I just booked a reward J trip to Bali for Oct for Mrs. Outoftown and we just returned in January from BKK on business class awards. I tried for several months and was not able to get the two of us on the same flights to BKK using the lowest mileage award level. Mrs. Outoftown ended up with the same itinerary as me, but it was for the day before me. Eight people will be much tougher, even in coach. I would still prepare a backup plan C, D and E (maybe Hawaii or the Caribbean) where there would be a much easier chance of scoring award tickets for a group of 8, otherwise you may not want to wait until you have about a million miles for the one big family trip to Asia. You can try checking availability now (you don't have to have the miles now) to see what your mileage goal will have to be.

Good luck to you.

Outoftown