I definitely don't want to use Avios. I would rather just buy the ticket rather than waste miles and still pay the high ticket fees. I actually have lots of Avios banked from the Nordstrom promotion (expensive designer bag - thanks the points guy!) and am only going to use them for short flights or travel to South America.

Dates are slightly flexible, as in, they can go end of August if they don't get that week specifically, but it has to be during summer vacation. Cities are also flexible. They prefer London and Paris and another city (though I find LHR is the easiest place to find award tickets and I chose Vienna as there are direct flight CDG-VIE on Star Alliance.

They are based in NJ and can use any of the NYC airports, though PHL is also ok.

So one question that I am confused about given the responses everyone is giving (i.e. focusing on US flights) is the following:
If I see a Saver award on UA for 30k each way, can I get it using the US Air miles by calling CS even if it's not available on the US Air award booking website?