Originally Posted by JJeffrey

Everybody and their brother wants to go to Paris in business class in June. It's peak peak season, there's no easy answer here, and trying for 4 seats makes thing exponentially harder.

They can buy economy and upgrade with 25k miles + $350 per person, each way. But there's basically a 0% chance that upgrade space will be available at booking, so they'll be put on the waitlist, and space won't open up until around 24-36 hours before the flight (if at all). And on the waitlist they'll be sorted below anyone with status.

Alternatively they can just book business class award tickets with miles, but AA's award rates will be astronomical (see above re: peak season). Spot checking a few dates for JFK-CDG show 200k-400k miles each way, so even with 1M miles they barely have enough to get the whole family there one-way.

Splitting up and doing some combo of awards and upgrades is an idea, but I would fully be prepared to have the family split up with some in economy, and even then you'd be spending a minimum of 800k for 2 roundtrips to Paris, which is a total ripoff.