particlemn

I got 4 tix lax-cdg-fco-cdg-lax in j on air France using delta miles at the saver rate all on same flight

hiltonlondon2009

Definitely possible. I did a SFO - LAX - NRT on AA for 4 in Business Saver a few years ago.

League

I got 5 tickets ORD-CDG on Air Canada Executive Class (which is like business-first; 2 class aircraft) for 100k UA miles/ea RT, booked about 9 months in advance.

Herringbone layout sucked in some ways, but was overall a decent ride considering we all got to go together!

msp2anywhere

Summer 3013 will be DL and AF business for 4, MSP-IST and back
Summer 2012 was LH F to Berlin
Summer 2011 was LH F to Norway

All of these were at the lowest price level.

Plus a bunch of domestic, some at saver, some at medium.


The biggest hurdle is crossing the pond, second hurdle domestic saver, intra-Europe is (almost always a short putt).

If you're a risk-taker, you could consider breaking into two groups, flying 'same way, same day', where you might be together on some flights and not on others to begin, then change flights as allowed to align (some programs are lenient- United- and some will get lenient after a major schedule change).

ThePointsCollector

Planning on living that long?

kimmyannangel

I can beat you all! Using AA miles on AirBerlin I got our family of 6 plus grandma and grandpa (a total of 8) from MSP to Berlin (via ORD) and back, all in economy. What is amazing is that AA still shows award availability on those flights. June -July of 2013 booked last October. Yay!

friedablass

Of course, because economy awards are more available than Biz or F awards. It would be hard to come by 8 Saver Awards in Business (perhaps totally impossible on some flights because that many Saver seats aren't ever released for those flights, not even close in). I just booked for 2 in economy (no Biz or First class on that flight at all) on a very short AA flight using 9k Avios roundtrip and there are about 5 flights available per day and each flight has 7 out of about 20 seats available as Saver Award seats. So, I'm assuming that for flights with many more economy seats available (usually ~200 when going transatlantic) there will be more Saver awards available to begin with.

The trick here is getting to go in upper class seats as a group of 4 or more on the same flights - certainly doable as per many posters above (and also in my own experience) but needs work.

farbster

How old are the travelers and where to do you want to go? It's nice to go in the front of the bus, but for a short flight to Europe from PHL or New York you could easily do coach and not sweat it. Especially if being on the same flight is that important. We've done coach for points and then upgraded to Economy Plus for cash and it was totally fine. I'm not saying it was nice like Biz/1st, but it was satisfactory. Doesn't seem like you're that flush with points anyway....

diaspora04

Using AA miles in 2011, 5 in business on AY JFK-HEL, 5 in business on BA HEL-LHR, and 5 in business on AA LHR-JFK. What a great trip it was!

gatorprincess85

I've redeemed miles for 4 business award tickets on Swiss (jfk-gva)

TTnC4me

I think I'll be seeing you at BCN in June!!!

We have 5 sAAver in F to LHR next summer - calling &/or checking KVS every day from t-330. Only 4 in J so far coming home on AB from TXL (but more seats are filled so I may have missed the window).

OP, it depends on the airline. On oneworld, I've noticed IB only releases 4 seats. AB 4 so far. AA up to 6. But, UA seemingly has the best availability overall. Then, all the other partners to consider. Others with more experience on *A can hopefully chime in there. That's who we're considering switching to for 2014.

pinniped

For summer 2013, our family is going to France, Italy, and Slovenia. We had no problem getting the long-hauls in groups of 4's and 5's on different EI flights to/from Dublin. (Bought other segments to/from the continent...they were too cheap to bother spending miles on.)

Coach awards...didn't check biz...but from the east coast that's doable. We're paying 40,000 Avios R/T per seat from Chicago; I believe you'd pay 25k R/T from JFK or BOS. Total taxes and fees were $120 R/T.

One group of 4 booked just last week for August travel, so some seats are still there for 2013. EI award availability seems to appear in vast quantities, then disappear completely, then sometimes show up again. It's rather mysterious to a non-regular of that airline.

84fiero

I think J or F is a waste for east coast to Europe. Especially if you have a group. It's not much longer than a transcon, and barely time to sleep anyway on the way over.

Kadence

We did 4 tickets EWR to ITO and then OGG to EWR in August 2011, but coach. I'm looking to do Europe w/ the kids soon too!

mangoMan

I flew my family of 4 to Europe in the summer four times: 2005, 2007, 2009, 2012, all at the low level award. We were always on the same flights. All segments were in J, with one exception of LHR-SFO in F. Used AA miles for everything except one 1-way SFO-FRA-HAJ on LH.

Been lucky so far. I hope I can do it again.