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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16 Comments On "“Hacking” A Newark To Tel Aviv Nonstop Round-Trip Flight For $756.97 Round-Trip…"
All opinions expressed below are user generated and the opinions aren’t provided, reviewed or endorsed by any advertiser or DansDeals.
orbitz is showing tlv-jfk/ewr with elal for $1097 for succos! but when i click on it i can’t get it for that price! any ideas how to book for $1097? (ITA also has it at this price)
the dates are 9/11/2013-10/3/2013 and around that
What trips from Newark to JFK are available in NOvember 2013? HOw can I book a good fare?
Hi. I see a great price using the ITA Matrix. But I can’t find this flight on Travelocity or Orbitz any ideas?
“At that point you can either recheck your bags or just leave the airport.”
How do you know the airlines won’t crack down on this?
The more people who do this little scandal raises their anger and make it worthwhile for them to charge the full price, at the later time also.
Are people so hard up if they can affords the thousands for these flights, to try and save $100?
On a related post a couple of days ago…
How do you go with AA from TLV to North America for just 40,000? According to AA website it’s 45,000. Also how do you avoid assorted fees which could end up costing almost as much as a normal ticket? Thank you Dan
I see it a different way. The airlines are subsidizing their outlying cities via their NYC or PHL hubs at the expense of these hubs. Look at USair, for example. Almost all 48 lower states fares to TLV via PHL are lower or the same as PHL TLV. In reverse, you can fly TLV to lower 48 for a minimal amount more than TLV PHL. I can understand they need to keep planes full no matter what.
@Boomer:
Charge the full price at a later date?
What are you talking about?
Until you leave the airport in Newark on the return you’re on a regular ticket.
@Yaakov:
It’s 40K via Europe between November and May.
What do you mean by “assorted fees?” As long as you avoid BA there are no fees.
@Boomer: The airlines have been doing this type of pricing for a while now. They know about DansDeals but they choose to leave it the way it is. Why? I don’t know but it’s their choice. For a traveler to find this deal and then go and spend full price on the same flight, I’m afraid that’s called wasting money.
what do you mean by the airline will punish you
My point was, I just bought a flight to Tel Aviv in the winter for 860$. If I had bought the same ticket but added the end to end up in Baltimore, it would have been 777$. and I can get out in NY.
BUt I don’t feel like worrying about it for 7 months.
They can charge you because they sold you something and you ended up comsuming a different product than what you bought.
As in my example.
It’s fine to travel to Baltimore and back to NY and the return.
BUt the idea of promoting this consuming a different product than what you bought does not sit well with me.
And I do think that the day will come when they will charge people for this.
And they will likely then charge you the fare at the time of breach, not the 90$ difference I would have saved.
Hi Dan, I Can’t seem to find a flight on united for the discounted price. Is there anyway I can get that Elal price – $869 on United?
I want to leave NY on January 7th (or 8th) and return on January 20th (or 19th)
Thanking you in advance
Hi Dan,
I have been looking for this flight and cannot seem to find it on either the travelocity or matrix website. I want to leave New York on or around sept 1st and return on or around september 30th. Please let me know if the price is still available.
Thank you.
I AM LOOKING FOR TICKETS TO TLV FROM 8/22/13 TO 09/07/13 PLEASE LET ME KNOW WHERE I CAN FIND BEST PRICE THANK U
are there any deals to israel between x-mas and new years or yeshiva break
Ive been searching for flights from LAX/BUR to JFK/LGA for Aug3-Aug10. ITA pulls up a price of $398 with multiple airlines. The app prompts me to call the airline directly and provide them with the fare code in order to book the flight. Ive tried to contact jetblue, delta, american, and other airlines but non of the reps were aware of such app nor were they able to offer the same prices.
Is there a help desk who can assist with booking?
Any guidance or suggestions would be appreciated.