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:
- July 4, 2019: (1 saver award seat for all members, 6 saver awards seats for Platinum/1K elites, 7 upgrade seats available)
- July 9, 2019: (3 saver award seat for all members, 4 saver awards seats for Platinum/1K elites, 4 upgrade seats available)
There is business saver award space from Tel Aviv to Newark on:
- July 3, 2019: (3 saver award/upgrade seats available for all members)
- October 16, 2019: (At least 9 saver award/upgrade seats available for all members)
- December 22, 2019: (5 saver award seat for all members, at least 9 saver award seats for Platinum/1K elites, at least 9 upgrade seats available)
There is business saver award space from Washington DC to Tel Aviv on:
- July 5, 2019: (8 saver award/upgrade seats available for all members)
- July 21, 2019: (At least 9 saver award/upgrade seats available for all members)
There is business saver award space from Tel Aviv to Washington DC on:
- December 24, 2019: (4 saver award seat for all members, at least 9 saver award seats for Platinum/1K elites, at least 9 upgrade seats available)
- December 27, 2019: (4 saver award seat for all members, at least 9 saver award seats for Platinum/1K elites, at least 9 upgrade seats available)
There is business saver award space from San Francisco to Tel Aviv on:
- July 2, 2019: (3 saver award seat for all members, 4 saver awards seats for Platinum/1K elites, 5 upgrade seats available)
- July 8, 2019: (At least 9 saver award/upgrade seats available for all members)
- July 15, 2019: (At least 9 saver award/upgrade seats available for all members)
- July 28, 2019: (At least 9 saver award/upgrade seats available for all members)
- August 19, 2019: (At least 9 saver award/upgrade seats available for all members)
- December 28, 2019: (5 saver award seat for all members, at least 9 saver awards seats for Platinum/1K elites, at least 9 upgrade seats available)
- December 31, 2019: (At least 9 saver award/upgrade seats available for all members)
- May 26, 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:
- July 3, 2019: (1 saver award seat for all members, 2 saver awards seats for Platinum/1K elites, 3 upgrade seats available)
- August 28, 2019: (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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Dan, the Thursday flight (jul 4) is a quite risky one as you land at 4:20, and that leave you with a very small margin of delay time or you stay the whole shabbos in TLV.
The plan B works for everyone? Or you need to be a plat member?
hi dan
can you advise please if plan B still work if so w’d like to get quick updates if it is
thanks for all
It seems from his post that yes it still works.
Snagged two business seats from tlv to ewr! Thanks for the tip