Originally Posted by
findark
No. You can't route ORD-SFO-*-TLV as it's not permitted by the routing rules. You also cannot combine a discount SFO-TLV fare with a domestic fare. While possible, I doubt this would change for a different fare break point on the West Coast.
I agree. UA isn't particularly interested in selling ORD-SFO-*-TLV because it adds a minimum of 50% to the flight distance.
OP: The routing rules for ORD-TLV are actually pretty flexible, but they don't let you go very far west of Chicago. You can route through BOS, DTW, ATL, PHL, IAD, IAH, EWR, JFK (requires a change of airport), YYZ, or YUL. You can also fly through just about any major European city.
Why does that matter? It gives you two ways to use a GPU. 1 - look for PN space on a UA flight to Europe. 2. Check for business class award availability from any of those gateway cities to FRA on Lufthansa (LH). The GPU can be used on Lufthansa flights, and open business class award inventory is an excellent indicator that it would clear immediately. Note: if you use the GPU on Lufthansa, it's only good for the one segment -- it won't extend to any UA positioning flights, or to the FRA-TLV flight on LH.
In either of these cases, you'd be connecting twice, but you'd also get the long leg in business. (BTW, there's no need to look for R inventory when applying a GS GPU. PN >= R, so you can just look for PN).
Finally, just in case: did you try searching EWR-TLV for PN space? (Not ORD-TLV?) In the unlikely event that they opened PN on EWR-TLV, it might still not show on a search from ORD-TLV, as you've found.