The most surprising Israel flight news this month was that American will fly nonstop from JFK to the holy land.
They plan to launch service in 2021, but we don’t know when exactly that will be. If I had to guess, I’d say it will be around September when they also plan to launch Dallas to Tel Aviv service.
Some readers asked what kind of plane American will use. Nobody outside of American knows the answer to that, but here are the likely options:
- It could be the A330-200 that they used to fly from Philadelphia to Tel Aviv until the route was discontinued in January 2016.
- It could be the 787-9 that they planned to use for Dallas to Tel Aviv this year before COVID-19 suspended the launch of that route.
- It could be the 777-200 to get more seats on the route than the A330-200 or 787-9.
- It could even be a dark horse, their flagship 777-300ER would make them the only player in the market offering a first class cabin, a unique competitive advantage. That’s a long-shot as their flagship plane isn’t likely to be put onto a brand new and unproven route, but it’s also a possibility for an eventual upgrade if the route is successful.
- The smaller 787-8 seems very unlikely for this route and American’s 767 and A330-300 are casualties of the pandemic.
Another common reader question was how many miles will it cost to fly on the new route?
In general, US airlines are moving to dynamically priced awards based on pricing, but American does still have an award chart.
American’s award chart doesn’t have the Middle East as a region as they don’t fly anywhere in the Middle East. However their partner award chart does have the Middle East and American’s own chart typically mirrors the partner chart.
- You can earn up to 65,000 miles when you open Citi American Airlines cards and all spending in 2020 counts towards earning Million Miler Lifetime Elite Status:
- The CitiBusiness AAdvantage Platinum World Mastercard is offering 65,000 AA miles for opening the card and spending $4,000 in 4 months.
- The Citi AAdvantage Platinum World Elite Consumer Mastercard is offering 50,000 AA miles for opening the card and spending $2,500 in 3 months.
- The Citi AAdvantage Executive World Elite Consumer Mastercard is offering 50,000 AA miles for opening the card and spending $5,000 in 3 months.
- The Citi AAdvantage MileUp Consumer Mastercard is offering 10,000 AA miles and a $50 statement credit for opening the card and spending $500 in 3 months.
Below are my best educated guesses on what saver awards between JFK and Tel Aviv will cost using American miles or select partner airline miles. The first class rate will only apply if American flies the 77W on the route, which is a long-shot. We won’t have any idea about fuel surcharges until American starts selling seats on the route, but we know which airlines charge fuel surcharges for other transatlantic American flights, so I’ve included plus fuel surcharges in the chart below when applicable.
You can look at this deep dive post for transfer options to these partner airlines.
| JFK to Tel Aviv Economy One-way | JFK to Tel Aviv Premium Economy One-way | JFK to Tel Aviv Business One-way | JFK to Tel Aviv First One-way | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| American | 40K+$6 | 62.5K+$6 | 70K+$6 | 115K+$6 |
| Alaska | 40K+$18 | N/A, cabin not available for redemption | 70K+$18 | 115K+$18 |
| British Airways | 31K+fuel surcharges | N/A, cabin not available for redemption | 92,750+fuel surcharges | 123,750+fuel surcharges |
| Cathay Pacific | 40K+$6 | N/A, cabin not available for redemption | 75K+$6 | 120K+$6 |
| Iberia | 32.5K each way+fuel surcharges. Round-trip purchase required | N/A, cabin not available for redemption | 75K each way+fuel surcharges. Round-trip purchase required | 112.5K each way+fuel surcharges. Round-trip purchase required |
| JAL | 37K+$6 one-way or 25K each way if booking round-trip travel | N/A, cabin not available for redemption | 60K+$6 one-way or 50K each way if booking round-trip travel | 90K+$6 or 72.5K each way if booking round-trip travel |
| Qantas | 31.5K+fuel surcharges | 61.5K+fuel surcharges | 82K+fuel surcharges | 123.1K+fuel surcharges |
Will you use your miles to fly on American to Israel?
AA was selling the dfw-TLV flight for 40k each way or 30k on Web specials. wouldn’t jfk be the same?
There were also web specials for 20K miles:
https://www.dansdeals.com/airfare-deals/israel-flights/hot-fly-us-tel-aviv-just-20k-aa-miles/
Those are dynamic and can be at any price.
In this post I’m just comparing regular saver award pricing. And yes, I have the saver economy award pegged at 40K, but as it’s not on the award chart, it’s always subject to be different.
which would be 40k. It’s not just partner award chart, it’s using their own pricing for us-tlv
OK, please show me where you see that on their chart?
https://www.aa.com/i18n/aadvantage-program/miles/redeem/award-travel/flight-award-chart.jsp
didn’t say it is on the chart. Just that it is what they were charging the last time they marketed a flight between us and tlv, and is therefore likely what they will charge again
For 40k rt maybe.
On the other hand, those aa miles can have unexpected value. I booked Mia to LAX back in Dec for Feb flight for 5k points (I know it wasnt Hawaii but still)
That 5K bonanza was amazing!
Agreed! And it made my AA miles worth significantly more. They went from max 1 cent value to like 2 cents just this flight.
Had I flown to aus or NZ they would have been 10 cents +, even Hawaii rt at 10k AA is a 4 cent value.
So that makes even flying to Israel at 40k a decent value..
obviously this type of deal doesn’t happen very often if ever, but the problem is AA milage doesn’t have transfer easy.
I had success finding HC awards using their discounted webfares. Is there any programs that help search for them?
Any chance the TLV flights will be bookable with Jetblue points?
The A330-200 is unlikely to be used for multiple reasons, specifically because AA put them all into long term storage until 2022.
I certainly would try to use my old AA miles for TLV-JFK travel but frankly I don’t expect to see availability in coach on a regular basis.
What about Qantas?
What about them?
Could be he wanted to know how many Qantas miles it will cost to fly from JFK-TLV on AA
It’s in the post.
“their flagship 777-300ER would make them the only player in the market offering a first class cabin, a unique competitive advantage”
It’s only a unique competitive advantage if you have a uniquely competitive first class 🙂
It might not be anything to write home about, but it would be the most space you can buy on the route.
True that. I guess it will come down to how many people on the NYC-TLV route are out there who have more money than they know what to spend with, but not enough time to spend it connecting on Air France or Swiss 🙂
Etihad miles can be a great option for American metal. Their chart is largely the old American chart.
Fuel surcharges?
It’s been a while, but Emirates wouldn’t book partner award travel to TLV for me when I last checked. Not sure about Etihad.
I booked TLV-BEG on Air Serbia in biz using Etihad miles, so I would imagine that this should also be bookable. BTW: did you see the new Etihad tier miles promotion for point transfers?
Link?
https://www.etihadguest.com/en/earn-miles/transfer-points-to-miles.html?cid=ema%3Agst%3Aww_eyg_eid_al_adha_pt_26_july_20_jul20%3Aguestsenen%3Aetihadguestoffer%3Aallsegments&bid=1028372874&segmentCode=&utm_campaign=ww_eyg_eid_al_adha_pt_26_july_20_jul20&utm_medium=email&utm_source=guestsenen&utm_content=etihadguestoffer&gsn=325301037
In the fine print at the bottom (need to expand it) up to 20K tier miles at 1:1 for all transfers!
I booked AA first class jfk-lax using etihad points 25k one way
No fuel charges
Fuel charges would only apply on transoceanic flights.
Also, I’m assuming you mean JFK-LAX business class and not first class?
Didn’t know about transoceanic
No
First
AA 3 cabin
Press release said winter 2021- why do you assume september?
1. I’m not assuming anything. I said if I was forced to guess.
2. The only thing the press release said was that JFK-GIG would return as a seasonal route in winter 2021.
Their grammar could be interpreted both ways- I read it as Winter 2021 for all.
“American will launch international service from New York (JFK) to Tel Aviv (TLV) and to Athens (ATH), and JFK to Rio De Janeiro (GIG) will return as a daily seasonal route in winter 2021”
well, ignore my previous coment, but it says summer further down:
American intends to launch service between JFK and TLV and will introduce new seasonal service between JFK and ATH next summer,
JFK-ATH seasonal: Summer 2021
JFK-GIG seasonal: Winter 2021
JFK-TLV year-round: No guidance given, other than sometime in 2021.
Dan what should I do?
On friday i booked a domestic a roundtrip w united from that deal u Posted abot. Today I tried moving up my return flight to an earlier flight on the same day i was originally scheduled for. I booked w UR. Untied is trying to charge me ‘difference in fair charge’ of $128 and says their doing me the favor of waiving trip change fee.
The Whole ticket costed $28
Any Ideas?
You can refund the whole thing to a voucher.
Assuming that you booked with an agency than you could void this ticket until Monday Midnight directly with the agency
Right, same with Priceline/Orbitz.
@dan will we be able to book this AA flight via Qantas points?