I think we can safely assume that most, if not all, of the 400K miles would be from sign up bonus miles. Further, assume that the bonuses earned were from 10 cards (at 40K mile bonus per card) with an average spend requirement of $2,500 per card. So $25,000 spend would earn cash back of $1,000 (assume 4cents per $ spent). Looks like a pretty good deal to me if obtainable.

I believe you have made some wrong assumptions at least in regards to the OP friends

After all the OP did write they have a business and would be willing to get "a credit card' I understood the OP to say these people have a biz where they can earn a ton of miles from using a CC for all the stuff they purchase for their biz. and no where did the OP refer to churning or getting multiple CCs in order to earn the sign up bonuses

So till the OP clarifys things I will assume the people wont be churning CCs or getting a dz just for the sign up bonuses but instead planned to charge a ton on it to get the 400k needed

Had the OP posted they will churn or apply for a dz CCs then Id agree with your assessment ( I know a few people who spend in the 7 figures a yr on a CC and arent interested in churning or sign up bonuses)

Perhaps I was unclear in my original post and I apologize for that.

As to the husband having a business, I only really mentioned that because he could legitimately obtain a business credit card (sign up bonus). He's a commercial painter and buys whatever is needed I suppose.

I think that if they could get one free ticket they would be happy. I had not thought about them churning as that is hard to convince someone to do (I would think) and I think it seems like a lot of work to MAYBE get a free ticket to TLV.

However, it seems that probably the best is for them to just pick their dates and get the cheapest fare. I think it is too risky for them to try and get award points on one program and then try to get a codeshare flight (especially since the non-stop seems to be really hard). I would feel badly if they got points in one program, then could never use them and then they're stuck.

I just did US non-stop PHL-TLV in Y and for Y it was great and much better then CO except I prefer the afternoon CO flight to TLV and the morning flight back, but for them being Balt based PHL is alot closer if driving up, not sure about pricing they should play with BWI-TLV and PHL-TLV etc etc and see which comes up cheapest

No BWI-TLV nonstop. The flights are all somewhat scattered in time. It seems that some are really late at night (good sleep for most) but then you get in too late to Israel. Or you fly earlier in the day and land in the middle of the night, but it's really morning and you haven't slept well. Oh well. All good problems to have!