How to Hop to Tel Aviv With Kangaroo Miles + Sweet Redeems Survey

July 2019
Read Offline

It’s an unlikely duo: using miles from Australian carrier Qantas to fly to Tel Aviv on Israeli airline El Al. But it’s so crazy, it just might work. To seal the deal, get Qantas miles with points transfers from: Amex, Chase, Citi, and Marriott.

You Pay a Lot More with El Al vs. Qantas

The Qantas program for El Al flights uses a distance-based award chart, so U.S. East Coast rates are lower than West Coast rates to Tel Aviv.

Using the Qantas program, flights of 4,801 to 5,800 miles cost 78,000 points in Business Class one-way, or 156,000 round-trip. This includes flights between Tel Aviv and Boston, Newark, and New York JFK.

As a comparison, the El Al program costs 250,000 miles for the round-trip from Boston and 300,000 from New York.

Flights of 5,801 to 7,000 miles cost 92,000 points in Business Class one-way (184,000 r/t). That covers flights between Tel Aviv and Chicago and Miami.

Compare that to the El Al program, which costs 350,000 miles round-trip from Chicago and Miami.

Flights of 7,001 to 8,400 miles cost 104,000 points one-way (208,000 r/t) in Business Class on Qantas. That covers flights between Tel Aviv and Los Angeles and San Francisco.

Again, compare with the El Al program, which costs 350,000 points round-trip from LAX and SFO to Tel Aviv in Business Class.

How We Compare These Apples

These mileage programs are as far apart as, well, Israel and Australia, so we based our comparison on how many Amex points would be needed for the transfer. In other words, we used Amex as the common denominator program for El Al and Qantas.

The first part is easy: Amex to Qantas is 1:1. Amex to EL AL–not so much. Amex Membership Rewards points convert into Matmid Club points at a 1,000:20 ratio. Generally, you’ll find that Business Class redemptions cost 5,000 to 7,000 Matmid points round-trip, which is the equivalent of 250,000 to 350,000 Amex Membership Rewards points round-trip.

Fuel-ish to Ignore: Another reason to use Qantas miles to book on El Al flights is because Qantas doesn’t impose fuel surcharges for travel on El Al—when using El Al miles the additional cash ranges from $200 to $450.

Sweet Redeem Survey: El Al to Tel Aviv With Qantas / Amex

[table_opt id="6041" style="black-header" width="default" alignment="thcenter" heading="thcenter" rows="tdcenter" responsive="no" /]

[["U.S. Departure Cities","Depart","#colspan#","#colspan#","Return","#colspan#","#colspan#"],["#rowspan#","4 to 8 Days Per Month","9 to 12 Days Per Month","13+ Days Per Month","4 to 8 Days Per Month","9 to 12 Days Per Month","13+ Days Per Month"],["Los Angeles ","<span style=\"color: #6699cc;\">Aug.,<\/span> Sept., <span style=\"color: #009966;\">Nov.,<\/span> Dec., <span style=\"color: #009966;\">Jan. through March,<\/span> <span style=\"color: #6699cc;\">April, June<\/span>","<span style=\"color: #6699cc;\">July,<\/span> Aug., <span style=\"color: #6699cc;\">March, May<\/span>","July","<span style=\"color: #6699cc;\">Aug., Sept.,<\/span> Dec., <span style=\"color: #009966;\">Jan., Feb.,<\/span> <span style=\"color: #6699cc;\">March, April, June<\/span>","Aug., Sept., April","<span style=\"color: #6699cc;\">May<\/span>"],["Boston","<span style=\"color: #009966;\">July, Aug.,<\/span> <span style=\"color: #6699cc;\">Sept.,<\/span> <span style=\"color: #009966;\">Nov.,<\/span> <span style=\"color: #6699cc;\">Dec.,<\/span> <span style=\"color: #009966;\">Jan. through March,<\/span> <span style=\"color: #6699cc;\">May,<\/span> June","July, <span style=\"color: #6699cc;\">Aug.,<\/span> Sept., Dec.","","July, <span style=\"color: #6699cc;\">Aug.,<\/span> Sept., <span style=\"color: #6699cc;\">Oct.,<\/span> <span style=\"color: #009966;\">Dec. through Feb.,<\/span> <span style=\"color: #6699cc;\">May,<\/span> June","<span style=\"color: #6699cc;\">Dec.<\/span>",""],["New York ","<\/span>Aug.,<span style=\"color: #6699cc;\"> Sept., <span style=\"color: #6699cc;\">Jan.,<\/span> Feb., <span style=\"color: #6699cc;\">March through May<\/span>","July, Jan., March, April, <span style=\"color: #6699cc;\">June<\/span>","May","July, <span style=\"color: #6699cc;\">Aug., Oct.,<\/span> Dec., <span style=\"color: #6699cc;\">Jan.<\/span>","Aug., Jan., <span style=\"color: #6699cc;\">Feb., March, May<\/span>","March, April, <span style=\"color: #6699cc;\">June<\/span>"],["Newark ","July, <span style=\"color: #009966;\">Jan. through May<\/span>","Jan., <span style=\"color: #6699cc;\">Feb., March, May,<\/span> <span style=\"color: #009966;\">June<\/span>","","<span style=\"color: #6699cc;\">Aug.,<\/span> Oct., <span style=\"color: #009966;\">Dec. through April, June<\/span>","<span style=\"color: #6699cc;\">Dec., Feb. through April,<\/span> <span style=\"color: #009966;\">May<\/span>","March through May"]]
<small>Months in black at least one seat available; <span style="color: #6699cc;">in <u>blue</u> at least two seats</span>; <span style="color: #009966;">in <u>green</u> at least four seats</span>.</small>