AwardWallet receives compensation from advertising partners for links on the blog. The opinions expressed here are our own and have not been reviewed, provided, or approved by any bank advertiser. Here's our complete list of Advertisers. Offers for Bank of America cards mentioned in this post have been updated as of 04/18/2025
Offers for the United Club℠ Business Card and Air France KLM World Elite Mastercard® are not available through this site. Some offers may have expired. Please see our card marketplace for available offers
The points and miles world is full of tips, advice, and sweet spots for solo travelers and couples. But what if you have a family and want to get the most value from your points? It can be hard since everything requires more points and more planning. Today, we're going to walk through some practical airline sweet spots families can use on their upcoming trips.
Air France/KLM Flying Blue
Flying Blue, the reward program for both Air France and KLM, is an amazing option for families and has several ongoing sweet spots on top of its monthly Promo Rewards.
Create a Flying Blue family account
One of the biggest benefits of the Flying Blue program is that it allows you to create a family account with two adults and up to six children. Anyone over the age of 18 can be the leader, and this person is responsible for the account.
The family account allows family members to pool points, ensuring small amounts of points don't get stuck in a child's account. In addition, it also makes it simple to book flights because everyone's personal information is already in the account.
To set up a family account, you first need to create a loyalty account for each member of your family. Once everyone has their own account, the family leader will log on, and then go to the Flying Blue Family page. From here, you will add each family member by entering their names and Flying Blue numbers. They will receive an invitation and must accept it to complete the process.
Related: Which Rewards Programs Allow You to Combine Points and Miles for Free?
Flying Blue sweet spots for families
Another thing we love about Flying Blue is the ability to find awards for very few points. Generally, you can find good availability for flights from most major airports in the U.S. to Europe for 20,000 miles one-way.
Not only are these low points requirements for flights, but award tickets are 25% off for kids aged 2–11. This means a family of four could fly from the U.S. to Europe for just 70,000 miles each way!
The easiest way to find these low-priced dates is to use the Flying Blue calendar search function, which can only be accessed on the website, not the app.
How to earn Flying Blue miles
Thankfully, Flying Blue miles are pretty easy to come by because it's a transfer partner with almost every major credit card points system out there plus Marriott Bonvoy. Here are your options:
Related: Do Air France–KLM Flying Blue Miles Expire?
Additionally, U.S.-based travelers can apply for the Air France KLM World Elite Mastercard® to boost their stash of Flying Blue miles.
Southwest Airlines
Southwest Airlines is another family favorite due to its family-friendly boarding process and baggage policy.
Save on travel with a Southwest Companion Pass
The most notable thing that makes Southwest Airlines a worthwhile option for families is its Companion Pass. You can earn the Companion Pass by flying 100 flight segments or earning 135,000 points in a calendar year. The simplest way to earn those points is through sign-up bonuses on Southwest credit cards.
Once you earn the pass, you can fly a companion for free (plus taxes and fees) on any ticket you book, as many times as you want, for the rest of the year and the entire following year. For example, if you earn the pass in July 2024, it's valid through the end of 2025.
This is great for families because each parent could potentially earn the Companion Pass and then bring a child as their companion. It's like a “buy one, get one free” deal for every flight you take — including award flights.
Rapid Rewards sweet spots for families
The Southwest Rapid Rewards program tends to have some great options for low-cost points redemptions. For example, you can fly from Los Angeles (LAX) to Honolulu (HNL) from only 8,962 points per person one-way. For a family of four, this comes out to just 35,848 points each way.
Here's another example: You could fly from Chicago-Midway (MDW) to New York-LaGuardia (LGA) for just 3,080 points per person one-way. For a family of four, this is only 12,320 points each way. That's fewer points than you'd pay per person on some airlines!
Another thing we love about Southwest is its Low Fare Calendar which allows you to see a whole month at a time. This helps to narrow down which days have the cheapest flights on points, helping families find sweet spots on dates that work for them.
Furthermore, if Southwest runs a sale and the price of your ticket goes down, you can change your ticket to the new price and get the extra points refunded. There's no fee to change your booking, which is good since award prices are tied to cash prices and can vary.
One thing to note for families flying Southwest: There are no reserved seats. You will get a boarding group when you check in 24 hours before your flight. When your boarding group is called, you will board the plane and find empty seats.
This can be a bit nerve-wracking for families, however, they allow those with children six and under to board after the A group, before the B group. I've also had success asking a gate agent if we can board with family boarding even though my youngest is eight. It doesn't hurt to ask!
How to earn Southwest Rapid Rewards points
You can earn Southwest points in several ways:
- Open a co-branded Southwest credit card.
- Transfer Ultimate Rewards from Chase to Southwest at a 1:1 ratio (most transfers are immediate).
- Fly on Southwest.
- Buy Southwest points, although we would only recommend doing this if it's running a bonus.
- Earn 50,000 bonus points after spending $1,000 on purchases in the first 3 months from account opening.
- 3,000 anniversary points each year.
- Earn 2X points on Southwest® purchases.
- Earn 2X points on local transit and commuting, including rideshare.
- Earn 2X points on internet, cable, and phone services; select streaming.
- 2 EarlyBird Check-In® each year.
- Earn 1 point for every $1 spent on all other purchases.
- Member FDIC
- Rates & Fees
- 2X points per $1 spent on Southwest® purchases and Rapid Rewards® Hotel and Car Rental Partner purchases
- 2X points per $1 spent on local transit and commuting, including rideshare
- 2X points per $1 spent on internet, cable, phone services, and select streaming services
- 1X point per $1 spent on all other purchases
If you want to learn more about earning Southwest points, check out our Southwest Rapid Rewards guide.
United Airlines
United Airlines has a massive domestic and international flight network. Because of this, it's a great option for families looking for award sweet spots to numerous places — both domestic and international.
United often has great award availability
One of the hardest things about booking award travel for families is finding availability. When looking for award seats, you'll find that they are limited on each flight. It can be hard to find when you need four, five, or more seats. This isn't usually the case with United. Because there are so many flights to so many locations, award availability is typically good — especially in economy. This makes it a solid family sweet spot.
Further, you can sign up for a United credit card to open up even more award space. Almost all cards open this additional award space — with the possible exception of the no-annual-fee The New United Gateway℠ Card (Rates & Fees).
Mileage Plus sweet spots for families
United is not always the cheapest when it comes to bookings with miles, but it does have some good sweet spots for families that know where to look. United's award flights are based on dynamic pricing, meaning most routes don't have set prices. Prices can vary day to day, depending on demand and availability. Luckily, United lets you search using a 30-day calendar, which makes it easier to find the best deals.
For example, prices are all over the place when searching for flights from San Francisco (SFO) to Honolulu (HNL).
However, numerous options exist for the low price of 11,100 miles one-way. A family of four could fly one-way for just 44,400 miles.
These low prices can be found from the West Coast to Hawaii. However, travel from most other parts of the U.S. to Hawaii will start around 25,000 miles, like in this example search from Denver to Honolulu.
If you want to fly your family to Europe, you can expect to pay around 40,000 miles per person each way. That's not the cheapest option. But what United lacks in low award prices, it makes up in availability.
Knowing this rate, you can use the 30-day search function to find the dates where this price point is available. Here's an example: when I search Chicago (ORD) to Rome (FCO) for 11 months from now, I can see that every single day except one has availability for 40,000 points per person.
In all of these examples, you'll notice that the lowest price is green. This is what you are looking for, as it indicates that this route has the lowest rate on that particular date. Additionally, the cheapest flights (saver awards) may be available to book with a partner airline, potentially requiring fewer miles but a bit more effort.
Related: How to Find Airline Partner Award Availability
United's redemptions may be higher than airlines like Air France–KLM and Southwest. However, there is a lot of value in how broad United's availability can be, creating sweet spots for families who need reliability when planning around school schedules.
How to earn United Mileage Plus miles
You can earn United miles in many ways, and then you can pool United miles with other family members. First, you can open a United credit card. There are four personal cards and two business cards open to new applicants.
- The New United Gateway℠ Card
- The New United℠ Explorer Card
- The New United Quest℠ Card (Rates & Fees)
- The New United Club℠ Card (Rates & Fees)
- The New United℠ Business Card (Rates & Fees)
- United Club℠ Business Card
Each of these cards has its own earning potential, benefits, and perks. To learn more about which card may be the best fit for you, check out our comparison of United credit cards.
- Limited-Time Offer: Earn 60,000 bonus miles
- $0 introductory annual fee for the first year, then $150
- 2x miles on United® purchases, dining, and hotel stays when booked with the hotel
- Enjoy priority boarding privileges and visit the United Club℠ with 2 one-time passes each year for your anniversary
- Free first checked bag - a savings of up to $160 per roundtrip. Terms Apply.
- Up to $120 Global Entry, TSA PreCheck® or NEXUS fee credit
- Earn a $100 United travel credit after spending $10,000 on purchases with your United℠ Explorer Card within a calendar year
- Over $400 in partner credits each year
- Member FDIC
- Rates & Fees
- 2X miles per $1 spent on purchases from United®
- 2X miles per $1 spent on dining and hotel stays when booked with the hotel
- 1X mile per $1 spent on all other purchases
Second, United is one of Chase Ultimate Rewards transfer partners, which means you can transfer points at a 1:1 ratio (and most transfers are immediate). Third, earn miles by flying on United or one of its partner airlines. Finally, you can earn more miles by shopping, dining, or booking travel through United.
You can get details about all of these options and more in our complete guide to United Mileage Plus.
Wrapping Up
Family travel using points will always require more thought and planning than what's required of solo travelers. However, valuable, reliable sweet spots for families do exist. Multiple airlines have great availability, discounts for kids, and low redemption rates, plus other perks. Do your research, decide what works best for your family, then use these tips to book the trip.
For rates and fees of the cards mentioned in this post, please visit the following links: Southwest Rapid Rewards® Plus Credit Card (Rates & Fees), The New United Gateway℠ Card (Rates & Fees), The New United Quest℠ Card (Rates & Fees), The New United Club℠ Card (Rates & Fees), The New United℠ Business Card (Rates & Fees), and The New United℠ Explorer Card (Rates & Fees)
The comments on this page are not provided, reviewed, or otherwise approved by the bank advertiser. It is not the bank advertiser's responsibility to ensure all posts and/or questions are answered.