Flying Blue Not Charging Fuel Surcharges For Delta Flights From Israel…Fly Round-Trip For 40,000 Starpoints Plus $77 Tax!

Never Miss Another Deal - Follow DansDeals on Facebook

Background info:
With flexible currencies like Starwood Starpoints (SPG) and American Express Membership Rewards (MR) points you have the option of dozens of different airlines to transfer to.

With 3 major alliances (Skyteam, Oneworld, and Star Alliance) there lots of transfer options so if you want to travel say on Continental with MR or SPG points.

You can transfer your miles directly to Continental or to Air Canada, Air China, Air New Zealand, ANA, Asiana, Lufthansa, Thai, or USAirways.

-Each of those airlines have their own set of redemption rates, so you have to check which of them makes the most sense for the flight you want to book.

-Once you transfer it to one of those airlines it’s pretty much stuck in that airline and can’t be transferred again.

-A key thing to keep in mind are fuel surcharges. Many foreign carriers add fuel surcharges to award tickets, making them worthless in many cases if you redeem for coach tickets.  Generally US carriers don’t charge these fuel surcharges.  Continental/United never charge them.  AA only charges them if you fly on BA.  Delta only charges them if you originate in certain regions (like Europe) or fly on select partner airlines.  USAirways charges a minor award processing fee, but doesn’t collect a fuel surcharge.  Air Canada only charges a fuel surcharge if you fly on Air Canada, so you are free to fly on any other Star Alliance carrier without surcharges.  Etc, etc…it can get complicated!
———————————————————————————-
Back to the subject at hand.

Flying Blue is the mileage program of Air France and KLM, Skyteam airlines, as is Delta.

Flying Blue is known for low mileage rates but high fuel surcharges. If you can find availability, they have promo awards for as little as 25,000 miles. But finding that availability is tough and fuel surcharges are sky-high, $600-$700!

A nice thing about the program is they allow one-way redemptions, something that Delta does not allow.

While Delta charges 80,000 miles to Israel in coach and 120,000 miles in business (if you find low tier availability) if you book on Flying Blue it’s only 50,000 in coach and 100,000 in business on Delta.

What I learned is that Flying Blue doesn’t charge fuel surcharges when you fly on Delta from Israel!

Delta flies nonstop from Tel Aviv to Atlanta and JFK

So how many points do you need to transfer to Flying Blue?
-20K Starpoints or 25K AMEX MR gets you 25,000 Flying Blue miles, enough for a one-way coach ticket.
-40K Starpoints or 50K AMEX MR gets you 50,000 Flying Blue miles, enough for a one-way business ticket or round-trip coach ticket.
-80K Starpoints or 100K AMEX MR gets you 100,000 Flying Blue miles, enough for a round-trip business ticket.

Another good use for this is that you can book a one-way ticket to Israel with another carrier and then the return trip from TLV to the US with Flying Blue on Delta without any surcharges.
For example:
-You can use 40K (coach) or 60K (business) Continental/United miles to fly one-way nonstop from Newark on Continental, Toronto on Air Canada, Philadelphia on USAirways, or via Europe on many other Star Alliance carriers to Tel Aviv and then use 25K (coach) or 50K (business) Flying Blue miles to return. You won’t pay any fuel surcharges for the trip.
-You can use 45K (coach) or 67.5K (business) AA miles to fly one-way nonstop on El Al from New York, Toronto, or Los Angeles, or via Europe on many other OneWorld carriers to Tel Aviv and then use 25K (coach) or 50K (business) Flying Blue miles to return. You won’t pay any fuel surcharges for the trip.

Here are the tax rates I found. If you need a one-way or round-trip ticket from TLV then Flying Blue can be very good.
If you need a ticket from the US then you’ll want to book a one-way ticket from the US to TLV and then another one-way ticket from TLV to the US. That way on the round-trip you’ll pay $285+$58=$343 instead of $611! Or just use the strategy I wrote about above to avoid fuel surcharges completely from the US.

From Israel:
Coach:
TLV-JFK one-way, 25K miles+$58.65 tax. (Sample date: 09/07)
TLV-JFK round-trip, 50K miles+$77.45 (Sample date: 09/07-09/13)
Business:
TLV-JFK one-way 50K miles+$58.65 (Sample date: 09/14)
TLV-JFK round-trip, 100K miles+$77.45 (Sample date: 09/14-09/19)

From the US:
Coach:
JFK-TLV one-way, 25K+$285.80
JFK-TLV round-trip, 50K+$611.45
Business:
JFK-TLV one-way, 50K+$339.
JFK-TLV round-trip, 100K+$719.45