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 award space to/from Tel Aviv.
There is business saver award space from San Francisco to Tel Aviv on:
- December 31 (At least 9 saver award seats available)
There is business saver award space from Tel Aviv to Newark on:
- November 23 (7 saver award seats available)
These business class seats include United’s newly launched Polaris business class service with Saks Fifth Avenue bedding and pillows, though they are not on planes with the new Polaris seats. 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.
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 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 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 “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.
–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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4 Comments On "Rare United Business Class Saver Award Space Between Newark Or San Francisco And Tel Aviv"
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What are the fares?
Read the post.
Dan just want to clarify with you how it works bc never booked to israel b4 and looking into tickets for chanukah time…
If for ex I see a ticket I want on united amd dont want to pay fuel surcharges but ANA only needs 65k miles in coach which is less than booking on united – I can transfer 65k amex pts to ANA airlines (by making an account with them) and then call them to book using my pts on their partner united? This way im not paying fuel surcharges bc im flying united but im getting a ticket thru ANA?
Please let me know if im correct here. Bc want to understand how booking with partners to Israel works..
EX: I wld do the same if I wamna book thru singapore airlines to get their miles value but ask to be put on a united flight so I dont pay the fuel surcharhes..?
Thanks in advance for your help and all you do!
you just need to say which united flight you are looking to book on and then they should be able to confirm if its available. some airlines will also allow you to hold the seat before you actually transfer the points bec if you transfer and the seats becomes unavailable, then you will be “stuck” with those miles in that airlines. you dont need to say that you are booking the partner flight because you dont want to pay fuel surcharges. you can just tell them which flight number on which date you want to go and confirm they have the seats available