Originally Posted by rambo

Unless you are looking at premium seating (Business or First class), paying for the ticket is cheaper than using miles for it.

If they are visiting so many cities, go to United.com (or kayak) and price the entire itinerary, it might be cheaper than using miles. I have family coming from India (end of May, leaving end of June or so) and here is their itinerary
DEL->Chicago->LAS->SFO->LAX->EWR (Newark)->DEL and it came out to about 1550$. Just a round trip DEL-EWR-DEL will be close to $1200 or so.