Originally Posted by
holland
.... I can travel any time between 12/20 - 1/5, and would prefer about a week someplace warm with a beach.
.....
When I search common destinations like Cancun or Cozumel,
.... all it comes up with are 60k mixed coach/business flights, or connections like Kansas City -> Denver -> Dulles -> Cozumel with 14 hours of layover somewhere along the way....
with a family of 5 .....
Has it really gotten this hard to use miles? ....
attempting to book peak holiday to highly popular locates for 5 passengers less the 3 months out is likely to involve comprise. That has never been an easy option.
An option is to build the routing segment by segment. Start at the destination or original and build segment by segment until you arrive at a satisfactory outcome.