Traveling with a family can be tough on the family mile and point balances. Unlike folks who really like to fly solo and think it is amazing when they can find one seat, or those who prefer global First Class jet setting, family travel is a bit more complex.

First, you have to select a realistic location. It isn’t feasible to take the family half way around the world on every trip for a long weekend. It takes a lot of miles and points to get a full family to where you’d like to go, plus, imagine taking a new born and another child in there terrible 2s on more than one long haul flight on a regular basis.

Second, you have to find availability for all of your family to go with you, and putting them on different planes or different cabins doesn’t always work with little ones.

These are some of the considerations families have to think about when they create their points and miles earning strategy, select destinations for travel and look forward award space. So I was very excited when US Airways and American Airlines announced award booking reciprocity. I have a ton of miles in both programs thanks to my CitiBusiness® AAdvantage® World MasterCard® and even more US Airways miles to add to that balance thanks to my US Airways Premier World MasterCard, so I was eager to find out what types of space they had for our little family.

5 First Class Seats On Same Plane At Low Level

One of the first things I did after sharing the news about US Airways and American Airlines reciprocal award booking was to share how you can select seats on US Airways planes when you book with American Airlines miles.

When looking into this a little closer, I realized there was AMAZING availability to the west coast with US Airways, in the same cabin on the same plane!

So I pulled up both US Airways and American Airlines to start looking at award pricing. I first noticed that I could save tons of miles on the new American Airlines transcontinental route in flat-bed First Class, but I don’t live in New York so that flight isn’t of much value to me at this point for this exact trip.

I did know that I could save about 5,000 miles per ticket with US Airways since I have the US Airways Premeir World MasterCard. But even though the American Airlines award tickets would cost 5,000 more miles for First Class, it came with $35 less in fees and taxes.

I found an award to one of our favorite family friendly Hyatt Properties (Lake Tahoe) that would accommodate our entire little family in the same class of service, in the same plane, on the same day! Plus, the revenue tickets were pricing out extremely high for both Coach and First Class travel.

5 Seats In First Class…On Same Plane

How about that for value and utility of airlines miles! We are now able to travel in First Class together to one of our favorite family friendly Hyatt properties! I was even able to confirm both rooms as suites before the Hyatt devaluation in early January.

Family Friendly Hyatt Lake Tahoe

I found up to 5 seats in First Class on the US Airways Atlanta to Phoenix flight. Then after a short connection, we’d all jump back onto another US Airways flight, in First Class, to Lake Tahoe.

Look At That Award Availability For 5 Seats

The best part is we’d all arrive at the same time and have the benefit of traveling together all the way to the west coast, all for only 50,000 American Airlines miles per person. So I pulled up AA.com and made the same booking on their site for the lower fees.

250k AA Miles For Domestic First Class For 5 People – Deal!

Of course Delta wanted 40,000 SkyPesos for each person for a connecting flight in Economy Comfort.

Delta SkyPesos Pricing

So it was a no brainer to use an extra 10,000 miles per person to fly virtually the same miles, for the same length of time, but be in the same premium cabin.

Bottom Line

US Airways truly has amazing availability in First Class on some domestic routes, especially if you are afraid of flying alone and can’t take a 25+ hour journey each way for a long weekend with the kids.

Have you seen any other great uses of US Airways Dividend Miles or American Airlines AAdvantage miles since the announcement?

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