I would like to go over the new years for about 10-12 days. I have about 200,000 onepass miles, and 60K on United. What I was thinking of doing was flying to europe on miles and then connecting on a paid flight to Cairo. ANy suggestions as far as the cheapest city to fly out of? How about flying into TLV first? Or would the price make it worth while to spend the 80K africa mileage-fare? thanks!

If I recall, I paid about $300 for a r/t between TLV and CAI on El Al. This was a discounted economy ticket I bought a few days before departure while in Jerusalem. The flight on El Al was short and pleasant enough.

If you have never been to Jerusalem, I highly recommend it (although I would also keep track of the latest developments in the region). Cairo is equally, if not more, fascinating, although you may want to check when Ramadan is (my two New Years trips to the Middle East have both coincided with Ramadam). Traveling during Ramadan is not ideal, but it is definitely do-able.

Although I recommend visiting Jerusalem, here are two downsides to visiting Israel before going to Egypt.

1) You will likely forget to ask that your passport NOT be stamped by Israeli immigration. If you want to travel to most other countries in the Middle East, you will need a new passport without that Israeli stamp.

2) If you are traveling by yourself and fit the "profile", you will most likely spend an hour or more each time you are in TLV or CAI answering security questions and having your bags physically searched.

If you've got the miles, why not splurge on Business Class on CO from Newark to TLV. A day or two in TLV and Jerusalem would definately be worth your while. If you are the outdoors type I would HIGHLY recommend going overland to Cairo through the Sinai with a few days in Neviot or Sharem Al Sheikh. Mt. Sinai and the monastery are gorgeous and IMHO the scenery beats the city views any time. If you do this, it does get cold in the high desert. Egypt will not be a problem, even with an Israeli stamp, but other countries as asleep mentioned will be.

Good luck

Around New Year's time, due toblackout
dates you may have problems getting award travel tickets.

I found that the cheapest way to get to Egypt (for my dates) on FF miles was to use 40 000 of NWA's worldperks to go to Athens and then buy a ticket on two-hour Olympic
flight "Athens-Cairo" for 211$ (plus airport tax: 248$). I didn't even consider Tel-Aviv since Northwest considers it to be a "Middle East destination" though I assume it must be quite cumbersome, if not risky, to transit through Israel before going to an arab country. Or is it?

I travelled from Israel to Egypt on a tour bus about 7 years ago. I'm sure that being with this kind of group greased the skids a bit, but it was still a bit tense.

We got out of our nice mercedes bus on the Israel side, carried our luggage maybe 50 yards across a kind of no-man's land (guns, fences, no photos allowed military barricade barbed wire kinds of stuff) to the Egypt side. Much dingier building, lousy bus, hot & dusty. I think it took us 1-2 hours. All luggage & packages had to be gone through. I observed some young people who looked like they had been travelling a while on the cheap--it looked like it was taking them all day.

The coolest part of the trip was crossing the Suez canal at sunset, and seeing the gun posts all around us.

The passport issue is real. If you do enter Israel, ask them to stamp a blank piece of paper you have placed in your passport. A number of countries do not recognize Israel and may be passively hostile about the passport. Sad, but true.

Israel and Egypt are wonderful countries to visit, and I'm hearing the current turmoil is creating good deals for tourists. As one who has made a number of solo trips overseas,(and as one who despises organized tour groups) this is one trip I would remain more comfortable doing with an organized group, or having a personal contact in the country to act as a "handler". Some tour groups may be willing to work with your miles. You might have luck checking with universities, churches, and synagogues to see if they have an upcoming trip you can piggy-back on.

All this said, the crossing between the two countries can be done, but is likely best done with a commercial operator that understands how to get through the red tape.

Good luck! Let us know what you come up with.

To avoid lengthy questioning, skip El Al and take Air Sinai between CAI and TLV. Air Sinai is only coach and doesn't have much pitch, but it's a very short flight.

My experience is 2 hours of the same questions over and over again on El Al and zero questions on Air Sinai.

If you go the Europe route, you can use miles on UA to LHR and then take Olympic to CAI with a stop in Athens. I've done the Olympic flight from Athens to Cairo and it was very good and relatively cheap.