The Aegean sale is so good in so many ways that I wanted to make sure I highlighted just how creative you could be with it! For this look at the deal, you can buy enough miles to fly business class from the US to Israel with just $655 worth of miles.
Edit: the Aegean miles sale is now over so you can no longer purchase the miles at the same price. You can still book this award if you have the miles.
Fly Business Class to Israel with $655 Worth of Miles!
Link: Aegean Mileage Sale Post
Getting the Miles and Using the Miles
Visit the link above to the post about the sale and move fast as this sale ends soon! But, you can buy up to 50,000 miles (if you have any activity in your Aegean account in the last 12 months) or up to 30,000 miles if you are new to the program.
It really doesn’t matter since all you need to buy is 23,000 miles with the 100% bonus (you would only need to buy 22,000 miles if you are new to Aegean since you get a 1,000 mile bonus). That will be enough for a one-way business class ticket to Israel!
To find availability, you are united.com/…s/flight-search/book-a-flight. To actually search for and select business class flights on Aegean, you must have the required miles in your account.
This Great Deal to Israel!
This deal is possible because Aegean considers Israel to be part of North Africa/Europe which only requires 45,000 miles for a flight in business class from the US! This has huge possibility!
The one downside is that Aegean only gives you one connection on awards. This means you will likely have to leave out of a major international airport, unless you can snag one of the rare non-stop flights with United from Newark, San Francisco, and now Washington-Dulles.
The other thing to watch out for is that Aegean does charge carrier surcharges with airlines like Lufthansa, Swiss and Austrian. For Turkish, it is less – around $230. If you want to fly without paying any surcharges and just taxes and fees, you should look for flights with LOT, SAS, and United.
The high fuel surcharges on some airlines could be a negative!
Which Flights to Book?
This same flight would cost 85,000 miles with United!
The best option would the United Airlines flight from Newark. The problem is that business class award space on this flight is very hard to come by! I searched through the calendar and did not find any until April! It can open up but you will either need to plan very far in advance or pretty much last minute.
On the other hand, there is a ton of availability with LOT Airlines (through Warsaw). They have a newer lie-flat business class seat that is supposed to be very good so this is a great option. Plus, you could take one of the longer layovers to get out and check out a bit of Warsaw while you are waiting.
LOT business class
If you fly with Turkish, your fuel surcharges from the US will be around $250-300. If you fly with Austrian, Swiss, or Lufthansa, expect to see fuel surcharges over $500 for one way!
Takeaway
At the end of the day, being able to get a business class ticket to Israel from the US for under $700 is an absolute steal! In fact, even if you choose to fly Lufthansa, the big fuel surcharges with the purchase of miles will still likely be cheaper than any business class ticket to Israel otherwise!
This mileage sale is amazing but it is a limited-time deal so figure it out soon!
How are taxes on Air Canada flights with Aegean miles?
How about on Ethiopian?
Air Canada has high taxes as well but I think Ethiopian does not pass on the surcharges. They are definitely a good choice as well, given the availability.
Thanks. Do you know the best place to search for Ethiopian award space?
United shows it as does Aeroplan so either would work. I would opt for United since their engine works better.
Thanks again.
For some reason, I can’t see any business availability on the Aegean search. Am I doing anything wrong? There’s nowhere to select class of service or anything.
Figured it out. I guess there wasn’t much availability on the dates I was looking at.
You’ll never see business class space on Ua nonstops unless you are 1k and even then usually only 1-2 weeks before travel.
It is hard to find. I have found several isolated dates but it is far from a sure thing.
FWIW, I’m getting some good availability for Air Canada with very little taxes and fees. For example, YYZ-MXP in C for 45,000 miles+35.95 Euro OW. Also very cheap when connecting with LX and other airlines.
No…not ever with Aegean. I bought miles when they had a sale a few days ago. Then I got an email asking for selfie with passport / copy of passport / utility bill / credit card. I have never seen a loyalty program asking for all these, to the level of insulting, just for buying miles/points. Now the skimmer needs just my social security # to become an exact copy of me, if Aegean ever gets hacked.
I had a reader contact me after the last sale too with something similar. I put a mention/caution of that in the original sale post.
I don’t know what you ended up doing but for a European company to require that information is actually against the GDPR law and they could face a huge fine. I would definitely mention that to them.
I also just came through a fraud prevention thing too when I tried to book for someone else. I think there are some people that may be selling or using stolen cards and that’s the reason? But, you are right, that is very bad for a business to ask for that information, especially in a medium where you no longer control access to it.