OP, the first thing you should concern with is getting the awards booked, in order to ensure that you can get them all in the same flight. That is probably the most difficult thing to do. You are paying for the trip and will like to maximize the benefits, but most likely there is a limit. If they complaint about paying to check their luggage, that with so and so airline they get free bags, kindly remind them that they could have bought their own ticket on so and so airline.