MilesBuzz! - LAX to TLV... Best option?

I want to go to TLV next year, from LAX. Preferably in J, or at least a Premium Y. Will need 2 tickets.

I have miles with BA, AA and UA.

I dont mind a stop (or a stopover) somewhere in Europe or elsewhere, if necessary.

I prefer not to pay the crazy fees associated with BA stopping at LHR.

What flight options should I be taking a closer look at?

UA through ewr

AA would be 135K per person in J. They partner with El Al so you could check for availability on LAX-TLV by phone.

Another option would be using AA or Avios would be on IB via MAD. If you use Avios, I'd open up an IB account now so that in months, you can transfer the points to IB and get lower surcharges. Also, one MAD-TLV flight is on the A340 rather than the A320 series, so I'd look out for that.

I did the reverse: TLV to LAX.

El Al is an AA partner. If you are an early bird and lucky, you may be able to get seats on El Al. It's not an easy redemption, but it's possible.

My wife and I took a 3 week Middle East trip last year: 1 week in Jordan and then 2 weeks in Israel. We flew over (using AA miles) on Royal Jordanian via a stop in Chicago. Using AA miles, I then picked up 2 seats in J on the El Al TLV to LAX flight for our return.

El Al Business class wasn't as luxurious as RJ Business. But the nonstop is great if you can get it.

When redeeming AA miles, my recent experience is that it has been much easier to get 2 J seats right off the bat on an AA partner such as Iberia, RJ, BA, or El Al. When I'm flying AA metal, it seems that AA often will first only offer one J seat as a MileSaaver award. On AA metal, I then either have to wait and keep searching for a second Saaver award or pay double the miles for that second J seat.

Walking, Ha!

Lifemiles is 120,000 return.

How many AA miles per person roundtrip did you use?

I did the reverse: TLV to LAX.

El Al is an AA partner. If you are an early bird and lucky, you may be able to get seats on El Al. It's not an easy redemption, but it's possible.

My wife and I took a 3 week Middle East trip last year: 1 week in Jordan and then 2 weeks in Israel. We flew over (using AA miles) on Royal Jordanian via a stop in Chicago. Using AA miles, I then picked up 2 seats in J on the El Al TLV to LAX flight for our return.

El Al Business class wasn't as luxurious as RJ Business. But the nonstop is great if you can get it.

When redeeming AA miles, my recent experience is that it has been much easier to get 2 J seats right off the bat on an AA partner such as Iberia, RJ, BA, or El Al. When I'm flying AA metal, it seems that AA often will first only offer one J seat as a MileSaaver award. On AA metal, I then either have to wait and keep searching for a second Saaver award or pay double the miles for that second J seat.

Thanks for the replies...

As much as I love Israel, I'll never fly El Al again. Simply the worst airline ever.

I will look at UA through EWR and using Avios on IB through MAD. Both of those could work for me, and avoid the BA stop @ LHR.

thx

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Thanks for the replies...

As much as I love Israel, I'll never fly El Al again. Simply the worst airline ever.

I will look at UA through EWR and using Avios on IB through MAD. Both of those could work for me, and avoid the BA stop @ LHR.

thx

If you can limit yourself to oneworld carriers, and can fly at least two of AA's oneworld partners, you can get LAX-TLV-LAX in Business for 130K AA miles. You can even have en route stopovers if desired.

If you plan to redeem Avios for TATL travel on IB, you may save a lot of cash by first transferring your BA Avios to the Iberia Plus program, and then redeeming IB Avios for travel on IB. See the FT BA forum for more information about this.

When Lifemiles is 120,000 in C round trip why would one choose oneworld?

Fly with Swiss.

Lufthansa via star alliance is good imho

Lufthansa via star alliance is good imho

Isn't LH turning all their FRA-TLV flights into Euro Business Class? That's not a short trip ... probably about 4 hours one-way.

It's why I recommended IB ... it may be another 5 hours to TLV, but if you get the A340, it's proper business class.

If you plan to redeem Avios for TATL travel on IB, you may save a lot of cash by first transferring your BA Avios to the Iberia Plus program, and then redeeming IB Avios for travel on IB. See the FT BA forum for more information about this.[/QUOTE]
Good idea!

Thanks for the replies...

As much as I love Israel, I'll never fly El Al again. Simply the worst airline ever.

I will look at UA through EWR and using Avios on IB through MAD. Both of those could work for me, and avoid the BA stop @ LHR.

thx
I've tried BA,El Al,LUFT,SWISS and UA.My fav so far was UA (Continental's old route) in Business with their flat beds but even coach seats were not too bad.

How many AA miles per person roundtrip did you use?

Remember that AA switched to one way awards a few years ago.

So a one way award from LAX to TLV (or TLV to LAX) in Business was 65000 AA miles per person.

I have to agree with another poster that J class on El Al is no great shakes. I've had nicer flights with better treatment. But it's a non-stop, which is great. Also, my TLV to LAX flight left shortly after midnight (Tel Aviv time). I was very happy with the departure time for 2 reasons:

1. I checked out of our hotel in the AM, but the midnight departure gave us almost a full extra day in Jerusalem before we headed to the airport. Extra vacation time in Jerusalem is like found gold. (The hotel held our bags and arranged a taxi to the airport for us.)
2. With the midnight departure, we were already pretty tired. I like late departures on long flights because this makes it much easier for me to fall asleep during the flight.

Here's one little anecdote about flying out of Tel Aviv. Israeli airport security is quite different than in the USA. The Israeli agents ask you questions. I think they are looking for how you react to the questions. Sometimes the questions come out of left field. I was traveling with my wife, and we each had one piece of checked luggage. So an agent asked me at one point: "how many pairs of shoes are in your bag?" Well, since I'm a man, I knew the answer. I only had 2 pairs of shoes packed. Fortunately, they did not ask my wife that question. Only God knew how many pairs of shoes were in her luggage.

Isn't LH turning all their FRA-TLV flights into Euro Business Class? That's not a short trip ... probably about 4 hours one-way.

It's why I recommended IB ... it may be another 5 hours to TLV, but if you get the A340, it's proper business class.

AFAIK IB uses a Euro A-320 to/from TLV that means even in Biz you have a Coach seat for at least a 5 hr flight. 1 reason I stay away from IB

OP unfortunately your best bet IMO is ElAl(LY) with their non-stop fight. I understand even LH is going with their Euro A-320s shortly and have already done so from MUC. That leaves LX(Swiss) as the best shot on *A. UA will most likely mean a Y seat LAX-EWR as will US,btw USs seats in both cabins kills UAs but LAX-PHL will probably mean Y as well

Id go LY or Swiss LX does fly ns LAX-ZRH I just dont know how good the connections are to/from TLV but you can always overnight @ ZRH plenty of Hotels by the airport or a very short train ride into the city and a nice place to spend a day or 2

I want to go to TLV next year, from LAX. Preferably in J, or at least a Premium Y. Will need 2 tickets.

I have miles with BA, AA and UA.

I dont mind a stop (or a stopover) somewhere in Europe or elsewhere, if necessary.

I prefer not to pay the crazy fees associated with BA stopping at LHR.

What flight options should I be taking a closer look at?
A breakdown of the mileage options:
http://www.dansdeals.com/archives/23168

AFAIK IB uses a Euro A-320 to/from TLV that means even in Biz you have a Coach seat for at least a 5 hr flight. 1 reason I stay away from IB

Like I said, one flight is on the A340 on most days. Like tomorrow:

http://i.imgur.com/1FvEI.png

pay for the trip. it's super cheap right now.

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/mileage-run-deals/1374229-bos-tlv-tons-dates-fall-winter-420-pp.html

As mentioned obliquely above I think within *A the acknowledged best option is LX (SWISS). They're the only European *A carrier flying their longhaul J seat to TLV (usually) and their longhaul J is one of the best.

They do fly from LAX so that would get you onto international longhaul J asap rather than have domestic F segments. The downside is it looks like you would have a 7 hour connection in ZRH and your trip would consist of two red-eye flights and arrive at 3:30am. Possibly it would be better to spend a night in a hotel and fly on the morning flight.

I'm not sure how that compares to your OW options as I don't really know OW.

Not sure if you have enough UA miles. UA is all one-way so if necessary you could do UA miles for the trip there and AA miles for the return.

This is kind of a silly thread, as there are too many options you have to consider. If you have dates in mind, see whats available those dates. In addition to the nonstop LAX-TLV on El Al, the one stop options are: LAX-IST-TLV on Turkish, LAX-PHL-TLV on US Air/United, LAX-EWR-TLV on United, LAX-YYZ-TLV on Air Canada (All Star), LAX-TLX-TLV on Air Berlin, LAX-LHR-TLV (American/El Al) (One World).
If you're willing to stop two places, there are dozens of routings.

Have you all checked out the $337 all-in ticket from JFK to TLV? It is on the front page of boardingarea.

Have you all checked out the $337 all-in ticket from JFK to TLV? It is on the front page of boardingarea.

Eethan, thats been dead for more than 12 hours.

Like I said, one flight is on the A340 on most days. Like tomorrow:

http://i.imgur.com/1FvEI.png

With IB's losses and spare BMI Aircraft, expect the A340 to be Laid-up and all Middle East flights replaced with A320 Family of Aircraft sooner rather than later.

Here's one little anecdote about flying out of Tel Aviv. Israeli airport security is quite different than in the USA. The Israeli agents ask you questions. I think they are looking for how you react to the questions. Sometimes the questions come out of left field. I was traveling with my wife, and we each had one piece of checked luggage. So an agent asked me at one point: "how many pairs of shoes are in your bag?" Well, since I'm a man, I knew the answer. I only had 2 pairs of shoes packed. Fortunately, they did not ask my wife that question. Only God knew how many pairs of shoes were in her luggage.

The questioning gets really fun when they find the Saudi visa in your passport and note that you were in Saudi Arabia the week before you were in Israel. Fortunately, I was not hauled off to a separate area for any extra interrogation or screening.