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.
You can also connect from other cities to these flights on the same award ticket.
There is business saver award space from Newark to Tel Aviv on:
- April 12, 2020: (At least 9 saver award/upgrade seats available for all members)
- April 19, 2020: (At least 9 saver award/upgrade seats available for all members)
- April 20, 2020: (At least 9 saver award/upgrade seats available for all members)
- April 21, 2020: (At least 9 saver award/upgrade seats available for all members)
There is business saver award space from Tel Aviv to Newark on:
- April 11, 2020: (At least 9 saver award/upgrade seats available for all members)
There is business saver award space from Washington DC to Tel Aviv on:
- May 29, 2019: (3 saver award seat for all members, 5 saver awards seats for Platinum/1K elites, 6 upgrade seats available)
- April 12, 2020: (At least 9 saver award/upgrade seats available for all members)
- April 19, 2020: (At least 9 saver award/upgrade seats available for all members)
There is business saver award space from Tel Aviv to Washington DC on:
- April 12, 2020: (0 saver award seat for all members, 8 saver awards seats for Platinum/1K elites, 8 upgrade seats available)
- April 21, 2020: (2 saver award seat for all members, at least 9 saver awards seats for Platinum/1K elites, at least 9 upgrade seats available)
There is business saver award space from San Francisco to Tel Aviv on:
- May 28, 2019: (1 saver award seat for all members, 2 saver awards seats for Platinum/1K elites, 3 upgrade seats available)
- May 29, 2019: (At least 9 saver award/upgrade seats available for all members)
- December 31, 2019: (At least 9 saver award/upgrade seats available for all members)
- April 12, 2020: (At least 9 saver award/upgrade seats available for all members)
- April 21, 2020: (At least 9 saver award/upgrade seats available for all members)
- April 22, 2020: (At least 9 saver award/upgrade seats available for all members)
There is business saver award space from Tel Aviv to San Francisco on:
- October 8, 2019: (At least 9 saver award/upgrade seats available for all members)
- October 18, 2019: (At least 9 saver award/upgrade seats available for all members)
- April 21, 2020: (At least 9 saver award/upgrade seats available for all members)
- April 22, 2020: (At least 9 saver award/upgrade seats available for all members)
United’s Tel Aviv flights operate with Polaris seating that have direct aisle access for every business class seat. You can choose from solo seats or seats for people traveling together.
Business class seats include United’s newly launched Polaris business class service with Saks Fifth Avenue bedding and pillows. 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.
Upgrade awards:
You can always waitlist for an upgrade award, but the dates above have flights that are confirmable now by calling United.
If you have a paid ticket, the cost of an upgrade varies based on your ticket’s fare class as follows:
In other words, it will cost 35K United miles plus $600 for a one-way upgrade from most discounted coach tickets to business class.
Business saver class award 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 Consumer card or a Chase United Business 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 95K standard rate. Cardholders also have the ability to book the last seat available in any class with Standard/Everyday awards.
- Air Canada Aeroplan 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 Marriott (60K:25K ratio) can take 2-20 days.
- Avianca Lifemiles charges 42.5K in coach or 78K in business class one-way. There are no fuel surcharges for any flights. Points transfer instantly (1:1 ratio) from AMEX, Capital One, or Citi. Transfers from Marriott (60K:25K ratio) can take 2-20 days.
- Aegean charges a mere 30K miles in coach or 45K miles in business class one-way. They don’t charge fuel surcharges for United flights. Transfers from Marriott (60K:25K ratio) can take 2-20 days.
- Singapore charges 45K in coach or 76.5K 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 Marriott (60K:25K ratio) can take 2-20 days.
- 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 Marriott to ANA (60K:25K ratio) can take 2-20 days.
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You post these pretty often lately making it not so ‘rare’
These dates are in a year from now how is that not rare?
Has anyone experienced the new “United Premium Plus” EWR-TLV? Are they worth using the 35K miles to upgrade, or is it just economy 2.0? Thanks
I have flown that using a points upgrade just recently. If seat size is important to you, it is MUCH more comfortable. However, that said, with regards to actually sleeping, it is not business class at all. Service and cabin noise etc. is also better.
Thanks. I understand it doesn’t compare to Polaris, but would you upgrade again using points? Did you sleep better than economy plus?
@dan what is so great about these award availability when you can always bypass the limitation by doing a plan b ticket?
When is the last time you did plan b for 9 pax?
So the benefit is only if you need a few award tickets on one flight, otherwise you can always try to do plan b, correct?
On a side note: is there any United cards that don’t have a yearly fee?
Just downgraded my card to non annual fee
When you downgrade you get the bonus from the regular card?
There’s a reason it’s called Plan B. It’s not guaranteed.
Just booked 2 business for 75k each! THANKS!
Just cancelled! Return fares around a week later from $4K each!
Wouldn’t you be better off using the miles? You’re getting a great value of 2.67 cpm.
you can united business going and economy return ewr-tlv for $2038
It make sense as delta doesn’t allow split
Never buy a one way United ticket to/from TLV online. If you use a site like kayak, and make it a round trip with the return back to TLV on a cheap flight, (offseason) it cuts the fare in half! Or, you can call a competent travel agent. This week I booked a one way on Elal, one travel agent couldn’t get for less than $2200. Called a different travel agent who booked for $1200
I found 3 Polaris tickets ewr-tlv for July but booked jfk-tlv in Delta using virgin Atlantic instead it was just more convenient
Delta biz or economy?
Coach
What am I doing wrong? When I try to find these flights through Air Canada or the other partner airlines listed, the United flights don’t show up. I have lots of Amex points that I want to use for this.
Do I need a united card to get that fare price?
Lifemiles had it last night, now it’s blocked, I want to burn some LM’s
I see it’s still available on united
Booked 3 seats for next pesach. Thanks a lot
@dan, the business class tickets for 75k miles, is that regular award or saver awards? (I vs ZN).
Also who gets access to I and IN classes? Do card members get access to both of them?
Thanks