You can go to Priceline and click on “Multi-Destination.”
Tickets purchased from Priceline today are refundable until 11:29pm EST tomorrow night. Please see this post for directions on how to cancel these tickets.
Search for a flight from Newark to Tel Aviv on 1/29 for example. Then click on the + sign just after the flight date to add another segment. In the next segment search for a flight from Tel Aviv to Boston on 2/7 for example.
That will yield this flight for $809:
The outbound flight is a nonstop flight from Newark to Tel Aviv. The return flight is from Tel Aviv to Boston but it connects in Newark. Your checked bags will be tagged to Boston, but US law requires that everyone pickup their luggage in Newark and bring it past customs. After that you can then leave the airport and skip the last leg or you can recheck your baggage to your final destination.
In other words you can fly nonstop both ways for $809.
If you just booked nonstop flights on United, the cheapest option is $1,019, so this method save $210 per passenger.
Of course if you originate in Boston you can fly for just $593. You can skip the last leg, but you can’t skip the first leg, so if you’re in NYC you’ll have to get yourself to Boston to take advantage of that pricing.
This is called hidden city ticketing, and of course the airlines don’t love that. Some airline reps will lie to you and say that your bags will go straight to Boston even though they will not. They will be tagged to Boston, but everyone has to pick them up in Newark.
I don’t suggest anyone do this every month or tell the airline that you’re going to skip the last flight, but tons of people save money by buying tickets with hidden city ticketing every day without problems. Then again, using hidden city ticketing is something that you’ll be doing at your own risk. If you want to play it safe you’ll credit the miles earned from this flight to a partner airline, rather than your United mileage account
The reason this works is because you split the difference between the cost of a Boston-Tel Aviv ticket and a Newark-Tel Aviv ticket.
Many of the same dates that work for cheap tickets to Israel in this post will also work with this strategy. So just try a sample date that works for United there and just search using the NYC-TLV-BOS format as shown above.
You can read this post for more on how to utilize hidden city ticketing.
Have you used hidden-city ticketing to save money on airfare?
Thanks Dan
Are we getting stupider with time?
2 years ago you made a very nice post explaining how to use matrix for this.
There’s a link to that post in this post.
Thanks for the post Dan. How does this apply when searching NYC to LON? Do you know which hidden cities would work in this scenario?
Thanks!
I wish I would have known about this non-stop hidden ticket. Just booked through Turkey with stop-over there to save money. Would have rather done this hidden non-stop option! Thanks! Now I know for next time!
Does this only work for Tel Aviv? or it could work for london.
Works for anywhere in the world.
As long as your final INTENDED destination is in the US. (I think, though, that I recently saw that at some US airports or on some US-bound routes, baggage would not be rechecked at the first airport in the US. If that’s the case then you may lose your luggage by skipping the final leg.)
1) Save even more if you’re flying with children under 12 by booking with an OTA that gives child discounts (e.g. Expedia, Travelocity, Orbitz)
2) Always try to choose the longest layover possible, so that in case there’s a delay, they don’t rebook you on an alternate flight to BOS via Europe. You’ll have a hard time convincing them why you need to route specifically through Newark….
1. Bad idea, they are stricter about this stuff.
2. Not that hard to say you paid to fly nonstop to US and refuse to break up your trip via Europe
1) So how about united.com? You should be able to get child discounts there and is probably the safest way to book a hidden-city (and you won’t cause your OTA to get an ADM), though you’ll shorten the cancellation window to 24 hrs.
2) But you’re not flying nonstop to BOS. Why should they see a difference routing you through FRA than through EWR. Either way, it can’t hurt to choose a longer layover.
Maybe it is harder to fly 8 hours after a 4 hour trip than it is to fly 1 hr after an 11 hr trip. Maybe you feel safer landing in the USA only.
I just need a one-way to TLV. Do you think it would work to book a TLV connection and just stop in TLV? Not sure whether Israeli security forces will care or not.
Not sure that you’ll find anything worthwhile for that.
If you were flying non-stop to Israel in economy. What airline would you choose?
Either United’s afternoon 772 flight or Delta.
Thanks!
Does this impact mileage earned
I had already my bad experience doing hidden city ticket with united. they hold me up in TLV, at the end i paid additional $320 to fly to EWR.
More details please.
How did they know you were going to get off in Newark?
There is said to be a United manager in TLV who threatens/harasses passengers going on to BOS. Says they’ll be fined or denied boarding unless they can prove that Boston is their final destination. Charges them to change to EWR.
Don’t really know. maybe they know i live in NY.
Or did you ask about picking up your bags or leaving the airport in NYC…
Story doesn’t make sense otherwise.
Is this what happened to you? Did you fall for the agent’s lie?
That’s the only way it makes sense.
https://www.dansdeals.com/airfare-deals/israel-flights/use-hidden-city-save-200-newark-tel-aviv-nonstop-flight/#comment-1340905
Thanks Dan!
Can I post it on reddit? 🙂 (as a link of course)
This stuff isn’t exactly a secret, can share whatever you like from here.
If u get any interesting info please let us know
Any luck on finding good prices for departure end of June returning the week of July 9th?
if you find, let me know.
Would this also save money on a business class ticket? Dan please advise cheapest way to get to Israel on a business class tickets
Yes, Lucky wrote how he bought tickets NYC-TLV originating from Toronto and it was ~1500 less. Although Toronto – NYC was in economy.
I lost a ticket and many of my fellow passengers did when on a return trip to ny the airline in brussels didn’t allow us to check in and we lost our tickets. our final destination was Canada with a stopover at jfk so be careful
There is a Skiplagged site. would you recommend it ?
https://www.dansdeals.com/airfare-deals/skiplagged-isnt-nearly-as-good-as-they-think-they-are-heres-a-better-way-to-save-money-on-hidden-city-flights/
That’s from over 2 years when Skiplagged was still pretty new. Did you test out Skiplagged recently? Using ITA matrix gets very annoying. Bec. as a simple search website, Skiplagged does a much better job than anything other than ITA.
It’s a fine place to start, but ITA does better.
What about just using like Google Flights?
What is ITA ND WHAT IS SKIPLAGGED
Sorry starter
Hey dan, it seems that the workaround trick for the $75 close in fee on award tickets ,that worked for years , seems that they fixed that glitch & now it shows up again when u change the date, am i correct? any one have tried it lately?
I did it in October, and it worked fine. Need to call though, can’t do it online anymore.
A family member recently used the ZFV trick by accident when he took a flight that arrived into EWR three hours late and the last train had already left. The thing was, he was actually trying to get to ZFV. United tried to convince him to spend the night in a hotel and fly to PHL in the morning, but instead he spent the night with a friend in NY and then took a bus home. United refunded him $42 for the train ticket and gave him a small United voucher as an apology.
We dId the same thing on a trip. Getting our bags in Newark and driving home to Westchester was a breeze. There’a a long thread in Flyertalk about this, except after Newark, your ticketed last stop was a destination in Canada. Worked like a charm.
When the airline overcharges, why should I pay? Makes no sense.
how does this work for purim time?
Dan, i took a domestic trip on AA and didnt complete trip. OK to request to post miles to account? acct expiration nearing. Thanks
We just did this from Baltimore through Newark to tel aviv on united for 618$
Dan,
Its an old trick from before you were around.
35 years ago , The old Pan American airways offered very cheap tickets from Boston to London. When I checked my baggage in Heathrow, the airline rep told me, unfortunately due to the laws of USA immigration, you must clear immigration at first point of entry. Therefore, I have no choice but to check your baggage to JFK, and you will have to check in separately for your trip to Boston.
I couldnt restrain myself from chuckling at the good news I just heard.
Around 20 years ago i flew Tlv-Lax on elal. It had a stopover in jfk. We cleared customs in lax. Everyone who was continuing to lax had to wait in the locked up gate area. We were not allowed to leave and our flight was delayed a couple hours. No concession stands and no smoking areas. Just bathrooms…
That’s because El Al didn’t have rights to sell the JFK-LAX flight on its own.
Either way, that’s long gone.
Dan, what if I want a round trip from Israel to Newark? If I do the hidden city trick, and skip the last leg on the way there, will they cancel my return trip? I think some airlines do that.
Do you recommend doing that?
They will cancel the return trip.
i booked a tkt with hidden city for someone – but a united agent told him in the airport before the check in – that the bags will go straight to boston – only if he will pay $300 – he will be able to collect it in newark – and in the last months a lot of …… people are booking tkts with hidden citys – and they are trying to find the agent what is selling these tickets !!!
The agent lied to get them to pay more.
The bags must be picked up in Newark, even if they are tagged to Boston.
I did this with my family 2 years ago and when I asked the agent at TLV if I’ll be able to get my suitcases in ERW, she wouldn’t answer and called her supervisor who said I’ll have to pay $300. When the supervisor left, the agent whispered to me “Don’t worry (about the luggage), you’ll be fine.” 🙂 Apparently, the $300 fee is a lie…
But…… if the flight from Israel wil bee canceled bcs weather…then you will receive a flight to Boston via Europe…and not a flight through New York as you wanted …..
No. You can insist to receive a nonstop to the US. After all, that’s what you paid for.
The only reason to go via Europe is the airline doing you a favor and getting you there faster by buying you a ticket on another airline.
United will be perfectly happy giving you another ticket via Newark and not have to buy you a ticket on another airline.
What if United decides to connect you through San Francisco (instead of Ewr), then onto Boston?
You are under no obligation to accept a routing that adds 12 hours to your journey.
In that case you may be entitled to the greatest level of compensation under Israeli law for the delay (if not based on weather or the like).
I dont think that would be the case always. That could cause a delay of up to24 hours to get the next non stop flight to NY. Whereas the European connection may be offered with just minimal wait time, but he would be forced to go to Boston, unless he is somehow lucky that the particular European carrier is also connecting via NY
United has a flight to Newark every 12 hours.
Nobody is forcing you to go via Europe.
If you book a long layover in NY then you can tell them that you have a meeting in NY before continuing to Boston.
I booked in December to DCA when price to EWR was about $1500 and I paid $1139 Per ticket. I found it in ITA with Dan’s instructions to search all citys in return copying the whole list to ITA. In TLV the agent asked for my final destination and said DCA. After checking in the bags the agent told me please dont forget to pick up your bags in EWR and recheck. When I get threw the customs line the was a United agent standing and asking whos going to DC? Are you going to DC? I just ignored the agent and left the airport. Im not sure why thay were looking for us I didnt hear from anyone that thay look for the people connecting. I did enter my united Number in the ticket to get premier access and I did get miles for the ticket. Could anyone answer me if I have to enter my Unite number for every person on the reservation to get miles for that ticket or if I enter it in my name I get miles for the whole Reservation?
Each flyer earns his own miles. You don’t get their miles, so claim each ones miles into his own frequent flyer account.
Happened to me twice recently on flight on united that there was a problem with the entertainment system. United sent an email offering compensation for the inconvenience. They gave us a choice of 100 voucher towards united, or 5k bonus miles. If u chose the 5k miles, they asked u to login to your account to credit the miles. U were able to log into any account, so everyone in the family was able to credit their 5k bonsai miles into 1 account
is priceline the best option for this multi city idea? or can you do kayak orbitz expedia for this also because you mentioned only priceline in your example
I don’t understand on a stopover I don’t have to transfer my luggage it goes straight to my destination.
Why over here wouldn’t it go straight to Boston like a common stopever.
Thanks
International flights always require that you pickup your luggage on the first stop returning to the US and bring it through customs.
Aren’t there places like Dubai or Abu Dhabi where the US processing is done before boarding?
Aa domestic didn’t take last Lag
Ota
Wise to request aa to credit miles now? Acct need 18 mo activity
Thank you
I flew delta from detroit Detroit is a hub but not priced as such I saved $400 by flying to BWI to tlv ( via JFK) nd flying back tlv to BWI via DTW. There is always the possibility of being rerouted
Isn’t this a violation of the fare rules you agree to?
Thanks Dan! I just booked my ticket using ur advice. actually I found the best price while booked it with united direct on their site. (they offer 24hr free cancelation). My total was $829 for a round trip. Thanks agian זכות הרבים תלוי בך. much הצלחה
one thing should be clair.Gezel akum is forbidden but a mistake is aloud. see חושן משפט סימן שמ”ח סעיף ב.If UA really wants they can avoid us booking EWR-TLV BOS by not allowing open jaw.we are just exploiting the weakness of their system.
I’m looking for a one way from TLV to NYC, end of March.
Any suggestions?
What if the last leg is to Canada? Do the same rules apply about rechecking bags at EWR?
I work hard to keep my status with United and really can’t afford to lose 5600 miles to save $200. I hear conflicting stories that United won’t give you your miles if you hop off in Newark. Some say they will. Anyone know for sure?
I did this a few years ago lon-jfk-lon-Norway. I think it was your suggestion dan! When I checked in at jfk they made a big fuss about checking it in all the way. I told the agent I’d changed my mind and didn’t want to go to Norway in the end. She told me that’s fine she would cancel the last leg but I couldn’t get any refund. I obviously didn’t care and happily picked up my luggage in london. There were quite a few other people on my flight doing the same thing who unfortunately were not as lucky and who’s luggage was headed to Norway!! No idea how they got it!
Hi Dan, can this strategy be used foe booking flight from Miami? We need to fly to Israel in the summer, do you think more deals will come along? Thank you
Zalman,
Learn a little bit of halacha before making ignorant comments.
Actually, you are probably well versed in halacha, as halacha is loaded with “legal loopholes”!
In this case, there is no “lying”, you are exercising your right not to board a plane-
What is wrong with that, Z?
Hi Dan,
Would hidden city ticketing work similarly for flights originating in TLV to EWR? Have you researched which cities this may work with? thanks
Dan,
If i have a flight back from TLV to Zurich to EWR to Washington – with the intention of leaving the airport in Newark, I assume that is no different than a flight straight from tlv to newark and then to washington? and I will be able to get my bags in newark and not recheck them in for the last leg? The stop in europe doesnt change that does it?
does hidden city work
if final destination is canada
tlv ewr yyz
do i still pick up packages in ewr
even tough final destination is Canada
Yes.
Yes.