rajuabju

I dont know how old your kids are... but BA miles are GREAT for using then on LAN to go to south america. You could do multiple stop overs (2-3 cities), in coach, for only 40k/miles a person.

momof4kids1dog1guineapig

Kids are 17, 13, 9, 6.

Any recommendations for destination on South America for a fun family trip? I admit that I'm a bit naive about world travel.

aacharya

Argentina. Especially if you love cheap food.

mikeef

(Bolding mine) Hang around here long enough and we'll fix that for you!

+1 for Argentina. Great food, low cost. Buenos Aires has a fantastic zoo. Last time I was there, you could buy food for the animals and they would eat them right out of your hand. Warning: prepare to wash off a lot of camel saliva. I don't know how long you plan on going for, but you'll probably have to mix it up. Lan is a good airline and BA miles can be householded, so you won't have to worry about having exactly the right amount of miles in each account.

I may be losing it, but did you mention where you are coming from?

Mike

adamak

Also look into SE Asia. Cathay Pacific is pretty generous with awards for ORD-HKG. It's a very very long flight. You can then hop over to Singapore or Bali or Thailand on that same award. And hotels in SE Asia is a ton cheaper than HNL or Carribean.

momof4kids1dog1guineapig

I really can't imagine that happening, but you are the expert!

Coming from Chicago, so we probably have lots of possibilities for destinations now that I've opened my mind up a bit. This is exciting.

I think I'm going to try to make something work for this December because it's going to be part of a Christmas surprise for the kids in lieu of presents. (Of course, there will still be some barbies and legos for the 9 & 6 year olds.) We are just getting to the point where our kids don't need anything because they have grandparents who spoil them with "stuff", and we've decided that travel is a wonderful gift to start giving them. So, I'm going to search for a trip that I can still book with the miles we have because we don't have much money to throw at flights since we'll be spending a lot on food & activities on the trip.

learningtime

Go to Asia. Even if all you have is a week or 10 days. Travel on coach, the first international trip is exciting enough, no one will complain much about the long flight. With miles, airfare (tax) cost is minimal. Go somewhere like bangkok and phuket. A city beach combo that can still be done somewhat cheaply in high season.

fedechat

+2 for Argentina

I found availability MIA-EZE Dec 25/26 on AA metal and EZE-LIM(stopover)-MIA Jan 6/10 on Lan. You will need a ticket for ORD-MIA (miles or $).

This roundtrip is usually 40k BA + 61.50 (taxes) for each pax but you can use 32k BA + 61.50 (taxes) + 104 (cash for miles).

Other option

WAS-LHR
Take a High Speed Train LHR-CDG for $50 each R/T (it takes just 2 hrs 20 mins) and spend few days in Paris
LHR-WAS

You will need a ticket for ORD-WAS (miles or $).

WAS-LHR-WS is 40K AA miles on BA metal + $176(fees)

dante60093

Last week I was able to get 3 ORD-NAssau MileSAAver® award tickets for the week just before Christmas. We have since switched the reservations for Miami and canceled the Miami-Nassau connection.

Shorter flights from Chicago compared to other sunny destinations. Of course, Nassau can be a little iffy weather-wise in mid-December.

rajuabju

I'm not sure if LAN flys out of Chicago... but if they do, you can do multiple stops using your BA miles ... 40k per person and a sample itinerary of:

Buenos Aires (Argentina), Santiago (Chile), Lima (Peru). There are many other choices as well, as LAN has a very extensive network in South America.

IMO, using BA miles on LAN is the best possible use of those miles when flying out of North America.

edit, just checked and they dont fly from Chicago. You'll have to get yourself to Miami or NY

guv1976

Wirelessly posted (BlackBerry8530/5.0.0.601 Profile/MIDP-2.1 Configuration/CLDC-1.1 VendorID/417)

fedechat, how did you determine the cost of using AA miles to fly IAD-LHR-IAD on BA? Using AA miles to fly BA metal TATL has a lot higher fees (i.e., fuel surcharges) than using AA miles on AA or any other partner.

Similarly, how did you come up with $50 USD for a Eurostar LON-PAR-LON roundtrip in late December?

If there is MileSAAver availability from ORD to MIA, or ORD-WAS-ORD, why would the OP have to get a separate award? BA awards should include the connecting flights on AA for no additional mileage. (Coming back from S.A. on LAN is a different story: in that case, a separate cash or award ticket from MIA to ORD would be needed when using BA miles for the trip.)

LizzyDragon84

+3 for S. America on LAN. I did Lima, Easter Island and Buenos Aires earlier this year and had a blast doing it.

Happy

The cost is no way below $200. It would be close to $400 rather. And that is per person.

This does not fit OP's goal to save money on the air portion.

She also has her miles split between AA and BA - so she would need to use AA one one direction and BA on the other no matter where the family is heading, if BA miles are used. This would be the most optimal way so the family can all travel on the same airline on one direction.

x712xdamx

Sounds like with the lack of recent travel that you guys will be in for a realllll treat!!

If you haven't been overseas in 18 years, and the kids have only visited Colorado & Florida, Japan will be a MAJOR culture shock. I loved it, but it will be a completely different Christmas than one could plan for.

How old are your kids?



I think regardless of where you book reward flights to, your family (especially your husband!) will be really excited and gracious that you got all the flights for free for some hard work grinding the credit card system.

Do you guys ski/snowboard? You could probably find reward flights to Northern California, Vancouver/Whistler, Montreal, and maybe some European destinations like the Swiss Alps, etc...
I know that's not warm, but it's a blast if you like those sports.

momof4kids1dog1guineapig

Yes, we all ski, we've started them all out skiiing when they were toddlers. They are now 6, 9, 13, 17, and fabulous skiers. That's why they've been to Colorado so much - to ski!

We've done ski trips to Colorado for Christmas and we are looking to do something completely different for Christmas, so I don't think we'll ski (although skiing somewhere international would be wonderful).

I'm not set on a warm/beach vacation, but would like to do something really different than we have done before. We've mainly done Disney World & ski trips for our family vacations, so going to Japan, Hong Kong, or South America would be a welcome change and I think you're right that they'll be really excited.

We are going to wrap up pieces of the trip as gifts and have them open them Christmas morning, then leave that day or soon after. It will be a blast and they'll be completely suprised. I just wish I'd had enough miles sooner so I could have booked a trip earlier.

Here's a list of the miles we have:

Amex MR 115,000
United 15,000
Continental 100,000 (50,000 each )
Aadvantage 308,000 (152,000 me, 156,000 hubby)
BA 208,000
Alaska 80,000 (40,000 each)
Sapphire 50,000
Thank you 50,000
SPG 60,000 (30,000 each)
Priority Club 120,000 (60,000 each)

We've accumulated all of these since January. We had another 300,000 MR/delta miles that we used for a spring break trip to Colorado to go skiing.

This has become my part time job, and it's a lot of work. I've gotten good at the getting miles, now I need to focus on spending them the cheapest way I can to make them go as far as possible. I just wish I could consolidate some of these balances. We are willing to travel in 2 groups or even 3 if the times are close to each other.

Thanks for everyone's ideas