollar with American Express® Premier Rewards Gold Card, 3 MR points per dollar with The Business Gold Rewards Card® from American Express OPEN, or 2.14 UR points per dollar with Chase Sapphire Preferred.

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This fare is valid on select dates between November 2013 and March 2014. Departures are not available in December.

This is valid for flights originating in NYC only.  It is not valid for flights originating in Tel Aviv.

The flight times work out very well with connections in Turkey that are as short as 1 hour to Israel and 75 minutes on the return:

Turkish does not award miles on their ultra-cheap fares, so you will not earn miles for these flights.

Sample valid dates (Plenty of others are available as well):
-11/03-11/18
-11/17-12/01 (Chanukah)
-11/26-12/09 (Chanukah)
-01/12-01/21 (Tu B’Shvat)
-01/19-01/27
-01/26-02/02
-02/03-02/16 (Purim Katan)
-02/16-02/23
-02/23-03/02
-03/02-03/09
-03/10-03/24 (Purim)

If you’re nervous about being an Orthodox Jew transiting Istanbul know that thousands of people have done it without issue. Or just take a look on DDF…
-Galitzyaner davened with his tefilin in the open in the airport and reports that the kosher food served on Turkish was great.
-Cw3323 davened on the plane and loved the Wi-Fi and other amenities in coach
-Mordy788 confirms that the kosher food from Istanbul is better than the slop from JFK. He is a travel agent who has booked numerous travelers via Istanbul without issue and has done it himself with only positive experiences-including davening on he plane.
-YakovT booked coach but was upgraded for free to comfort class which has received rave reviews.
-bb_sam reports that he prefers flying with Turkish with a stop to Toronto over flying nonstop on El Al to Toronto and that the Turkish lounge is one of the best in the world.
-You can access that lounge with a United Club card or if you have Star Alliance Gold status.

HT: MEIR613 via DDF and stockmanjr via FT
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-Updated 04/16/13 with current rates.
Note that there is a current bonus for transfers from Starwood to Air Canada.

Find more articles like this by clicking on the “Mileage Posts” tab on top of the DansDeals banner at the top of this site.

Related: Which Miles To Use To Hawaii? (Read this post to learn how to get a free flexible ticket (or even 2) to places like Miami, Los Angeles, Alaska, or even Hawaii when you book your next ticket to Israel!)

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This post will attempt to break down some of the best options for getting to Israel, along with listing whether a fuel surcharge (which can add anywhere from $100 to $1,000 onto the cost a free ticket) applies.

There are 3 major transferable point currencies and you can transfer points into various mileage currencies from the following credit cards.
(Typically if you apply for multiple cards from the same bank on the same day you will only get a single credit pull.)

-Starwood points are earned from the consumer Starwood Preferred Guest® Credit Card from American Express or the Starwood Preferred Guest® Business Credit Card from American Express OPEN.
20,000 Starwood points generally transfer into 25,000 miles, though the transfer can take between 2-12 days. Some partners (like USAirways) do not care if you transfer to someone else’s account while others (like AA) are stricter. There are no fees.

-American Express Membership Rewards points can be earned from consumer cards like the American Express® Premier Rewards Gold Card and The Platinum Card® from American Express.
Business cards include the Business Gold Rewards Card from American Express OPEN and The Business Platinum Card® from American Express OPEN.
Points generally transfer instantly (exceptions includes transfers to ANA and Singapore which can take a day or 2) and can be made to anyone, though a fee applies for transfers to domestic carriers like Delta.

-Chase Ultimate Rewards points are earned from consumer cards like Sapphire Preferred, Sapphire Non-Preferred, Chase Freedom Visa, and Chase Freedom Mastercard.

They can also be earned from business cards like Chase Ink Bold, Chase Ink Plus, or Chase Ink Cash.
You or your spouse need to have either a Sapphire Preferred, an Ink Bold, or an Ink Plus to actually transfer points into miles.
Points generally transfer instantly with no fees.
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Tips for finding saver award availability:

Award tickets to Israel are always tough, though that’s a function of it being an expensive route to fly compared to the distance of the flight.
-Be willing to connect in Europe for much better availability.
-Availability can change at any time. If you are ready to fly on a whim airlines do typically open up awards the day of or the day before a flight. Otherwise a couple months in advance is a typical sweet spot.
-Realize that not all partners will be displayed and you may need to do your own research and call to find partner availability.
-Airline search engines are only so powerful. Use free stopovers and open-jaws to your advantage. If you are flying from somewhere besides NYC just search from NYC-Tel Aviv instead of from Los Angeles to Tel Aviv. You can always piece together an award by searching for Los Angeles-NYC separately then NYC-Tel Aviv, especially if you are willing to have a long connection, change airports in NYC, or are willing to stay overnight in NYC.
-The same goes for tickets from NYC.  Search from other gateways like Toronto and Philadelphia and piece together the flights to get there afterward. Consider searching from NYC to European cities and piece together an award from Europe to Israel. You may find availability from NYC to London and then from Paris to Tel Aviv but a computer would never put that open jaw ticket together. Instead you can check out London and Paris on the way to Tel Aviv. Maybe you’ll even get to check out Venice and Rome on the way home. Sometimes you can even save miles by doing that!
-Don’t forget to book a free domestic trailing flight anytime in the year after you arrive back to your destination.
-Find award availability before transferring miles. Once they’re transferred they can’t be reversed!
-Need help? You can post your travel dates and which miles you have in this DDF thread and ask for help. Consider offering a monetary or mileage reward to the forum member that can come up with the best award ticket to meet your needs and you may find that suggestions will come flooding in!
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Round-trip rates NYC-TLV-NYC:

Star Alliance:
Nonstop flights from North America include Air Canada from Toronto, United from Newark, and USAirways from Philadelphia. These flights all have lie-flat business class seating and have no first class.

Star Alliance offers the best availability for flights to Israel by leaps and bounds. Besides for the nonstop flights from North America there are many options via Europe in coach, business, and first class worth looking into including Swiss via Zurich, Lufthansa via Dusseldorf, Frankfurt, and Munich, Brussels via Brussels, Austrian via Vienna, Turkish via Istanbul, SAS via Copenhagen, Singapore via Frankfurt, Aegean via Athens, LOT via Warsaw, or a mix of carriers like United from Newark to one of dozens of European cities and a European carrier to Tel Aviv.
By utilizing free stopovers and open jaws the possibilities are endless if you take the time to research your options leg by leg.

You can search for Star Alliance award availability on sites like United.com and Aeroplan.com.

Rates are for travel using the airline’s miles below for travel on any partner airlines.  Remember that policies follow the miles that you have so if you have USAirways miles you can’t fly one-way on United, but if you have United miles you can fly one-way on USAirways,

Best overall for Star Alliance travel due to lack of fuel surcharges and flexible routing and change rules:
-United: 80K coach, 120K business, 150K first.
-Transfer partners: Chase Ultimate Rewards partner at a 1:1 ratio.
-Fuel surcharges: None.
-Mileage expiration: United miles require activity every 18 months or none if you have a United credit card.
Having the United credit card also gets you access to expanded saver and standard award availability.
-One-way awards: Allowed for half the amount of a round-trip.
-Stopovers: United allows for 1 free stopover AND 1 free Open jaw.
-Changes/Cancellation: United allows free date and routing changes, but changes to the origin or destination city or cancellation costs $150 for non-elites.
-Expedite/Close-in fee: $75 within 21 days, waived for United Club cardholders.
-Infant fees: 10% of full fare.
-United also has a round-the-world award that includes up to 16 flights in a single direction across the globe for 180K coach, 260K business, 350K first.
Bottom line: United is awesome for having a robust website, free date changes, one-way tickets, and for never charging a fuel surcharge.

The lowest mileage rates for travel on United and USAirways flights without fuel surcharges:
-ANA: 60K coach, 90K business, 140K first.
-Transfer partners: AMEX Membership Rewards partner at a 1:1 ratio and Starwood transfer partner at a 20K:25K ratio.
-Fuel surcharges: Apply on all airlines except United and USAirways.
-Mileage expiration: 3 years after they are earned regardless of activity.
-One-way awards: Officially not allowed but there are “workarounds.”
-Stopovers: ANA allows for 4 stopovers, though each additional flight will add to the fuel surcharges.
-Changes/Cancellation: ANA allows free date changes, but other changes or cancellation results in a 3,000 mile penalty.
-Expedite/Close-in fee: None.
Bottom line: ANA is awesome if you can find United or USAirways nonstop availability. Otherwise expect to get slammed with fuel surcharges. However bear in mind that fuel surcharges are the worst over the Atlantic, so if you can find United or USAirways availability to anywhere in Europe then the surcharges for a flight from Europe to Tel Aviv on any other airline should be relatively minor.

Best Starwood transfer option for Star Alliance flights besides for travel on United or USAirways:
-USAirways: 80K coach, 120K business, 180K first.
-Transfer partners: Starwood transfer partner at a 20K:25K ratio.
-Fuel surcharges: None, although there is a $50 award ticketing fee.
-Mileage expiration: USAirways miles require activity every 18 months.
-One-way awards: Not allowed.
-Stopovers: USAirways allows for 1 free stopover OR 1 free Open jaw.
-Changes/Cancellation: There is a $150 charge to change or cancel an award ticket
USAirways is draconian in not allowing any changes to partner award tickets once travel has begun.
-Expedite/Close-in fee: $75 within 21 days
-Infant fees: 10% of full fare.
-Partner airline awards must be booked over the phone.
Bottom line: The miles aren’t as great as United’s but besides for their ticketing fee you won’t be hit with fuel surcharges. Note that USAirways will be merging with American and migrating to OneWorld over the next couple years.

Best American Express transfer option for Star Alliance flights besides for travel on United or USAirways:
-Air Canada: 80K coach, 135K business, 190K first.
-Transfer partners: AMEX Membership Rewards partner at a 1:1 ratio and Starwood transfer partner at a 20K:25K ratio.
Note that Aeroplan points can be transferred to USAirways at a 10.84 ratio via points.com.
-Fuel surcharges: If you fly on these carriers you will pay a fuel surcharge: Adria, Air Canada, ANA, Asiana, Austrian, LOT Polish, Lufthansa, TAP Portugal, and THAI.
If you fly on these carriers you will not pay a fuel surcharge: Aegean, Air China, Air New Zealand, Avianca/TACA, Brussels, Copa, Croatia, EgyptAir, Ethiopian, SAS, Singapore, South African, Swiss, TAM, Turkish, United, and USAirways.
-Mileage expiration: Air Canada miles require activity every 12 months to keep them active. They also expire 7 years after they are earned regardless of activity.
-One-way awards: Allowed for about 68% of the award cost of a round-trip.
-Stopovers: Air Canada generously allows for 2 free stopovers, so you can check out 2 American or European cities in addition to Tel Aviv for the same amount of miles!
-Changes/Cancellation: There is a $90 charge to change or cancel an award ticket and a $180 charge to cancel within 21 days of departure.
-Expedite/Close-in fee: None.
-Infant fees: Flat fee of just $50 in coach, $100 in business, and $125 in first.
Bottom line: Air Canada is very good due to generous infant and stopover policies, just beware of the airlines that they collect a fuel surcharge for.

Best for low one-way rates with no fuel surcharges on United and USAirways with very low change and cancellation fees plus the ability to fly on Singapore flights in business and first class to Israel via Frankfurt:
-Singapore: 75K coach, 115K business, 150K first.
-Transfer partners: AMEX Membership Rewards partner at a 1:1 ratio and Starwood transfer partner at a 20K:25K ratio.
-Fuel surcharges: Apply on all airlines except United and USAirways.
-Mileage expiration: 3 years after they are earned regardless of activity.
-One-way awards: Allowed for half the amount of a round-trip.
-Stopovers: 1 free stopover
-Changes/Cancellation: $20 change fee, $30 cancellation fee.
-Expedite/Close-in fee: None.
Bottom line: American Express points transfer to Singapore faster than they do to ANA. Plus with Singapore miles you can fly on Singapore from NYC to Tel Aviv on Singapore to Frankfurt in business or first class and then to Tel Aviv on Lufthansa which you can’t do with other miles. Additionally you can book one-ay awards and change and cancel fees are very low.

Best option for Lufthansa and Swiss business and first class flights:
-Miles & More Group (Adria, Austrian, Brussels, Croatia, LOT Polish, Lufthansa, and Swiss): For departures from the USA nonstop to Tel Aviv: 80K coach, 135K business. For departures from the USA to Tel Aviv via Europe: 100K coach, 185K business, 290K first. For departures from Israel to the USA nonstop or via Europe for Miles & More accounts with an Israeli address on file: 60K coach, 105K business, 170K first.
-Transfer partners: Starwood transfer partner at a 20K:25K ratio.
-Fuel surcharges: Apply on all airlines except USAirways.
-Mileage expiration: Miles expire 36 months after they are earned regardless of activity.
-One-way awards: Allowed for half the amount of a round-trip.
-Stopovers: 2 free stopovers.
-Changes/Cancellation: There is a $60 charge to change or cancel an award ticket.
-Expedite/Close-in fee: None.
-Infant fees: None except for airport departure taxes.
-Children ages 2-11: Receive a 25% discount on the mileage requirement on Miles & More flights.
Bottom line: The real beauty of Miles & More is the expanded award availability. If you want to travel in First Class on Swiss or Lufthansa then you’ll greatly appreciate the expanded availability as booking first class in advance on these airlines is nearly impossible with partner miles.  However you’ll need lots of miles for an extremely expensive 3 region award if you are departing from the USA.  Infant and children policies are excellent. Beware that fuel surcharges are a killer though!
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OneWorld:
Oneworld availability to Israel can be tough to find without fuel surcharges. Flights to Israel include Air Berlin via Berlin and Dusseldorf, BA via London, Iberia via Madrid, and Royal Jordanian via Amman.  BA availability is good, but has high fuel surcharges.

El Al is not part of OneWorld (and therefore can’t be booked with miles from other airlines like BA) but they are non-alliance partners with AA. It’s more advantageous to book El Al travel with AA miles than it is with El Al miles (the miles received from the HAS Advantage card) because El Al adds fuel surcharges onto their own tickets, but you do not pay any fuel surcharges for booking El Al tickets with AA miles. However you can only book coach or business on El Al when using AA miles, first class must be booked with El Al points. El Al has nonstop flights from JFK, Newark, Los Angeles, and Toronto to Tel Aviv.
You can check OneWorld availability on flawed sites such as AA.com, BA.com, and Qantas.com. (BA or Qantas frequent flyer account required) You can check El Al availability on elal.com (Matmid account required). You can also check availability by calling AA.

Best OneWorld option for nonstop travel to Israel and for travel via Europe on El Al without fuel surcharges.:
-American: 80K coach off-peak (10/15-05/15 annually) via Europe, 90K coach on El Al flights from North America or peak via Europe, 135K business on El Al flights from North America or via Europe, 180K first via Europe.
-Transfer partners: Starwood transfer partner at a 20K:25K ratio.
-Fuel surcharges: Apply for flights on partners British Airways (very high) and Iberia (nominal).
-Mileage expiration: AA miles require activity every 18 months.
-One-way awards: Allowed for half the amount of a round-trip.
-Stopovers: Allowed at the North American gateway city.
-Changes/Cancellation: AA allows free date and routing changes, but changes to the origin or destination city or cancellation costs $150 for non-elites.
-Expedite/Close-in fee: $75 within 21 days for non-elites.
-Infant fees: 10% of full fare.
-Some partner airline awards must be booked over the phone.
-The best shot at availability without paying fuel surcharges would be to take AA to London or anywhere else in Europe and then El Al from London or anywhere else in Europe to Tel Aviv. This routing would be 80,000 miles between October 15-May 15 or the same 90,000 miles as the nonstop El Al flight from the US during the summer.
You need to call American to book travel on El Al. You should do your research first by opening a Matmid account and searching for awards on elal.com. Remember to search for flights from all of El Al’s cities in North America and in Europe as you can use other American and partner flights to reach those El Al cities.
-American has an alternate OneWorld Explorer award chart which allows for up to 16 stopovers starting from 90,000 miles in coach, 115,000 miles in business, and 150,000 miles in first, but the rules of this complicated award that require at least 2 OneWorld carriers besides AA and excludes partners such as El Al are beyond the scope of this article.
Bottom line: AA is great for El Al and is a decent option for connecting in Europe, though watch out for BA surcharges.

Lowest OneWorld rates to Israel without fuel surcharges on Air Berlin:
-British Airways: 60K coach on Air Berlin, 65K coach on other carriers, 100K business on Air Berlin, 130K business on other carriers, 195K first.
-Transfer partners: AMEX Membership Rewards partner at a 1:1 ratio, Chase Ultimate Rewards partner at a 1:1 ratio, and Starwood transfer partner at a 20K:25K ratio.
-Fuel surcharges: Apply for all Trans-Atlantic flights except on Air Berlin and Aer Lingus via Ireland.
You can drastically reduce fuel surcharges for travel on Iberia via Madrid by transferring your BA Avios into Iberia Avios. You must have your Iberia account open for 3 months before you can do such a transfer.
-Mileage expiration: BA miles require activity every 36 months.
-One-way awards: Allowed for half the amount of a round-trip.
-Stopovers: Each leg costs additional mileage, but you can stopover at any connection city for as long as you want.
-Changes/Cancellation: $40.
-Expedite/Close-in fee: None
-Infant fees: Instead of cash, BA charges just 10% of the adult mileage required on international segments.
-Some partner airline awards must be booked over the phone.
Bottom line: The infant policy is great and if you can find Air Berlin availability for your dates you can grab a real steal.  See this post for help on finding Air Berlin availability.

Lowest OneWorld mileage rates to Israel:
-JAL: 50K coach, 80K business, 115K first.
-Transfer partners: Starwood transfer partner at a 20K:25K ratio.
-Fuel surcharges: Applies to most travel.
-Mileage expiration: 3 years after they are earned regardless of activity.
-One-way awards: Not allowed.
-Stopovers: JAL allows for 2 stopovers, though each additional flight will add to the fuel surcharges.
-Changes/Cancellation: JAL allows free date changes, but other changes or cancellation results in a 3,000 mile penalty.
-Expedite/Close-in fee: None
Bottom line: The fuel surcharges will likely eat away at the low mileage requirements though if you’re short on miles it’s worth looking into.

The only no fuel-surcharge option to fly on British Airways:
-LAN: 112K coach via Amman, 154K coach via London, 224K business via Amman, 308K business via London, 385K first via London.
-Transfer partners: Starwood transfer partner at a 20K:50K ratio.
-Fuel surcharges: None.
-Mileage expiration: LAN kilometers expire 3 years after they are earned unless you take a paid LAN flight.
-One-way awards: Not allowed.
-Stopovers: Each leg costs additional mileage, but you can stopover at any connection city for as long as you want.
-Changes/Cancellation: Date changes are free, cancellations carry a varying kilometer penalty.
-Expedite/Close-in fee: None
-Partner airline awards must be booked over the phone.
-LAN is interesting due to the excellent Starwood transfer ratio and that they are the only airline that will book you on British Airways without collecting fuel surcharges. It may take about 155K Starpoints to fly from New York to Israel via London in BA First, but at least you won’t be paying fuel surcharges!
Bottom line: The only way to fly BA without fuel surcharges. Several DDF readers have flown to Israel via Amman using LAN kilometers without any problems.
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Skyteam:
Skyteam generally has the worst award availability. You can try searching some Skyteam availability on Delta.com and AirFrance.com. Options to Israel besides Delta’s nonstop JFK flight are on Czech via Prague, KLM via Amsterdam, Air France via Nice or Paris, Aeroflot via Moscow, and Alitalia via Rome.

Best overall Skyteam option:
-Flying Blue (Air France/KLM): 25K coach during a promo period, 50K coach otherwise, 50K business during a promo period, 100K business otherwise.
-Transfer partners: AMEX Membership Rewards partner at a 1:1 ratio, Starwood transfer partner at a 20K:25K ratio.
-You can check which cities have promo awards for select dates here. Fuel surcharges will apply.
-Fuel surcharges: Apply on all airlines except Delta.
-Mileage expiration: Flying Blue miles expire 20 months unless you credit a Skyteam flight to Flying Blue.
-One-way awards: Allowed for half the amount of a round-trip.
-Stopovers: Flying Blue allows for 1 free stopover.
-Expedite/Close-in fee: None.
-Infant fees: 10% of full fare.
Bottom line: Very low mileage rates, though fuel surcharges for airlines besides Delta are hefty. Delta travel can be a bargain though. Expanded award availability for travel on Air France and KLM.

Best option for some Skyteam travel excluding for Delta and some Air France/KLM flights:
-Delta: 80K coach, 120K business.
-Transfer partners: AMEX Membership Rewards partner at a 1:1 ratio, Starwood transfer partner at a 20K:25K ratio.
-Fuel surcharges: Apply on select partners but generally won’t apply to/from Israel.
-Mileage expiration: None.
-One-way awards: Not allowed.
-Stopovers: Delta allows for 1 free stopover OR 1 free Open jaw.
-Changes/Cancellation: There is a $150 charge to change or cancel an award ticket. No changes or cancellations are allowed within 3 days of the flight.
-Expedite/Close-in fee: None.
-Infant fees: 10% of full fare.
-It can be brutal trying to find Delta low award availability and Delta’s terrible website only makes it more difficult. Plus Delta used to be a good option for booking Air France/KLM but now availability when booking those direct with Flying Blue is much better than when booking with Delta.
Bottom line: Find availability before transferring to Delta.

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Only a good option for redeeming for ultra-expensive First Class nonstop to Tel Aviv:
-El Al 1,400 coach, 3,000 business, 5,000 first.
-Transfer partners: AMEX Membership Rewards partner at a 50:1 ratio, making a coach ticket 70K, a business ticket 150K, and a first class ticket 250K.
-Fuel surcharges: $349 for JFK-TLV.
-Mileage expiration: Points from flights and bonus promotions expire after 3 years regardless of activity and base points from partners and transfers do not expire.
-One-way awards: Allowed for half the amount of a round-trip.
-Expedite/Close-in fee: None.
Bottom line: Only transfer points to El Al if you need to fly in first class to Israel as AA can’t book El Al first class. In first class you’ll enjoy what’s likely to be the best glatt/mehadrin kosher food in the sky, but you’ll burn a lot of miles and be hit with a $349 surcharge for the pleasure. Plus the seat pales in comparison to every other First Class product out there, though it is at least lie-flat.

Know of a better way to get to Israel with miles? Find a mistake? Have something to add? Post a comment!

Currently the cheapest nonstop NYC-Tel Aviv flights are $1,118.

If you’re creative though you can manufacture a cheaper ticket, though the airlines may not like it and they may punish people who abuse hidden city ticketing repeatedly, so don’t do this every month.

For example go to the Travelocity multi-destination search page and search for NYC-TLV (in flight #1) on 04/22 and then TLV-ORD (in flight #2) on 05/08.

You can book a nonstop on Delta from JFK or on United from Newark to Tel Aviv on 04/22.  For the return on 05/08 you can select a Delta flight from Tel Aviv to Chicago connecting in JFK or a United flight from Tel Aviv to Chicago connecting in Newark.  Everyone, whether their destination is NYC or anywhere else in the world, must pickup their luggage in JFK or Newark on the return and bring it through customs.  At that point you can either recheck your bags or just leave the airport.

In the red square is a flight that nobody is going to force you to board.

The price using this “hack” is $906, a $212 savings off the regular nonstop fare.  Now the price for Chicago-Tel Aviv via NYC is just $696, but this allows you to fly nonstop both ways and realize part of that fare differential without flying to Chicago to start the trip.

For other sample dates just try the ones posted in yesterday’s Chicago post.
Of course other dates can work as well. The more critical portion is finding cheap return dates to Chicago (many of which are listed in that post or can be found by using ITA calendar search as I wrote in that post) as the outbound dates from NYC are much more flexible than the valid return dates to Chicago.

-Bookable on Priceline (with regular mileage earning and free cancellations until 11:30pm ET the day after you book or on Orbitz (with regular mileage earning and free cancellations until 10pm CT the day after you book.

- Earn 3 points per dollar with American Express® Premier Rewards Gold Card, 3 points per dollar with The Business Gold Rewards Card® from American Express OPEN, or 2.14 points per dollar with Chase Sapphire Preferred.
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There are lots of below average airfares to Israel right now from cities like Atlanta, Baltimore, Chicago, Cincinnati, Cleveland, Detroit, Houston, and Los Angeles.

Read about using ITA Software to use their awesome month-long calendar search to help find dates with cheap flights.

Below are some sample valid dates from Chicago.
If you live in NYC or Toronto you can always book a cheap one-way ticket (paid or with miles/Avios) to pickup the ticket in Chicago for example and then simply not fly the final segment from NYC/Toronto to Chicago as everyone must pickup their luggage and bring it through customs before they can either recheck their bags or leave the airport.

Chicago-Tel Aviv: $690-$696 round-trip.
Sample valid dates:
04/16-04/24 (Delta via JFK)
04/28-05/08 (Delta via JFK)
04/29-05/08 (Delta via JFK)
05/06-05/21 (United via Newark)
05/06-05/22 (Delta via JFK)
05/07-05/22 (Delta via JFK)
11/27-12/05 (Air Canada via Toronto)
12/01-12/12 (United via Newark)
12/08-12/16 (Air Canada via Toronto)
12/08-12/17 (Delta via JFK)
01/12-01/23 (Air Canada via Toronto or Delta via JFK)
01/15-01/27 (Air Canada via Toronto or Delta via JFK)
01/19-01/26 (Delta via JFK)
01/19-01/27 (Air Canada via Toronto or Delta via JFK)
01/30-02/11 (United via Newark)
02/02-02/10 (United via Newark)
02/09-02/17 (United via Newark)

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Join the 12,900+ people who follow @DansDeals on twitter and you’ll get a tweet when a deal is posted on DansDeals.com!
You can even set up your mobile device to receive text messages (and choose which hours of the night not to bother you). After setting up your device be sure to opt into mobile notifications from DansDeals (it’s in the drop-down menu next to the blue “Following” button), so that you will never again be kicking yourself for missing a crazy deal!

Via PlatinumGuy: “President Barack Obama will be visiting Israel in March as a result of the El Al fare glitch.”

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I’ve finally arrived home after traveling more than 25,000 miles in the past 9 days.

Just catching up with some 15,000+new emails (most of which will unfortunately go helplessly unanswered, that’s why there is a forum folks, I’m only human!) as well as new tweets and thousands of forum posts but this interaction on my twitter feed put a smile on my face:

By now thousands of you have already traveled to Israel after several insanely cheap ticket deals, whether nonstop from NYC on El Al or Delta or connecting via Chicago, Rome, Amsterdam, London, or Paris.

What was your experience? Were there other DansDeals readers on your flight? Hit the comments!

#DansDealsYourTrip

 
Being named “Dan” alone won’t cut it…

 
…But wallet candy like this will.

There are Dan Lounges in the B and C corridors in TLV.  Here’s how you can access them.

Option 1: Lounge Club.
You can get a free Lounge Club membership with a card like the Chase Ink Bold, Ink Plus, or Ink Cash cards.
You can apply here for the free membership with code: CHASEINK
You get 2 free visits per year with this membership and you will be billed $27 for additional visits or guests.
The good news is that additional user cards are free on Ink cards and they also qualify for their own Lounge Club membership cards!

Option 2: Priority Pass
You can get a free Priority Pass membership with a card like the The Platinum Card® from American Express and The Business Platinum Card® from American Express OPEN.
You can apply here for the free membership
While with the Platinum card lounge program on American, Delta, and USAirways you can bring in 2 guests or your entire family for free, that is not the case with lounges that require Priority Pass access. Additionally while the Platinum card access continues to work even if you cancel your Platinum account, the Priority Pass membership does not.
With Priority Pass you get unlimited free visits per year but you will be billed $27 for guests.
Additional user cards do qualify for their own free Priority Pass membership. On the consumer Platinum card you can add 3 additional users onto your account for a $175 annual fee ($58.33/card).

Option 3: Chase United Club
You can get a free United Club membership with the Chase United Club card. You can access that card from the Club tab on the Chase United Explorer card.
The United Club membership provides free access for you and 2 guests or your entire family to United and USAirways lounges even if you are not flying that day. However when you access other partner lounges you generally need to be flying on a Star Alliance airline (like Aegean, Air Canada, Austrian, Brussels, LOT, Lufthansa, SAS, Swiss, Turkish, United, or USAirways) to access the lounge and you are typically limited to one or two guests, depending on the lounge and the mood of the agent.

Option 4: United Club Membership
You can also access the lounge with a United Club membership the same way as a Chase United Club cardholder would. Though a club membership typically costs more than the credit card does.

Option 5: Star Alliance Gold
If you have Star Alliance Gold elite status you can access the lounge with 1 guest when flying on a Star Alliance airline.
It’s ridiculously easy to get Star Alliance Gold status via Aegean and that status may be even be good for life! Fringe benefits of Aegean Star Gold status when flying an airline like United? Free confirmed flight changes at online checkin, 3 free 70 pound bags for you and all your companions, and Star Alliance lounge access worldwide.  That even includes free lounge access in the US where United blocks its own top-tier elites from accessing their own lounges as they want them to buy a membership or get the United Club card!

Option 6: Fly Business or First!
When you fly in premium classes most airlines will give you a lounge pass to access the Dan Lounge.  Even if you aren’t gives a pass at checkin you can also try to access the lounge with your boarding pass.  You can even give your business/first class lounge pass to a friend flying coach and access the lounge via any of the other methods as well!

Thanks to everyone who posted in this DDF thread!

Update: This fare is now available in April, May, June, September, October, November, and December as well!  To help find those dates I highly recommend that you read about using ITA Software and use their awesome month-long calendar search to help find dates with cheap flights.

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-Bookable on Priceline (with regular mileage earning and free cancellations until 11:30pm ET the day after you book or direct from the airline.

Earn 3 points per dollar with American Express® Premier Rewards Gold Card, or 3 points per dollar with The Business Gold Rewards Card® from American Express OPEN, or 2.14 points per dollar with Chase Sapphire Preferred.

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Valid for round-trip flights starting in Tel Aviv only. There are stopovers in Madrid that are less than 2 hours in both directions.

Sample valid outbound TLV-JFK dates:
02/05
02/06
02/14
02/18
02/19
02/20
02/25
02/26
03/04
03/07

Sample valid return JFK-TLV dates:
02/10
02/11
02/12
02/17
02/18
02/19
02/25
02/26
03/04
03/05
03/06
03/10
03/11
03/12
03/13

HT: YeahThatsKosher

Update: As predicted, Delta and United have matched and it’s bookable now on Orbitz.  United operates the newest and best planes on the route and offers the most valuable mileage as well.

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-Bookable on Orbitz (with regular mileage earning, free cancellations until 10pm CT the day after you book, and price assurance refunds) or direct from the airline. Orbitz works on central time, so the day ends at 12:59am ET. A ticket bought at 1am ET would have until 11pm ET the day after, or 46 hours. A ticket bought at 11pm ET would have until 11pm ET the day after, or 24 hours.

- Earn 3 points per dollar with American Express® Premier Rewards Gold Card, 3 points per dollar with The Business Gold Rewards Card® from American Express OPEN, or 2.14 points per dollar with Chase Sapphire Preferred.

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-This fare is currently valid on El Al from JFK or Newark to Tel Aviv.  This fare (U class) will not earn any AA miles so don’t credit it there!

-There is a strong chance that this fare will be matched later today by Delta and United.  You can lock in the El Al price and cancel later if Delta or United matches the price.

-Outbound travel is valid from 02/01-03/16.

-Travel must be booked by 01/18.

-Travel originating in Tel Aviv is about $100 extra.

Sample valid $999 dates:
02/03-02/13
02/06-02/20
02/11-02/21
02/17-02/27 (Purim)
02/20-03/05 (Purim)
03/03-03/18
03/10-03/18
03/10-04/09 (Pesach)
03/14-04/09 (Pesach)

Sample valid $1,063 dates:
04/22-05/01 (Lag B’omer)
05/09-05/20 (Shavuos)

Get out your credit cards, there will be nonstop tickets to Israel tomorrow for just $999 round-trip with tax. I’ll tweet it out with the full details once the sale starts.

No it’s not a crazy sub-$400 deal, but it is a nonstop flight (though curiously 2 of those deals from 2012 were also upgraded to allow nonstops!)
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Join the 11,400 people who follow @DansDeals on twitter and you’ll get a tweet when a deal is posted on DansDeals.com!
You can even set up your mobile device to receive text messages (and choose which hours of the night not to bother you). After setting up your device be sure to opt into mobile notifications from DansDeals (it’s in the drop-down menu next to the blue “Following” button), so that you will never again be kicking yourself for missing a crazy deal!

Update #2: Commenter “Baruch” was able to call BA and get them to book a ticket to Israel with an overnight connection in Germany, thereby saving the extra taxes incurred when booking each leg on separate tickets.

Update: I’ve added information for business class (from 50K Avios+$20 tax one-way) in the addendum at the end of this post.

Related posts:

-Get A 30% Bonus When You Transfer American Express Membership Rewards Points Into British Airways Avios! (Transfers must be initiated by tomorrow, 01/14!)
-Convert 20,000 Starpoints Into 31,250 British Airways Avios (Transfers must be initiated by today, 01/13!)
-Chase British Airways Visa-Get 50,000 bonus Avios for spending $1,000, an additional 25,000 bonus Avios for spending $10,000 in 12 months, another 25,000 Avios for spending $20,000 in 12 months, an award companion cert for spending $30,000 in a year, plus 1.25 Avios per dollar spent everywhere.
-Which Miles To Use To Fly To Israel?
-BA.com Overhauls Their Award Search Engine!
-Getting To Israel On The Cheap With BA Avios And Air Berlin
-Save $400 On Fuel Surcharges To Israel By Booking Avios Rewards Via Iberia Instead Of British Airways!
-Booking With Avios? Check Those Surrounding Airports!
-Using BA Miles To Fly In Business Class For An 80 Minute Flight Can Make Sense.
-Flying With An Infant With Miles In Business Or First Class? Start Collecting Air Canada Miles Or British Airways Avios
-Short-Haul Flights: BA Avios Versus LAN Lanpass.
-BA Miles Are Now Avios…For Better Or For Worse.

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I’ve blogged numerous times about redeeming British Airways Avios for travel on Air Berlin and broke the news that BA stopped charging fuel surcharges on Air Berlin in September.

People have had trouble finding the Air Berlin flights on BA.com so hopefully this article will empower those people to hone their searching skills.

I’m posting this now so that people will be able to lock in these rates via the expiring AMEX and Starwood transfer promotions.  Even if you don’t have enough points you can borrow either of those point currencies from AMEX of you can read on to learn about the valus of Avios+Cash options.  The AMEX and Starwood promotions will both likely be back at some point in the future, but if you’re looking to travel in the next few months and the Air Berlin flights work for you then it will make sense to lock those promotion now.

More after the jump…

(more…)

Update, 12/24 : This is still alive, but with very limited dates.
For example on Orbitz using multi-city from Newark to Tel Aviv on 01/30 and Tel Aviv to Miami on 02/10 comes out to $538 (it says $498 but then the price jumps to $538 on the next page).  The return flight is nonstop via JFK where you can claim your luggage and leave the airport.
If you find more dates make a comment!

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I apologize in advance for posting yet another NYC-TLV fare deal…

The $592 deal for Newark-Amsterdam-Tel Aviv-Amsterdam-Newark is still alive and well.  All of the same rules apply as with that deal, so be sure to read that post first! That deal has many more working dates than this one does.  For example if you are looking for Succos tickets be sure to look at that deal and not this one.

Here’s another way to book it for even less:
Go to Orbitz and under the flight search click on “multi-city.”

You may also have luck with Priceline.
For example search for:
Flight 1 from Newark To Tel Aviv on 01/22
Flight 2 from Tel Aviv to Miami on 01/31.

In the results will be fares starting from $444, but anything less than $498 is just a dummy fare and will give an error. Scroll down to the $498 price and select it.
The itinerary is as follows:

01/22, Delta 34, EWR-AMS
01/22, Delta 9575, AMS-TLV
01/31, Delta 269, TLV-JFK
01/31, Delta 269, JFK-ATL
01/31, Delta 2373, ATL-MIA

Now here’s the catch. You fly nonstop from Tel Aviv to JFK and you pickup your bags in JFK to go through customs. At that point you can go into line to recheck your bags to Miami or you can just leave the airport. Nobody will force you to recheck your bags or board the plane to Atlanta and then Miami.

Of course you can always just go to Miami and book a one-way flight back home. Or if you’re from Miami just book a one-way flight to NYC at the beginning of the trip. This trick also works for Fort Lauderdale.

Sample $498 dates:
01/22-01/31
01/22-02/06
01/23-02/06
01/27-02/05
02/03-02/12
02/10-02/18
02/10-02/20
02/10-02/27 (Purim)
02/19-02/27 (Purim)
02/19-03/03 (Purim)
03/13-04/08 (Pesach, $498) Now $541 (cheaper fares error out)
03/17-04/08 (Pesach) Now dead!

Post a comment if you find other dates.

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Get notified!
Follow @DansDeals on twitter and you’ll get a tweet when a deal is posted on DansDeals.com!
You can even set up your mobile device to receive text messages (and choose which hours of the night not to bother you). After setting up your device be sure to opt into mobile notifications from DansDeals (it’s in the drop-down menu next to the blue “Following” button), so that you will never again be kicking yourself for missing a crazy deal!

HT: chaim

Update, 12/24 : DEAD!

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Update, 12/22: This deal is still alive!

-Bookable for select dates in January-March for $592.
-Bookable for select dates in April-June for $672.
-Bookable for select dates in August-October including the holidays for $672.
-Bookable for select dates in October-November for $592.

-There are some fares showing for even less than $592 but those are just giving error message when you try to book them.
-If you get an error message with one of the sample dates please post a comment with which dates.
-You can’t book this fare with an infant lap child. You’ll need to purchase the infant lap child ticket after booking tickets with seats.
-You can book kids or infant in seat tickets and those will be cheaper than adult tickets.
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-Bookable now on Orbitz, which offers regular mileage earning, price assurance refunds and more importantly free cancellations until 11pm ET the day after you book. (I.E. Book at 1:00am and have 46 hours to cancel for free), or you can book direct from the airline.

Don’t forget to use the best credit card for airfare:
-Earn over 5 points per dollar with Chase Freedom (up to $1,500 per quarter with registration), or 3 points per dollar with American Express® Premier Rewards Gold Card, or 3 points per dollar with The Business Gold Rewards Card® from American Express OPEN, or 2.14 points per dollar with Chase Sapphire Preferred.

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-Search from EWR-TLV on Orbitz.  This is with a stop in Amsterdam.  Some days have short and others have longer stopovers, but it’s a fun city to check out for a day if you have a long stopover.  See this DDF thread for info on kosher food and activities in Amsterdam!

-If you can’t find this on Orbitz then try Priceline.  You can also try Expedia, though cancelling with them can be a pain and usually must be done over the phone.

Book now and think later, this will not last long!  You can always cancel tomorrow night!

Sample $592 dates:
01/16-01/29
01/20-01/29
01/22-01/31
01/23-02/06
01/27-02/05
01/29-02/07
02/03-02/12
02/03-02/17
02/06-02/17
02/10-02/19
02/12-02/21
02/19-02/27 (Purim)
02/19-03/03 (Purim)
02/26-03/10
03/03-03/12
03/03-03/19
03/05-03/19
10/30-11/13
10/30-11/17
11/11-11/17

Sample $672 dates:
04/21-04/30 (Lag B’omer) Priceline Only!
05/21-06/02
05/29-06/09
06/02-06/11
06/05-06/18
06/10-06/24
06/12-06/27
08/19-08/28
08/25-09/09 (Rosh Hashana)
09/02-10/01 (Rosh Hashana, Yom Kippur, Sukkos)
09/10-10/01 (Yom Kippur, Sukkos)
10/01-10/15
10/06-10/20
10/13-10/27
10/20-11/05

Or I highly recommend that you read about using ITA Software and use their awesome month-long calendar search to help find dates with cheap flights.  ITA will help you find every possible valid date and then you can go to Orbitz to book it.
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Get notified!
Follow @DansDeals on twitter and you’ll get a tweet when a deal is posted on DansDeals.com!
You can even set up your mobile device to receive text messages (and choose which hours of the night not to bother you). After setting up your device be sure to opt into mobile notifications from DansDeals (it’s in the drop-down menu next to the blue “Following” button), so that you will never again be kicking yourself for missing a crazy deal!

HT: AJWachsman, via Twitter

Update, 1:45pm: DEAD!
————————————————————–

-Bookable now on Orbitz, which offers regular mileage earning, price assurance refunds and more importantly free cancellations until 11pm ET the day after you book. (I.E. Book at 1:00am and have 46 hours to cancel for free), or you can book direct from the airline.

Sample dates:
01/23-01/30
02/12-02/19
02/24-03/04
02/28-03/06

HT: KINGSFAN3344, via Twitter

Update #2, 1:45pm: DEAD!
————————————————————–
Update, 1:25pm: This has just disappeared from ITA, but is still bookable from Orbitz if you hurry!

————————————————————–

-Bookable now on Orbitz, which offers regular mileage earning, price assurance refunds and more importantly free cancellations until 11pm ET the day after you book. (I.E. Book at 1:00am and have 46 hours to cancel for free), or you can book direct from the airline.

Bookable for select dates in January-March.

Book now and think later, this will not last long!  You can always cancel tomorrow night!

Sample dates:
01/10-01/24
01/13-01/21
01/27-02/04
02/10-02/18
02/24-03/04
03/04-03/17
03/17-04/08

To help find other valid dates check the Orbitz box to search “3 days before and after” to help find other valid dates.

Or I highly recommend that you read about using ITA Software and use their awesome month-long calendar search to help find dates with cheap flights.
————————————————————–
Follow @DansDeals on twitter and you’ll get a tweet when a deal is posted on DansDeals.com!
You can even set up your mobile device to receive text messages (and choose which hours of the night not to bother you). After setting up your device be sure to opt into mobile notifications from DansDeals (it’s in the drop-down menu next to the blue “Following” button), so that you will never again be kicking yourself for missing a crazy deal!

HT: AsherO, WhyAich, and jrose8486, via DDF

A few DDF members are reporting that El Al has told them that the new deadline for switching from a connecting flight bought during the pricing glitch to a nonstop flight is 09/30.  Whether that will be extended again is anyone’s guess, though it is in El Al’s interest to keep making artificial deadlines to get people to switch over…

People are also reporting that El Al has opened up availability for some flights that previously were not available and that they have been successful changing the dates of their trip by a few months!

I’ve taken some heavy flak in some Jewish media outlets over my publicizing of the deal back in August. In case you missed it, here is a copy of my response to some of the character indictments made of myself as well as more background information that doesn’t seem to be have been understood by some of my critics.  It was published a few weeks ago by the Yated, a Jewish weekly, and was uploaded online with their permission.

Update #3:
-DDF members and DD commenters have are reporting significantly better luck with flight changes (date and one-way changes) and hold times of under 10 minutes by calling the Israeli number at 01197239771111 (from the US), and then prompts 2, 3, 1. Call using Google Voice or your OBi for 2 cents per minute.
-People are now reporting being able to entirely switch their trip by weeks!
-Additionally reps are now saying that some 9,000 people got in on this deal…cool!

Update #2: Email confirmation showing booked into “W” fare class, which earns full AA miles according to this AA page.

 
Click to enlarge/clarify.

Update: People are reporting that different reps are enforcing different rules. Some won’t make changes until tomorrow. Some won’t allow any date changes, some will allow 1, 2, or even 3 days. Some require a round-trip change for $150 while others have done a one-way change for $75.
Bottom line as I always say if you don’t get the answer you want: HUCA!
And do it soon as seats appear to be quite limited on the nonstop flights. It seems the best prompts to push is for new reservations, as I suggested in the post below.

Based on the twitter postings of Will Run For Miles (@katruns26point2) on Twitter I just called El Al to change my friend’s flight for Pesach.

He was originally booked from 03/19-04/04 for $336.80. I also booked him on an additional flight in January that he wanted to change as well. Lucky he was at my house when the whole deal went down!

I just called El Al for him (800-223-6700) and followed the prompts to change a ticket book from a 3rd party. After waiting on hold for over half an hour the phone call was disconnected. I called back to book a new ticket and waited just 10 minutes. The agent that answered took down my phone number and promised a return call by tomorrow.

After just a few minutes I got a return phone call. The rules are:
-You must change both directions, you can’t change just one-way, so the fee is $150.
-Not all flights are available and seats are limited, so you’ll definitely want to call sooner rather than later.
-These tickets are being booked into fare class “W” which earns 100% redeemable miles when credited to American Airlines! This is much better than the G fare class for the connecting flights that only earn half the miles (or possibly even no miles depending on the airline) and is in it of itself a good reason to switch to the nonstop flights! American miles are much more valuable than El Al miles, plus unlike El Al miles they never expire if you maintain any activity and you can redeem them for travel on El Al without fuel surcharges (unlike with El Al miles as well)
-You can change the date forwards or backwards by one day on both ends. They may be flexible on this as “Will Run For Miles” reported being able to move them by as many as 3 days, but that flexibility may be based on how full their flights are on the surrounding dates as they were not willing to budge from that rule for my friend and for others on twitter.
-The agent was very kind, even offering to move him as close to the front as possible and was extremely thankful for the business!

Kudos to El Al for booking people into a fare class that earns full mileage and for being flexible on the travel dates!

-I’m still getting angry emails from people who subscribe to the once daily 3pm digest of deals that they missed out on the deal.
Folks, if you want to be instantly alerted of the deals I post you should follow @DansDeals! You can then even opt-in to get a text message (and choose which hours of the night not to bother you) whenever DansDeals.com is updated!

-El Al played the entire saga brilliantly.  They let confusion rule during the free cancellation period so that as many people as possible would cancel their tickets.  Once that period ended they displayed even more of their business acumen.

The decision to let people “upgrade” their flights is really a win-win for El Al.  If people fly on American, British, or Swiss that means El Al having to pay those carriers for your seat.  However if you switch to fly on El Al you won’t cost El Al a thing, except for their opportunity cost of selling more seats in case the flight is completely sold out.  Not only that, but they generate an extra $150 in revenue.  $150 is also a price point that I think most people will probably consider worth paying to save themselves the hassle of having to connect in Europe.

For El Al to turn this from money-losing $335-$435 tickets on other airlines into $485-$585 seats to fill up space on their own aircraft that will cost them practically nothing is indeed a brilliant solution. Sure they could’ve offered it for free, but they know that people are willing to pay a nominal fee to fly nonstop, so I have no problem with them trying to squeeze that extra revenue from this deal.

What we don’t yet know is if El Al books people in a fare class where they can earn full miles on AA and if El Al will allow people to switch the dates on their flights by a day or 2, so stay tuned for that info to come in as El Al starts rebooking people starting this week.

And of course people can refund their flights as well until 08/31.

Gotta love some of the spin on this though, via JTA,

“Although a review of this occurence has not been finalized, a decision was made to accommodate El Al passengers who purchased these low fares because we value our reputation of offering excellent customer service,” said Danny Saadon, El Al’s vice president of North America, in a statement released Thursday. “Hopefully we have provided an opportunity to many first timers to visit Israel as well as reconnect family and friends.”

Sure, as if the DoT regulation (see final page, question 8 ) had nothing to do with the decision
But good PR is always worthwhile as well, and El Al got a ton of it.

“The glitch was the result of a third party subcontracted by El Al to post the Israeli airline’s winter promotional fares online. According to El Al, the discounted airfares were the result of the subcontractor failing to add the fuel surcharge to the total price.”

Which is exactly what I originally speculated had happened. Hopefully that contractor will have to cover any losses.

In an interview Thursday with JTA, Saadon took credit for pitching the idea to honor the fares to El Al President and CEO Elyezer Shkedy, but said the decision for the direct flight add-on was Shkedy’s.

“If we’re honoring passengers’ tickets, let’s also offer them an opportunity to fly with El Al, and make life easier for families that might lose baggage and lose a connection,” Saadon said in explaining the company’s rationale behind the add-on offer.

That spin is priceless, just priceless. We’re only thinking of pleasing our customers, nothing to do with the win-win situation for our bottom line.

“Thanks for your patience,” the tweet read. “Details/decisions re incorrect fares that were briefly sold on Monday are not finalized.”

The wavering was in contrast to two separate Twitter posts on Monday afternoon that pledged to honor the tickets. Saadon in the JTA interview acknowledged that the company’s posts via Twitter on Monday may have been a contributing factor in the decision to honor the tickets.

“Once we said it, we may as well follow our word,” Saadon said.

The decision to honor was “mainly to save face with El Al,” he said. “We’re talking about thousands of passengers. Most are customers anyways, they just took advantage of a ticket that was available at a low price. We’d rather keep them flying with El Al without disappointing them.”

Indeed a lesson for any company, never ever say anything before coming to an absolute and final decision or you may find your hand to be quite forced.

To minimize exposure to similar glitches in the future, Saadon said that El Al will review fares before they are posted online and maintain a buffer of two hours before the process is finalized.

Shucks!
Hope other airlines don’t follow that lead…

I’m very pleased with the decision we made,” he said. “Our customers are very important to us and we want them to fly El Al.”

Agreed. When all is said and done I do give props to El Al for honoring the tickets sold without too much of a fuss about it.

Kudos El Al! Not only will they honor tickets but they will also let people upgrade to nonstop flights or cancel without penalty!
—————————————————————-

“NEW YORK – August 9, 2012 – EL AL Israel Airlines is announcing that the tickets which were purchased on a variety of travel internet sites and ticketed earlier this week (on August 6th) will be honored. In addition, EL AL is offering a more convenient option to anyone who has been ticketed at one of these low fares on flights from the USA to Israel.

The tickets that these passengers are currently holding are for travel via a stopover in Europe in both directions. However, to better accommodate these passengers, EL AL is offering a choice to travel nonstop roundtrip to Israel from New York (JFK or Newark) for an additional cost of $75 each way. Yet another choice is that EL AL is offering a full refund without penalty to anyone wishing to cancel their tickets. To take advantage of the nonstop flights or to cancel, passengers holding these tickets should email EL AL between August 14 and 31, 2012 via email to flydirect@elalusa.com and an EL AL representative will respond to the request.

EL AL Vice President/General Manager Danny Saadon stated, “Although a review of this occurrence has not been finalized, a decision was made to accommodate EL AL passengers who purchased these low fares because we value our reputation of offering excellent customer service. Hopefully, we have provided an opportunity to many first timers to visit Israel as well as reconnect family and friends.”

1. The about-face.

August 6th: El Al’s verified twitter account makes these 2 tweets:
“-An outside company posted incorrect fares on travel websites, so all tickets sold will indeed be honored”
“-Yes, all tickets will be honored!”

I even tweeted a compliment to them at the time,
“-@ELALUSA Kudos for coming out and honoring the tickets without any fuss. @United can actually learn a lesson from you guys!”

Today they made another tweet:
“-Thanks for your patience. Details/decisions re incorrect fares that were briefly sold on Monday are not finalized. We will update tomorrow.”

For posterity (in case any tweets wind up going AWOL) here’s a screenshot link.

Additionally The Jewish Week obtained a quote on the 6th from Sheryl Stein, an El Al spokeswoman, that the fare would be honored.

Apparently El Al hasn’t read the first rule in customer service.  Don’t tell the customer that you will honor something unless you are 100% sure about it. The ill will you will create by backing out will be 100 times worse then if you didn’t confirm that you would be honoring in the first place.
———————————————————
2. News articles:

UPI.com, which claims “Over 100 years of journalistic excellence” has the most bizarre coverage of the story, “Israel’s El Al Airline said the New York to Tel Aviv flights were posted for the wrong price on the Dan’s Deals Web site by a contractor and dozens of customers — many of them Orthodox Jews — quickly moved to take advantage of the discounted fares, which dropped the price of a $1,600 ticket to less than $400, the New York Post reported Wednesday.”
Wow. Just wow.

ABC in NYC had this report which mentions DansDeals’ coverage of the deal:

The NY Post identifies DansDeals twitter alerts as setting off the frenzy.

The USA Today quotes the AP saying that over 5,000 tickets were sold. It mentions a Dan’s Deals email alert, though presumably they mean a Twitter alert from @DansDeals.

VIN quotes DoT spokesman Bill Mosley, regarding the error being done by a 3rd party as saying, “If the third party was working for the airline, that is tantamount to them being the airline,” said Mosely. “I don’t see the distinction if the error was made by a third party or by El Al. If the airline hires a third party to post their fares, that party is under their auspices and it shouldn’t make a difference who actually made the error.”

JTA covers the airfare deal taking down the DansDeals servers.

———————————————————
3. Halachic (Jewish Law) issues:

Yair Hoffman deals with the halachic aspects on VIN.

I’m not going to enter into an ethical or halachic debate, but some key points must be added to that analysis.

1. Only a tiny percentage of flights take off without empty seats, so buying an airline seat seems to be different than buying a physical good. On average about 20% of the seats on a plane (that means over 80 seats on a 747) go out empty. In fact the whole basis of Priceline is to sell bargain basement seats and hotel rooms, as even getting a few dollars is better than getting nothing when the seat or hotel room are unoccupied.
2. Unadvertised airfare sales are the norm. Is it the purchasers responsibility before purchasing an airline ticket to determine if this is a sale or if this is a mistake?
3. The author goes into a lengthy discussion of a fuel surcharge (which is what I originally speculated had been left out of this fare and was later confirmed by El Al) but can your average consumer be expected to understand the concept of a fuel surcharge?
4. The fact that when American Airlines sells you a mileage ticket to fly on El Al they do not collect a fuel surcharge seems to indicate that the fuel surcharge is not an essential part of the ticket. If it was an essential part of the ticket then how would you be able to use that ticket on El Al when you pay no fuel surcharge?
True that when El Al sells a mileage ticket they do bundle a fuel surcharge, but you can clearly see that booking via other sources can often drop the fuel surcharge.
Why should the consumer assume that the fuel surcharge is an essential part of the ticket and should they have to determine if a fuel surcharge is supposed to be collected before buying an airline ticket?
———————————————————
4. My thoughts on whether tickets will be honored:

If you’ll recall during United’s 4 mile island crisis (a term that I coined for the Hong Kong 4 mile tickets that caught on) United waited about 5 days before announcing their final decision, likely to determine with the DoT whether they would have to honor the 4 mile tickets.
United had 2 arguments in that case.
1. They have a published rate chart for mileage tickets. While paid tickets can fluctuate wildly, mileage tickets don’t have such fluctuations. (Though I’d argue that we have seen discounted mileage awards in the past, but nothing like that)
2. Even when it said 4 miles it also said the correct amount of miles on the same page. (Though I’d argue that the page made it look like they were discounting it from the regular rate to 4 miles and indeed on the receipt it said 4 miles.)

El Al is likely having negotiations with the DoT right now and they probably regret having come out on Monday as saying tickets would be honored, as that can only hurt their case for cancellation of the tickets.

Personally I don’t see El Al being able to void people’s tickets, due to the US DoT regulation that prohibits airlines from raising the fare or cancelling people’s confirmed tickets, even if the airline claims it was a mistake.  These regulations have been tested and enforced, for example Korean Air had to reinstate tickets that they cancelled after people started flooding the DoT with complaints.

As for me, sadly Pesach in Israel doesn’t seem to be in the cards so I cancelled my family’s tickets last night, but I’ll be rooting for the rest of you!

In case you speculatively bought tickets during the El Al bonanza yesterday (and why not when you can just cancel them for free the next day…book first and decide later!) don’t forget to cancel the tickets you won’t use before it’s too late.

CheapTickets: Cancel by 11pm Eastern tonight.
Orbitz: Cancel by 11pm Eastern tonight.
Priceline: Cancel by 11:30pm Eastern tonight.
Expedia: Cancel by 2:59am Eastern tomorrow.

Reportedly the following agencies require cancellations to be done within 24 hours of booking:
CheapOAir, Travelocity.

Update #2: El Al has just tweeted that all tickets will be honored! Kudos for honoring without dragging this out for weeks.  I never thought the day would come when US airlines and agencies (ahem, United and Travelocity) could actually learn customer service lessons from an Israeli company! #Moshiach’sTzeiten

Update: The Jewish Week reports than an El Al spokeswomen has confirmed that these tickets will be honored!

—————————————————————-

-Congrats to everyone who got in on cheap ticket bonanza this morning. Tens of thousands of people came flooding to DansDeals through word of mouth, effectively taking the entire server down.

-Smart folks kept up communication by heading to the DansDeals Facebook page and by tweeting to me on twitter @DansDeals. Of course my twitter followers were instantly alerted to the deal as well.  Don’t have a twitter account? It just takes a minute to open one up and then you’ll be able to get a tweet when a deal is posted on this site by following @dansdeals! You can can even choose to get a text message (and choose which hours of the night not to bother you) whenever DansDeals.com is updated!

Twitter is always fun for quotes like these:
“-@dansdeals who knew waking up that today that it was gonna turn out to be such a fun day ” -@Aliza8
“-@dansdeals your like the bat-signal for ortho jews; if there is ever a problem, w/ur rolodex/emaillist your the man to spread word to all!” -‏@shiframeir
“-Thank you @dansdeals! You just helped boost Israeli economy by millions of $$ & create thousands of jobs! Every 100,000 tourists = 450 jobs!” – ‏@DrMikeCohen
“-@DansDeals – “I don’t think anyone orthodox is getting any work done this morning” ” -@dovemerson
“Wow tickets to israel on @dansdeals for $330 avoid the moshiach rush get yours now!” -@StrohBerry7
“-Interesting internet age phenomenon -ability of @DansDeals to incite full-on mob frenzy of would be Israel travelers – we live in wild times” -@dovemerson
“-@dansdeals bringing more Jews to Israel than nefesh b’nefesh. Thanks brother #superstoked” -@herringaide

-I’m not going to speculate on why the tickets were so cheap, though it does seem likely that they forgot to include a fuel surcharge.  However the DoT has strict rules that prohibit airlines from charging additional fees after a ticket is issued or from cancelling paid tickets, so I do think that these tickets will be honored.

-Most agencies allow you to cancel tickets through the following night, so I have until then to decide about my Pesach tickets

So, when are you booked to fly?

City Navigator Israel Maps For Garmin GPS Devices Linky

View compatible models on Garmin’s site before purchasing. All 4 digit models are compatible as well as selected 2 and 3 digit models.

-Just plug the card into your Garmin GPS and you’ll be good to go.
-Includes highways, interstates, and business and residential roads in metropolitan and rural areas.
-Includes turn restrictions, roundabout guidance, speed categories.
-Displays roads and names in English and Hebrew.
-Gives turn-by-turn directions.
-Speaks street names and highways when giving directions.
-Includes thousands of points of interest (Gas stations, gravesites, synagogues, restaurants, stores, lodging, attractions, etc)
-Options to avoid or to go through Yehuda and Shomron.

JDeal: $45 For $75 Of International Cell Phone Services From Amigo!

Amigo is a great service in Israel, I’ve used it in the past and loved it.  If you get 2 phones you can walkie-talkie each other instantly for free so that you can do split up (pray at the western wall, shop at different stores, etc) and easily meet up again.

For just $45 you get $75 of credit!  What does that get you?  A high-speed modem for your laptop with unlimited data is just $5.99/day.  A phone plan with a free phone and free insurance for 2 weeks and 350 outgoing minutes that can be used to call Israel, Canada, UK, and the USA, free incoming minutes, and free walkie talkie is just $49.99, or bump it up to 600 minutes for just $79.99.  Or select a pay as you go plan.  A Wi-fi hot spot for up to 5 devices with unlimited data is just $9.99 a day.

Tourist Plans
Monthly Plans
Data Plans

-Purchase by 12/04/11
-Expires 05/29/2012.
-Limit 2 vouchers per person, one per person per visit.
-Must use in one visit; no cash or credit back.
-Shipping and taxes are included.
-Valid on new orders under standard rate Tourist (bundle or pay as you go) and Monthly rentals only.
-Voucher valid from Amigo-US for phones picked up or shipped from Brooklyn headquarters only
-May redeem voucher one business day after purchase.

HT: mordy788, via DDF, who reports that Amigo let him use the voucher on a plan he already purchased!

Update:  Registration is now open, but is scheduled to close on Thursday at 10AM!  If you are considering going on Birthright sign up now and make a deposit.  If you decide not to go the deposits are fully refundable.  There will be a limited amount of couples allowed on each trip!

For 10 years Taglit-Birthright Israel has been offering a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity; an all-expense paid trip to Israel for students ages 18-26.

Yeladim-Netivot has made this incredible experience available to the frum community as well. We send frum, all-male and all-female Birthright trips to Israel every summer and every winter!

This 10 day trip includes learning about Israel, but mostly gives you the chance to see Israel with your own eyes, understand what Zionism is, and experience Eretz Yisrael in a new light. Through visiting Biblical sights, seeing ancient ruins, hiking through nature, living the culture, fun trips, and introspective discussions, Yeladim-Netivot strives to help each Jew find his own personal connection to Torah and Israel.

We would like to offer you this FREE trip to allow you to re-discover your roots in a new way.

Sign up HERE to receive a reminder when registration opens.

For more information you can visit our website or find us on facebook.

Related:
Update #1
Update #2

Thanks to Amigo for being the official sponsor of Dansdeals.com updates while I’m in Israel! I’m using their USB Modem now to update the site. The card runs on Orange’s HSDPA network and the speeds (about 2 Mbps download and 300 Kbps upload) are great for a wireless card. It has worked flawlessly everywhere in Israel where I have tried to use it and it is invaluably useful!

I almost exclusively use my miles for Business or First class tickets. A coach ticket from the US to Israel on continental is 45K miles each way, but can be purchased for about $600 each way, which means that you’re only getting a value of 1.33 cents per mile. A BusinessFirst ticket though can cost $2,500 each way giving you a value of 4.17 cents per mile.

But what to do when there are no BusinessFirst seats for the dates they you need? Well I got our seats into BusinessFirst just days before departure…

Continental’s Plan B for a BusinessFirst award works surprisingly well once you find an agent who knows about it. Credit goes to FT for the details.
It works like this: If there is a saverpass coach award seat you can call up the international reward desk and ask for a BusinessFirst ticket but be seated in coach and placed on a waitlist for a BusinessFirst seat. For EWR-TLV your account will be debited 57,500 miles for each way.
You will either clear the waitlist into BusinessFirst no later than 24 hours before the flight or the waitlist will expire. If at 24 hours before the flight you still don’t have a BusinessFirst seat then at the airport you have to find an International Concierge or other knowlegdable looking agent and tell them that you are a displaced BusinessFirst customer. If they have no idea what you are talking about tell them to look up “gg onestandby” and review lines 85-89 which spell out the details of this reward. (This is reminiscent of “gg checkpoint line 53″ which you have to reference to show agents how to give you a security pass for you and your guests to access post-security Presidents Club’s if you aren’t flying.) If they need to verify that you have a BusinessFirst reward have them call up the reward desk.
Still not able to get a seat in BusinessFirst? Just call up the reward desk after the flight and they’ll give you a refund of the difference between the standard coach award and the standard BusinessFirst award.

At any rate the flight was very nice. When I flew to Israel 2 years ago in BusinessFirst Continental still had the old video system that cycled through a few movies. The new large touch-screen AVOD system allows to choose from hundreds of movies, TV shows, games, and music. You can pause, fast-forward, and rewind as you please.
For dinner the people who ordered kosher meals got:
-An appetizer bowl of nuts, craisins, and sunflower seeds.
-A first course of a roll and a fish salad.
-A choice of your own personal bottle of kosher red wine or Chardonnay (or both!)
-A main course option of fish or chicken with another roll, fruit, and a chocolate fudge cake.
The kosher Breakfast was cheese blintzes, a roll, J&J reduced fat cream cheese, norman fat free fruit yogurt, a fruit bowl, and a cheese plate.

The seats recline at a 170 degree angle which is fine for sleeping. Continental’s new lie-flat BusinessFirst seats are slated to begin being installed in September.

Immigration at TLV was shockingly easy, we weren’t even asked a single question!

I turned down an upgrade at Budget for a Hyundai I3 hatchback in favor of the Mazda 3. I’m not sure how every rental car company is Israel gets away with making Liability insurance mandatory. By having a World Mastercard they let you decline the CDW coverage, but even if your personal car insurance covers liability they still force you to take their own liability coverage at $14/day, which effectively doubled the rate.

Israeli GPS systems are very hard to use on the english settings. There are so many ways to spell a city and street name that it is very hard to find what you need. Zefat, Zfat, Tsfat, Tzfat, Safed…every city and street probably has half a dozen ways to spell it and only one will work in the GPS. Nevertheless once you find the place you want to go they do an amazing job at navigating, probably better then an American GPS.

When I was looking for hotels for a base in the North I was shocked at the pricing. I know it’s high season and all, but the going rate was about $250/night. There are no Hilton or Starwood hotels any more in the North so I found a Holiday Inn in Tiberias which is part of the Priority Club program.
The paid rate was $250/night and it costs 15,000 PC points/night to stay there. Priority Club normally sells its points at 1.15-1.35 cents per point, so buying them directly from Priority Club wouldn’t yield much of savings. AMEX MR points transfer to PC at a 1:1 basis and Diners club points transfer at a 1:1.25 basis but that would still be a lot of points to transfer for a Holiday Inn.

The solution is Priority Club’s new cash and points redemption option. With the option you can redeem 5,000 points + $60 for a hotel room. Unlike with Starwood’s cash and points option though what actually occurs is that the $60 buys you the remaining 10,000 points that you would need for the 15,000 point Holiday Inn award. If you can the room you will therefore get a refund of 15,000 points! In effect you are thus able to purchase PC points at 0.6 cents per point by using the cash and points workaround. 15,000 points at 0.6 cents per point would make the Holiday Inn Tiberias $90/night which I reserved.

When I went back to the Priority Club’s website the next week I saw that the Holiday Inn Tiberias was on a PointBreaks special of just 5,000 points/night. So I canceled my previous reservation and rebooked for 5,000 points, or just $30/night!

The hotel is located about 1 mile south of the downtown midrachov, so it’s in a much quieter area than the former Sheraton Tiberias which was right on the noisy midrachov. Upon check-in I was given the option of staying in the Golan wing or the Kinneret wing. The Golan wing room was tiny with barely enough room the bad and a bathroom. The Kinneret wing room was much nicer and bigger with a nice entry-room, decent sized bathroom, a couch, a desk, and even a balcony! There was a box of delicious (kosher lamehadrin) chocolate chip cookies, 2 small bottles of red wine, and 2 bottles of water waiting in the room for us.

I’m holding a few days after this, but that’s all I have time for now, I’ve still got a lot to talk about like using gizmo5, Amigo’s push to talk service, and a report on the brand new Mamilla Jerusalem hotel.  Feel free to post comments with your own thoughts and anything I can do to make these trip reports most helpful!

For all of your cell phone, blackberry, and modem needs while in Israel visit amigo-us.com for the best deal around!

Thanks to Amigo for being the official sponsor of the updating of Dansdeals.com direct from Israel!

I have been busily booking up tickets for friends and family on Delta’s fabulous 25% off business elite mileage tickets sale.

While I don’t think much of the 72,000 mile offering in coach to TLV, the 90,000 mile business elite offering is quite nice. It didn’t take much to convince my father in-law to pay the $100 redeposit fee and an extra 10,000 miles to cancel his coach MCI-TLV ticket and rebook it in business elite.

At any rate on select dates Delta will be flying their brand new 777-200LR aircraft to Tel Aviv which has the brand new lie-flat Business Elite seats. I was just able to snag some seats for my Aunt and Uncle on the lie-flats at the 90k rate!

Here are some links to give you an idea of the difference between Delta’s old and new Business Elite seats:

Old Business Elite

New Business Elite (777-200LR)

And finally a picture of good ole’ cattle class (where you should never have to sit if you play your miles right)

I see the 7770-200LR aircraft operating on the following dates for example:
JFK-TLV:
05/21
05/23
05/25
05/27
05/29
05/31
06/02
ATL-TLV:
05/31
TLV-JFK:
05/23
05/25
05/27
05/31
06/02
You have to click on “view seats” to see if it is listed as a 777-200LR. If you find more dates be sure to post!

The airlines that fly to Tel Aviv know good and well when they can charge exorbitant prices and block out all “saver” mileage seats. I was just able to land a saver BusinessFirst ticket for a friend to go from Cleveland to Israel for Pesach from 04/10-05/06 for just 100,000 Continental miles and $35 in tax! To buy the ticket would have been about $5,000, so he got an excellent value of 5 cents per mile.

These mileage seats will probably be gone very soon, so book now! You are able to go coach in one direction and BusinessFirst the other. Listed availability is as of the time of this posting only and will change rapidly!

You may be able to book Continental travel on these dates with miles from other Skyteam alliance partners such as Air France/KLM Flying Blue, Delta, and Northwest. Continental tickets to Israel booked via Flying Blue are just 25,000 miles each way (or 20,000 Starpoints), but Flying Blue tacks a fuel surcharge onto award tickets that the US based airlines do not.

Continental non-elite member’s saverpass availability nonstop Newark-Tel Aviv:

EWR-TLV

Coach (35,000 miles OW): 04/02

BusinessFirst (50,000 miles OW) 04/08, 04/10

TLV-EWR

Coach (35,000 miles OW): 05/01, 05/04, 05/05

Continental Elite member’s saverpass availability nonstop Newark-Tel Aviv:

EWR-TLV

Coach (35,000 miles OW): 04/02, 04/03, 04/06, 04/07, 04/08, 04/09

BusinessFirst (50,000 miles OW) 04/08, 04/10

TLV-EWR

Coach (35,000 miles OW): 05/01, 05/04, 05/05, 05/07, 05/08

BusinessFirst (50,000 miles OW) 05/06

20,000 Starwood Starpoints transfer into 25,000 Flying Blue (Air France and KLM’s joint loyalty program) miles.

That is all you will need to have to get to Israel or any other “European” destination in March or April!

S.B.S. previously made an excellent 8 page PDF examining every way of getting to Israel via Starpoints.

In that article he pointed ways of getting to Israel for 40,000 Starpoints or less (Via transferring Starpoints to JAL, British Airways, LAN, or Flying Blue)

Now S.B.S. points out (via fellow Clevelander “Beaubo”) that the Flying Blue program has special reduced mileage awards released every 2 months called “Web@wards.” These awards are 50% off the regular rate.

For March/April there is a Web@ward to/from Chicago or Toronto and Europe Zones 1, 2, or 3.

This is how Flying Blue defines Europe:
Europe 1: Belgium, France, Germany, Great Britain, Ireland, Netherlands, and Switzerland
Europe 2: Austria, Denmark, Finland, Italy, Malta, Norway, Portugal, Spain, and Sweden
Europe 3: Albania, Algeria, Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus, Estonia, Greece, Hungary, Israel, Libya, Latvia, Lithuania, Morocco, Poland, Czech Republic, Romania, Western Russia, Slovakia, Slovenia, Turkey, Tunisia, Ukraine, and Yugoslavia

The cost for the round-trip ticket is just 25,000 Flying Blue miles!!!

That’s right, open 2 free Starwood AMEX credit cards and you’ve got a mileage ticket to Israel!

As Flying Blue considers Israel to be part of Europe (zone 3), it qualifies as a valid origin or destination.

Even better, unlike with most carriers, you can book one way award tickets with Flying Blue, so if you want to go one-way it will be just 12,500 Flying Blue miles!

The Web@wards to/from Chicago and Toronto can only be flown with KLM via Amsterdam. Web@wards are not valid on Skyteam partners such as Continental or Delta (although nonstop travel to Israel on those carriers is allowed on the regular 40,000 Starpoints/50,000 Flying Blue miles award to Europe zone 3.)

There is also a March/April Web@ward for Los Angeles to/from London nonstop on Air France for just 12,500 miles OW/25,000 miles RT.

Taxes and fuel surcharges, which can be hefty on international carriers, are extra.

Flying Blue Wab@wards: March/April 2008

Unfortunately, you cannot search online for mileage availability on Flying Blue unless you have the required miles in your account.

The best bet for checking availability will be by calling Flying Blue at 1-800-375-8723

Coming soon: How you can check for mileage ticket availability on dozens of airlines.

Back on 10/01 I posted about rumors of AA and El Al signing a codeshare agreement. It has now been signed.

From the press release:

“American Airlines, a founding member of the global oneworld(R) Alliance, today announced it will apply to the United States Department of Transportation (DOT) for authorization to begin codeshare cooperation with EL AL Israel Airlines. The application proposes that codesharing operations begin on Feb. 1, 2008.

Under the proposal, American would place its AA designator code on EL AL flights to Tel Aviv from New York John F. Kennedy Airport (JFK), Los Angeles, Miami and Newark, as well as on EL AL fights to Tel Aviv from European gateways in London Heathrow, Paris, Madrid, Zurich and Rome.

In turn, EL AL would place its LY designator code on certain of American Airlines domestic flights out of El Al’s North American gateways — JFK, Miami, Los Angeles, Newark and Toronto. El Al would also codeshare on American’s flights between the United States and London Heathrow, Paris, Madrid, Zurich and Rome.”

It will now be possible to earn full AA elite qualifying miles and earn elite bonus miles for El Al flights. It will also be much easier to book TLV travel directly from AA.

Iberia.com

The base fare is just $356, but there are some $300 worth of taxes on the ticket!

You will have to connect in Madrid, but there are some decent connection times.

Use Iberia’s flexible search function to find availability.

Fare is valid for travel through March ’08.

Random musings about my first trip to Israel for 24 days this past August with 2 of my younger brothers.

Israel Trip Part 1 Linky

Conversion note: When I went to Israel in August the Dollar:Shekel exchange rate was about 4.3:1, it is now 3.9:1.

Planning the trip:

The trip was based around tailoring everything we wanted to see along with where the Starwood hotels were located!

This was where we stayed each night:

08/03-04: Friday-Shabbos: Sheraton Jerusalem Plaza, Starwood category 3. Upgrade: No.

08/05: Sunday: Le Meridian Haifa, Starwood category 1. Upgrade: Yes.

08/06-09: Monday-Thursday: Sheraton Tiberias, Starwood category 2. Upgrade: Partial.

08/10-11: Friday-Shabbos: Rented an apartment in Tzfas for $150.

08/12-08/14: Sunday-Tuesday: Herod’s Vitalis Spa Eilat, Starwood Category 3. Upgrade: Yes.

08/15-16: Wednesday-Thursday: Le Meridian Dead Sea, Starwood Category 1. Upgrade: No.

08/17-18: Friday-Shabbos: With relatives in Rechavia, Jerusalem.

08/19-23: Sunday-Thursday: Sheraton Jerusalem Plaza, Starwood category 3. Upgrade: Yes.

08/24-25: Friday-Shaboos: With relatives in Ramot, Jerusalem.

08/26: Sunday: Boeing 777.

Getting from TLV/Ben Gurion To Jerusalem:

We arrived in Israel on Friday morning, however I didn’t rent a car at the airport for a few reasons:

-You must be 23 to rent at the airport at most agencies (I am only 22.)

-We were leaving Israel just over 3 weeks later, on a Sunday, so the extra 2 days would add a not insignificant sum.

Everyone that I spoke to before the trip told me not to take a regular taxi but a Sherut, or shared taxi, from the airport. With 3 passengers I was quoted a cost of US$75 for the shared ride. With a little bit of negotiating our regular taxi to the Sheraton Jerusalem Plaza was just $47, and we didn’t have to wait for 9 other riders to join in…

Car Rental:

There’s no way around it, if you want an automatic car you’re gonna pay for it! There is an agent called Chayat at 011-972-3570-5102 that has OK rates for Avis and free underage rentals.

Don’t rent a Hyundai Getz-the Mazda 3 is worth every penny for the upgrade over the Getz.

Only the World Mastercard covers CDW in Israel. As far as I could tell no other AMEX/Mastercard/Visa that covers CDW in Israel.

Driving:

I hate to downplay the risk factor, as I know the statistics for Israeli car accidents are among the highest in the world. However I honestly didn’t find driving in Israel to be much worse than in NYC. Yes, driving in Jerusalem is not easy (and parking is even harder) but overall it wasn’t too bad.

Getting around Israel-Maps:

I came to Israel equipped with 2 great maps that I bought from Amazon:

Streetwise Jerusalem

and Globetrotter Israel

Both were very good, but not quite good enough for navigation in unfamiliar territory.

Being in Israel and having a rental car for nearly a month coerced into buying a GPS for Israel.

GPS:

Yes, I do own a GPS, the excellent Nuvi 680 courtesy of Sam’s Club. Unfortunately Garmin apparently does not make Israeli maps, and the Nuvi can only use Garmin maps…

So on our first day in Israel we went to the Office Depot in the Kenyon Malchah shopping mall in Jerusalem. I bought a small Mio GPS on my Starwood AMEX. It is light-years behind the Nuvi. The satellite lock took forever and the maps were passably accurate at best. It didn’t know that many of the streets in Jerusalem are one-way or only for taxis and buses. (We learned the hard way that the yellow arrows mean taxis and buses only. We were flagged over by 4 cops before we finally got off of the offending road)

However without the GPS we wouldn’t have accomplished half of the things that we got done. It was very helpful in many places where signage was spotty and best, but the most helpful part was the POI section. By just typing in “Tomb” we were instantly informed of the final resting place of every tzaddik ever buried in Israel. We always knew where the nearest gas station was. Best of all you could just search all POI’s and it would spit out tons of neat places that we didn’t even know existed!

All in all, the GPS wasn’t perfect, but I can still strongly recommend it.

To be continued…

The internet is abuzz with rumors of an upcoming announcement of an AA-El Al partnership.

El Al’s current codeshare agreement with Delta is ending due to Delta’s launching of non-stop JFK-TLV service that will directly compete with El Al.

The agreement would allow AA to sell AA-coded flights from the US to TLV.  Additionally it would allow for award redemptions and elite-qualifying miles to be earned on the carrier of your choice.

AA does not fly directly to TLV due to the threat of having their plane repossesed in TLV to pay off debt obligations that TWA left unpaid when they declared bankruptcy and were bought out by AA.

I thoroughly enjoyed reading the heated debate on whether or not I should post about my trip. In the end of the day I think that one of the advantages of this site over other deal sites is that there is a live person finding and posting the best deals, and working through the problems together with everyone else, so it only makes sense for me to write down my own experiences and share the lessons I learned with my readers.

Guidebook:

As any friend that I’ve ever traveled with will attest to, the first thing that I do before going anywhere is buy a guidebook, and read as much as possible in advance in order to plan the trip.

While planning a trip down to every minute detail was much more critical for past 48 hour trips to Hawaii and Florionopolis, Brazil, or even 1 week jumps to Japan, it is still very helpful when trying to squeeze everything possible out of 23 days in Israel.

In general my favorite guidebook’s are the ones published by Lonely Planet, as they are easy to read, and have really great info.

For this trip, being that I had 2 of my brothers as trip planners to help out, I went all out and bought 5 guidebooks.

Lonely Planet ($14.95 from Amazon, published March 2007): I was extremely disappointed to read the blatant and repetitive anti-Israel rhetoric spread throughout this book. However this book does deliver on its usual great suggestions, and is a must-have if you plan to do some hiking in Israel.

Frommers ($14.95 from Amazon, published November 2006) A good compliment to Lonely Planet.

Fodors ($14.93 from Amazon, published July 2006)

Let’s Go ($14.03 from Amazon, published December 2002) Intended for low-budget travelers

Israguide ($5 with rental of Amigo cell phone) Was very helpful with finding restaurants and kivrei tzadikim (graves of righteous people)

Short of hiring tour guides for hundreds of dollars a day, there is no way I could’ve accomplished all that I did without buying at least a few of the guidebooks, so they were a great investment.

Cell Phone:

I rented 3 cell-phones from Amigo US (MIRS in Israel) They run on IDEN, the same technology that powers Nextel in the US. Under the “short-term student” plan that I chose the phones were $20/month each including insurance, and included unlimited walkie-talkie minutes between each other. Minutes to the US were a hefty 25.9 cents/minute, and minutes to Israel were 15.9 cents/minute. Incoming calls were free. Internet usage is shockingly usurious at a whopping 9 cents/kilobyte (over $90 per megabyte!!!!!!) so stay far, far away from browsing the web on your phone. Shipping for the 3 phones to me was a flat $7.50 each direction. The main reason I rented from Amigo was for the free walkie-talkie feature, which we used extensively, and came in handy on many an occasion.

Calling Card:

Being that incoming calls to our phones would be free, it only made sense to find a good way for my parents to be able to call us from the US.

The most convenient, gimmick free international calling card that I have found is the Sonico Green card from Cloncom.

It offers no connection/maintenance/monthly fees, it never expires, and it has 1 minute rounding. Best of all it can be set up for pinless dialing, so you can just dial an access number from your home/cell phone, and then dial straight to your international number, without entering in any kind of pin/password! Additionally, the card can be recharged easily online, and they even accept payment via Google Checkout, so they won’t even have any of your credit card info! To find the card just type in Israel, and it is on the 2nd page of cards (click “view more cards”)

Rates to Israel via local access numbers are 3.4 cents/minute to landlines and 10 cents/minute to cell phones.

To be continued…