Business class award space between North America and Tel Aviv is notoriously scarce. So it’s news when non-Shabbos dates have business class award space to/from Tel Aviv.
There is business saver award space from Tel Aviv to Newark on:
- August 29 (1 saver award seat)
- August 30 (2 saver award seats)
- September 27 (At least 9 saver award seats)
There is business saver award space from Tel Aviv to San Francicso on:
- August 29 (1 saver award seat)
- August 30 (6 saver award seats)
These business class seats include United’s newly launched Polaris business class service with Saks Fifth Avenue bedding and pillows. Smart travelers will also request a Saks Fifth Avenue mattress pad, gel cooled pillow, slippers, and pajamas, as those are not offered proactively by flight attendants.
Sample 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 70K 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 70K 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 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 85K standard rate which will go up to 95K in November. 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 “Credit Cards From All Banks“ to find card offers via the logo of 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.
–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 37.5K in coach or 57.5K 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 must call Singapore to book at 1-312-843-5333.
–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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18 Comments On "Rare United Business Class Saver Award Space From Tel Aviv To Newark Or San Francisco"
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thanks dan! does the united explorer BUSINESS card still come with expanded award availability? because it looks like the $95 annual fee is waived for the first year with the business card…? looking for flights to Israel and missed the Air Canada sale yesterday bc I was still sleeping in LA time zone 🙁
Yes, that should work too.
Guess that’s another price to pay for living in LA 😉
Was booked on LH for 52k plus $292 on the 30th. Saw that seats opened when i landed in TLV this afternoon. Grabbed one on UA 85. My A380 experience can wait.
Well done, no-brainer.
Are ‘Plan-B’ reservation usually successful on TLV-SFO / TLV-EWR and vice-versa?
It’s a real YMMV situation. Some reps are great, others are not.
Hey Dan,
I have two seats on the 27th flight (me & my wife) can i upgrade it? If so, whats the process?
(i am a united member and i have a Chase United Card)
Thanks
Are you on a mileage or paid ticket?
Checking here if you responded, not sure why i wasn’t notified by email that you responded.
I paid for my tickets. However, i have 73k miles.
Anything i can do?
Thanks
Can you explain how it works with United making seats available for saver awards? Looking to fly EWR-TLV (in coach) and for some reason there are only 2 days next summer with availability for saver awards (I have club card which opens up many many more dates, but I would like to book tickets with mileage from a different program). Does it ever change which dates they chose to make available for saver awards? Is it computer generated?
It’s way too early for that. Saver seats typically open up within a couple months of the flight, but space can change on an hourly basis.
It’s computer generated based on whether they expect the flight to sell out without having to open saver awards.
what does N9 class mean?
https://www.dansdeals.com/points-travel/milespoints/advanced-level-mileage-post-all-about-expert-mode-how-to-hack-uniteds-award-bug-and-get-the-space-you-were-promised/
thank you
The flight to EWR on the 27th is the the old 777-200
When did I say otherwise?
Still lie-flat and has Polaris amenities and service.
Seeing availability of one or even sometimes two seats a day or two before a weekday flight is not so rare. By then UA have a pretty good idea of where they are holding and if there is space on the flight their computer algorithm tells them they are unlikely to sell or have enough qualified upgrade passengers for, it translates into award seats for UA credit card holders. What is amazing is the nine seats on 9/27.
How to you waive the $75 fee when booking with miles ?