Summer Trip to Israel and Dubai – Free Flights

This past summer (2023) I traveled to Israel and Dubai with my husband and daughter. Majority of our almost free flights were in business class. We stayed in 5 star hotels. And of course for (almost) free. (Thanks, points;). Here’s how I did it.

Flight Going:

It can be difficult to find direct flights to Israel from NYC, during peak season, on points. But if you’re willing to take a positioning flight in Europe it opens a whole bunch of options up for you.

It’s always been a dream of mine to fly Emirates business or first class. Unfortunately it’s nearly impossible to find saver award space in first class, let alone for more than one person. However, business class is slightly easier. Emirates flies 3 routes out of NYC. JFK to Dubai and Milan. And EWR to Athens. That’s the sweet spot you’re looking for! I was able to find saver award availability on the EWR to ATH route for 3 people in business class for one of the dates I was eyeing! This route was ideal for me as it left from EWR. I transferred points from Capital One and Chase over to Emirates. Although Chase transferred instantly, Capital One took 24 nerve wracking hours. In total I used 261,000 miles plus $312 for 3 Emirates Business class tickets.

Return Flight:

I had a ton of United miles sitting around from a limited time sign up bonus on the Chase United explorer business card.

I found a great deal on United flights from Dubai to EWR. There was plenty of availability for the 2-3 dates I was eyeing for return. The points kept fluctuating from as low as 169,000 points per person to (gulp) 270,000 points per person. I waited a couple days and finally locked it in for 169,000 miles. Not especially cheap it’s a 15 hour flight so we definitely get our points worth :). I transferred some Chase points over to United to supplement what I already had there. In total I used 508,500 miles plus $150 for 3 United Polaris tickets.

Connecting Flights:

Now that I had my main flights booked, it was time to do some digging for the connection. The entire trip duration was around two weeks. I knew I wanted to be in Israel for one of them. I chose Dubai for the other week because of the United flight mentioned above and practicality. Dubai has a robust Jewish community, a ton of kosher food and extremely cheap accommodations (since the summer is not peak season to go).

There are multiple ways I could’ve booked my connecting flight from Athens to TLV. However, ultimately I booked through the Chase travel portal as the value there couldn’t be beat. I used 74,000 Chase points to book all 3 of our tickets in ElAl Business class. It was only 10,000 points total more than economy and although it’s a 2 hour flight, the benefits made it worth spending the extra points. I got checked baggage included (which is unavoidable on a 2 week international trip with a child), and I got meal service, which economy doesn’t. Since I would arrive in Israel close to midnight, after a 5 hour layover, I knew having food was crucial. (Our ElAl flight ended up being delayed till after midnight so this 2 hour business class flight was definitely a relief!)

The last puzzle piece was TLV to Dubai. Unfortunately this leg did not make sense to book in business class. The price on points would’ve been 4x that of economy and I couldn’t justify it. It’s a 3.5 hour flight so meals are included for everyone. Checked bags are $40 each so it made more sense to just pay for bags. I booked two tickets through Capital One Travel to use up 34,000 points I had there. Then I used ~12,000 Chase points for the last ticket.

In summary:

See how I travel hacked our accommodations here. You can also read about all the kid friendly activities we did in both Israel and Dubai.

That’s a wrap on our flights for our Summer Trip to Israel and Dubai.

Till next time,

Chavy