MilesBuzz! - Help with 8 person travel plans!

Mods if this is in the wrong forum, please move.

I am helping a friend book travel for his entire family who is flying into the country to visit him and his wife. He is based in DFW, they are flying into new york.

These are the flights he is trying to book:

aug-10: dfw-> LGA (evening) 2 people
aug-13: NY (Either JFK or LGA) -> Orlando (MCO) (evening) 8 people
aug-17: MIA-> Las Vegas (4pm) 8 people
aug-20: Las Vegas --> DFW (evening) 8 people


These are his miles:

60k AA.

Obviously, anything I price out is quite expensive. Does anyone have an ideas on how to knock the airfare tab down a bit? I figured he could use 25k miles to go to LGA from DFW (kind of positioning for him and his wife), but the other 24 tickets are going to be expensive. Any suggestions/help/etc will be much appreciated!

In the overall scheme of things, the miles will not be very helpful.

My only suggestions would be:

a) Make sure to search airlines that are not on the main search engines (like Southwest, and perhaps others.)
b) Don't necessarily try for 8 tickets on the same flight. You might eat up an entire fare bucket and go into a higher one.
c) Keep your eye on the additional fees. If there is a lot of luggage, or people who really need to sit together, it could drive the price up even more.

Don't forget to look at Priceline for hotels. (No I don't get a commission from them, just reminding you that you can save big bucks.)

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