United has excellent nonstop award availability between North America and Israel in coach, especially for United cardholders who have access to greatly expanded award availability. However nonstop business class saver award space between North America and Tel Aviv is notoriously scarce, so it’s news when flights are available.
Award space is normally even tougher in the peak summer travel season when paid airfares jump, but this summer there is incredible business class saver award space between San Francisco And Tel Aviv. That’s due to United putting their new 77W plane on the route in an attempt to ward off El Al. The 77W has significantly more capacity than the current 788, which is great news for consumers.
You can also fly from other US cities to Tel Aviv via San Francisco for the same amount of miles, if there is saver award space between your desired airport and San Francisco
There is business saver award space from San Francisco to Tel Aviv on:
- July 1: (No saver award seats, but at least 9 upgrade seats are available)
- July 2: (No saver award seats, but at least 9 upgrade seats are available)
- July 3: (At least 9 saver award/upgrade seats available)
- July 4: (No saver award seats, but 6 upgrade seats are available)
- July 5: (At least 9 saver award/upgrade seats available)
- July 6: (No saver award seats, but 5 upgrade seats are available)
- July 7: (At least 9 saver award/upgrade seats available)
- July 8: (No saver award seats, but 8 upgrade seats are available)
- July 9: (No saver award seats, but at least 9 upgrade seats are available)
- July 10: (At least 9 saver award/upgrade seats available)
- July 14: (At least 9 saver award/upgrade seats available)
- July 15: (No saver award seats, but at least 9 upgrade seats are available)
- July 16: (No saver award seats, but at least 9 upgrade seats are available)
- July 17: (At least 9 saver award/upgrade seats available)
- July 18: (No saver award seats, but 2 upgrade seats are available)
- July 21: (At least 9 saver award/upgrade seats available)
- July 22: (At least 9 saver award/upgrade seats available)
- July 23: (At least 9 saver award/upgrade seats available)
- July 24: (At least 9 saver award/upgrade seats available)
- July 25: (No saver award seats, but 4 upgrade seats are available)
- July 26: (No saver award seats, but 8 upgrade seats are available)
- July 28: (At least 9 saver award/upgrade seats available)
- July 29: (At least 9 saver award/upgrade seats available)
- July 30: (At least 9 saver award/upgrade seats available)
- July 31: (At least 9 saver award/upgrade seats available)
- August 2: (At least 9 saver award/upgrade seats available)
- August 4: (At least 9 saver award/upgrade seats available)
- August 5: (At least 9 saver award/upgrade seats available)
- August 6: (At least 9 saver award/upgrade seats available)
- August 7: (At least 9 saver award/upgrade seats available)
- August 9: (At least 9 saver award/upgrade seats available)
- August 10: (At least 9 saver award/upgrade seats available)
- August 11: (At least 9 saver award/upgrade seats available)
- August 12: (At least 9 saver award/upgrade seats available)
- August 13: (At least 9 saver award/upgrade seats available)
- August 14: (At least 9 saver award/upgrade seats available)
- August 16: (At least 9 saver award/upgrade seats available)
- August 18: (At least 9 saver award/upgrade seats available)
- August 19: (No saver award seats, but at least 9 upgrade seats are available)
- August 20: (At least 9 saver award/upgrade seats available)
- August 21: (At least 9 saver award/upgrade seats available)
- August 22: (No saver award seats, but 6 upgrade seats are available)
- August 23: (At least 9 saver award/upgrade seats available)
- August 24: (6 saver award/upgrade seats available)
- August 25: (At least 9 saver award/upgrade seats available)
- August 26: (At least 9 saver award/upgrade seats available)
- August 28: (At least 9 saver award/upgrade seats available)
- August 29: (No saver award seats, but 6 upgrade seats are available)
- August 30: (At least 9 saver award/upgrade seats available)
- August 31: (At least 9 saver award/upgrade seats available)
There is business saver award space from Tel Aviv to San Francisco on:
- July 1: (At least 9 saver award/upgrade seats available)
- July 30: (No saver award seats, but 3 upgrade seats are available)
- August 2: (No saver award seats, but 8 upgrade seats are available)
- August 5: (No saver award seats, but 7 upgrade seats are available)
- August 6: (No saver award seats, but 5 upgrade seats are available)
- August 7: (No saver award seats, but at least 9 upgrade seats are available)
- August 9: (No saver award seats, but at least 9 upgrade seats are available)
- August 10: (No saver award seats, but at least 9 upgrade seats are available)
- August 12: (No saver award seats, but at least 9 upgrade seats are available)
- August 13: (At least 9 saver award/upgrade seats available)
- August 14: (No saver award seats, but at least 9 upgrade seats are available)
- August 15: (No saver award seats, but 6 upgrade seats are available)
- August 16: (At least 9 saver award/upgrade seats available)
- August 17: (At least 9 saver award/upgrade seats available)
- August 18: (At least 9 saver award/upgrade seats available)
- August 19: (At least 9 saver award/upgrade seats available)
- August 20: (At least 9 saver award/upgrade seats available)
- August 21: (At least 9 saver award/upgrade seats available)
- August 22: (At least 9 saver award/upgrade seats available)
- August 23: (At least 9 saver award/upgrade seats available)
- August 24: (At least 9 saver award/upgrade seats available)
- August 25: (At least 9 saver award/upgrade seats available)
- August 26: (At least 9 saver award/upgrade seats available)
- August 27: (At least 9 saver award/upgrade seats available)
- August 28: (At least 9 saver award/upgrade seats available)
- August 29: (At least 9 saver award/upgrade seats available)
- August 30: (No saver award seats, but at least 9 upgrade seats are available)
- August 31: (7 saver awards/at least 9 upgrade seats are available)
All of these flights are on United’s brand new 77W Polaris planes with direct aisle access for every business class seat. Business class seats include United’s newly launched Polaris business class service with Saks Fifth Avenue bedding and pillows. Savvy travelers will also request a Saks Fifth Avenue mattress pad, gel cooled pillow, slippers, and pajamas as they board, as those are not proactively offered by flight attendants as there aren’t enough of them for everyone.
Upgrade awards:
You can always waitlist for an upgrade award, but the dates above have flights that are confirmable now by calling United.
If you have a paid ticket, the cost of an upgrade varies based on your ticket’s fare class as follows:
In other words, it will cost 35K United miles plus $600 for a one-way upgrade from most discounted coach tickets to business class.
Business saver class award booking options:
-You can transfer miles from Chase Ultimate Rewards to United (1:1 ratio) instantly. United charges 42.5K one-way in coach or 75K one-way in business class for United flights to Israel. Awards can be cancelled for free within 24 hours. United never collects fuel surcharges. After 24 hours, non-elites will pay $75 to cancel awards more than 60 days before a flight or $125 within 60 days of a flight. Awards can be booked online.
You can also redeem 75K United miles for business class even when there is only coach available. Read this post for how to do that via “Plan B”.
Having a Chase United Club or Explorer card greatly expands the saver award space that you can book. United.com only shows the lowest available award rate when you’re logged in, so a cardholder may see a 42.5K rate while a non-cardholder will see the 95K standard rate. Cardholders also have the ability to book the last seat available in any class with Standard/Everyday awards.
You can view credit card offers by hovering over the “Credit Cards” tab. You can then click on “Top Credit Card Offers“ and then hover over “Card Type” to find card offers from the bank you’re looking for.
-Air Canada charges 40K in coach or 82.5K in business class one-way. There are no fuel surcharges for United flights. Points transfer instantly (1:1 ratio) from AMEX. Transfers from Starwood (20K:25K ratio) can take 2-10 days. Awards can be booked online. There is currently a bonus for transfers from Starwood and from AMEX.
–Aegean charges a mere 30K miles in coach or 45K miles in business class one-way and you’ll need even fewer Starpoints than that thanks to the Starwood 20K:25K transfer ratio. Factoring in a 25% discount that’s effectively 24K Starpoints in coach or 36K Starpoints in business class one-way. They don’t charge fuel surcharges for United flights. Transfers from Starwood can take 2-10 days. You must call Aegean to book at +30-21-0626-1000
–Singapore charges 45K in coach or 69K in business class one-way. There are no fuel surcharges for United awards. You can transfer points from AMEX, Chase, or Citi at a 1:1 ratio, but it will take a day or 2 for points to show up. Transfers from Starwood (20K:25K ratio) can take 2-10 days. You can now book awards online.
–ANA charges 65K miles in coach or 104K miles in business class round-trip, one-way awards aren’t available. There are no fuel surcharges for United awards. It can take 1-3 days to transfer points from AMEX to ANA (1:1 ratio) and transfers from Starwood to ANA (20K:25K ratio) can take 2-10 days. Awards can be booked online, though flights with connections may need to be booked over the phone.
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46 Comments On "Unprecedented United Polaris Business Class Saver Award Space For The Whole Family Between San Francisco And Tel Aviv This Summer!"
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Hey Dan!
Being in Memphis, when I search on United for flights to TLV from MEM, it always routes me through EWR. How do I search United to route me through SFO instead? Any other suggestions to get to TLV from MEM would be much appreciated!
Kol Tuv!
Try https://www.united.com/ual/en/us/flight-search/book-a-flight
Under “Locations and dates” click on “My search preferences.”
Under Preferred connections type in SFO.
Let me know if it works. Probably going to have to be flexible on the dates.
I also like searching just for one-ways.
Hey Dan!
Thanks for reading and replying. I tried your suggestion, but when I choose SFO as the preferred connection, I get the ‘No flights match your filter selections.’ message at the top of the screen. (When I choose to IAH > TLV, I am routed through SFO.)
I guess I can fly Southwest from MEM > IAH, but prefer to fly United all the way from MEM. I guess I can always call United and complain that I can’t book from the website. Perhaps they will waive phone booking fees?
Thanks for helping!
Do you see saver coach or saver business awards if you just search MEM-SFO?
Try calling United and see if they can piece something together. Be prepared to HUCA.
or try first searching mem to sfo on united and then call reservations and have them put both flights together
That’s my next answer if he came back and said it didn’t work 🙂
Can take several HUCAs.
Thanks Dan and Yankel!
Part of the problem is there are no direct flights on United from MEM to SFO. Have to go through ORD or IAH.
Will Reservations be able to book me from MEM > ORD > SFO > TLV and then back for 85K United miles? Trying to to avoid having to buy two tickets.
A LOT of flights, but you can’t beat the price! 🙂
Yes, it’s doable.
But you should also consider flying nonstop on United BNA-SFO.
Still need to call for Singapore?
As far as I know, but correct me if I’m wrong.
https://www.dansdeals.com/points-travel/milespoints/singapore-closing-award-loopholes-star-alliance-award-chart-devaluation-comparison-chart-changes/
“In the good news department, starting on December 7 you’ll finally be able to book partner award travel online. Currently you need to call Singapore at 1-312-843-5333 to book partner award travel.”
Erhm
I don’t think it works for United flights, though I haven’t checked within the past couple weeks.
It does. I believe it works for all *A partners. I just pulled this up right now:
https://imgur.com/a/HvRJE
Awesome!
Dan,
Can you clarify why anyone who is transferring points from Starwood or amex for this would do anything other than book through Aegean? That seems like the best option by far.
Also, if going from east coast, do all of these options (Aegean, Air Canada, etc) let
You add on the east coast to sfo Leg for free, and can you stay in sfo for a day?
Thanks a ton!
Transfers from Starwood to Aegean can take longer than other airlines. By the time it gets there, this can be gone.
Most airlines should allow you to fly via SFO.
Don’t know if you can transfer to Aegean with amex MR seems you can only transfer with SPG points.
CMIIW.
I think that Aegean awards can now be booked online. However, you need to have enough miles to test that out.
Anyone able to test?
Won’t show United
Thought so, thanks.
That’s not true. Aegean awards show up on UAL.com. Just look @ TLV-CAI for example, and you’ll see them.
He’s talking about booking a United flight on AegeanAir.com
Can you upgrade an award ticket ?
With points? Or only with a voucher?
You would have to change it from a coach award to a business award, unless you have GS status.
That’s basically what I was asking how do you upgrade a standard coach award ticket to a business award ticket?
And let’s say without any GDU or any other vouchers is it possible to do a regular standard upgrade from economy class to business class,when you originally paid with award miles?
How about NYC-TLV in business even with a stop? United shows basically only with very long stop overs, shorter ones are scares, Will having a UA explorer expand availability on partner flights too?
No.
Hey Dan
Can I transfer from my chase reserve to a hotel program and then from the hotel program to an airline program ?
Yes.
I’m just wondering how folks are generating enough miles “to take the whole family” on a business class saver award to TLV. Obviously, the airlines have massively cracked down on earning lots of miles by flying. And the credit card companies — especially Chase, which issues UA-earning credit cards — has similarly restricted sign up bonuses and the like. Yes, you could still gin up hundreds of thousands of UA miles if you REALLY wanted to, but can somehow explain to me how you’d do it without massive effort?
Who said it’s doable without effort?
“Effort” is fine — I talking about MASSIVE “stupid” effort. I’m assuming that almost everyone who’s interested in redeeming for a few biz class tickets to Israel (or any int’l destination) has been playing the frequent flyer game for awhile. So they can’t just sign up for every credit card out there and suddenly wind up with hundreds of thousands of ff miles. And unless their job “requires” them to fly constantly on very expensive airline tickets, they’re never going to wind up with hundreds of thousands of ff miles that way either. So let’s say I’m a “sophisticated” frequent flyer who wants to take my family of 4 to TLV in biz class. I think I’d need 600,000 UA miles for that. The “easiest” way I know to gin that up would be to buy $300 Staples gift cards with an Ink card and somehow cash them out (like by money order). To earn 600,000 miles that way would require the processing of 400 gift cards and cost $3600 plus MO fees. I’d also have to pay the significant taxes on the airline tickets themselves. There’s got to be a WAY more cost-effective way to get to Israel with your family, even if it’s less comfortable. Do you know of any other way to gin up this number of points that’s less effort?
OM/Staples runs sales on those GCs all the time…
https://www.dansdeals.com/shopping-deals/gift-cards/get-20-off-every-300-of-visa-gift-cards-from-office-max-this-week-earning-120k-points383-in-20-minutes/
Unless you know of a way to defeat Staples one-per-household rule on a massive scale, I think the only way to do this at office supply stores would be with a great Office Max deal — with compliant staff willing to sell you lots of cards. You’d then need a way to get rid of them, too. I once got about 100,000 points in a weekend in HNL (lots of OM stores there), but OM deals have gotten much harder lately. I don’t think it’s a realistic plan for 99% of your readers.
Successfully booked SFO-TLV in August using 138k Singapore miles through their website. Thank you for the heads up.
Nice!
Unrelated question:
I have a choice of flying EWR-FLL either with either Spirit with a 18x14x10 personal bag or with United’s cheapo Economy for $3 less but with an even skimpier 17x10x9 bag.
Any advice?
BTW, I noticed on United.com that in addition to a personal bag certain other items are allowed. For example: a diaper bag. Need I be traveling with a baby to be allowed to bring a diaper bag? (Some diaper bags are HUGE!)
United any day! for $3!?
United is actually $3 LESS than Spirit.
My point was about the even skimpier allowance for the personal bag on United (UAL’s 17x10x9 vs Spirit’s 18x14x10).
Paying for a full size carry-on or a checked bag is not an option I want to take.
Additionally, it says a DIAPER BAG is allowed in ADDITION to their skimpy Personal Bag allowance. Can I take advantage of that without traveling with a baby?
Thank you Dan! Booked SFO-TLV-EWR 08/07-08/15 Business one way economy plus the other!
Can you explain me how its 24000 or 36000 points after the 25% transfer bonus?
What’s the best way to Aegean Airlines is there any Us number or will it cost me to call? Thanks
Coach/business by dividing the rate by the bonus.
Ah I mixed up the 25% bonus with the 25% bonus from SPG to Aegean what you get for every 20000 points.
Gotch ya
Why not post this American number for Aegean Airlines?
1855-323-4326
Can’t book with this number?
Those agents were brain-dead when I tried.