Excellent United Business Class Saver Award And Upgrade Space Between Tel Aviv And Newark Or San Francisco This Month!

Never Miss Another Deal - Follow DansDeals on Facebook

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 award space between North America and Tel Aviv is notoriously scarce. So it’s news when any non-Shabbos dates have business class saver award space or upgrade space to/from Tel Aviv.

There is business saver award space from Tel Aviv to Newark on:

• December 11: (1 saver award/upgrade seats available)
• December 12: (2 saver award/upgrade seats available)
• December 13: (At least 9 saver award/upgrade seats available)
• December 15: (At least 9 saver award/upgrade seats available)
• December 16: (At least 9 saver award/upgrade seats available)
• December 19: (At least 9 saver award/upgrade seats available)
• December 20: (No saver award seats, but 7 upgrade seats are available)
• December 21: (No saver award seats, but 8 upgrade seats are available)
• December 22: (At least 9 saver award/upgrade seats available)
• December 23: (At least 9 saver award/upgrade seats available)
• December 24: (At least 9 saver award/upgrade seats available)
• December 25: (At least 9 saver award/upgrade seats available)
• December 26: (No saver award seats, but at least 9 upgrade seats are available)
• December 27: (No saver award seats, but at least 9 upgrade seats are available)

There is business saver award space from San Francisco to Tel Aviv on:

• December 11: (5 saver award/upgrade seats available)
• December 12: (4 saver award/upgrade seats available)
• December 30: (At least 9 saver award/upgrade seats available)
• December 31: (8 saver award/upgrade seats available)

There is business saver award space from Tel Aviv to San Francisco on:

• December 23: (5 saver award/upgrade seats available)
• December 24: (No saver award seats, but 8 upgrade seats are available)
• December 26: (No saver award seats, but 7 upgrade seats are available)
• December 28: (No saver award seats, but 3 upgrade seats are available)

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 those are not proactively offered by flight attendants as there aren’t enough of them for everyone. The Newark flights now also feature Covenant kosher wine in business class, so be sure to sure to ask your flight attendant or the on-board international service manager for a glass.

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 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.

Join the 89,200+ people who follow @DansDeals on Twitter and you’ll get a tweet when a deal is posted on DansDeals.com!
You can even have Twitter send you a text message whenever a new deal is posted.