Using miles to get 8 business class tickets to paris
 

I have over a million miles combined with American, United and Hawaiian. I am planning a family trip to Paris from San Francisco next June and would love to get business class for everyone (8) using miles. How realistic is this? I understand there are companies which charge a fee per ticket if they are successful.

One one flight? Not a chance. Breaking up the party in smaller groups like 2+3+3 or 2+2+2+2 (which you need to do anyway if you have the miles spread across 3 programs, right?) and allow perhaps one of them to arrive a day early or later then the rest, there is quite a good chance if you are a bit flexible with the routings and dates.

I think you are looking for an "Award booking service": http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/trave...e-reviews.html

Btw. Welcome to FT!

This.

Think creatively. For example, some of the group could take UA or LH to Frankfurt, from where it is a less than 4 hour train ride to Paris.

With the AA miles, BA usually has some availability, but you must pay their profit surcharge. Also look at Iberia via Madrid.

TN from LAX-CDG is also an option using AA miles. Both TN and IB you have to call as they aren't available on the website.

I'm generally as anti-Award Booking Service as they come because I'd rather save the money and do the work myself.

However in this case it might be worth it so you don't have to spend a ton of time figuring out how to put everything together since, as mentioned above, this will require a fair amount of decisions and effort to split it effectively.

5 on one flight is quite easy if you are flexible. BA may even have up to 8 seats in business and if a few in F so that would work. Though likely from NYC so it requires some creativity. One option is to fly to London one two separate BA/AA flights and connect to a combo of economy/business to Paris or take the Eurostar. ALso consider some sectors in economy or PE to make it work.

While true, why not just connect on LH to CDG? Most likely that short flight isn't going to be the availability bottleneck (and economy would presumably be acceptable for that segment).

There are rare instances of this many seats being released on one flight, but it's very rare. It's big news when there are even 4 J seats available on the same flight. Yet still, 8+ could happen (would only matter if you have enough miles in one program for 8 one ways in J). For example:
http://dcta.boardingarea.com/2016/04...ummer-8-seats/
http://thepointsguy.com/2015/09/busi...-jals-new-787/

I mentioned the rail alternative in case the FRA-CDG (in conjunction with a TATL flight) was constrained. Always good to have multiple options. ^

maybe some could go biz and some could go in some form of Econ Plus? Might help if trying to get everyone on same flight.

Not to point out the obvious, but how much "over a million" and how they're divided will matter. using United miles for Star Alliance travel in business will be 140,000 miles each person.
Your Hawaiian miles will not be particularly useful here.