Help with miles collection for Xmas travel

[Fuerza]

This Christmas I'd like to fly my family to Kansas to visit my family. We haven't seen them in a little over a year and Christmas will be our best option to travel and plan to acquire the necessary miles.

For reference I would be flying from ELP to ICT.

Miles programs I belong to are AA, UR, MR. I don't have an airline preference, and I'd be looking at 3 or 4 coach class tickets round trip. Transfer partners for UR seam the best with Southwest and United. 4 tickets will be rather expensive but I'm wondering if I could acquire the necessary miles to book the travel by November. I have 65k UR points and could get more in the necessary time frame. Like signing up for CSP.

I just don't know how many I might need. I know that it is hard to predict these things but I was wonder if someone my have a ball park idea of what I might need?

Edit: looks like SW airlines is already scheduling flights out that far. Ball park points will be 90k SW miles.

Thanks.

 

[Matt]

90k for 4 would be great value- prices seem pretty steep for that run.

 

[Fuerza]

Matt agreed! We might not need 4 we will be traveling with my baby daughter. My wife elected to have her sit on her lap. Not sure if that is a good idea or not.

 

[Matt]

Matt agreed! We might not need 4 we will be traveling with my baby daughter. My wife elected to have her sit on her lap. Not sure if that is a good idea or not.

Probably better than leaving her at home

Gotta take my first trips this year with the little guy myself... should be an interesting experience.

 

[asthejoeflies]

Don't listen to Matt Taking lap infants are cake until they start walking!

 

[ElainePDX]

Probably better than leaving her at home

Ha, ha, liked that one @Matt !

I too am thinking about Xmas travel as we hope to go to FL to see friends and family. Wondering if it is even worth looking for award tix or if I should just try to find something that isn't exorbitant. We almost never travel at Xmas - or if we do, we fly/drive on Xmas Day - but I fear we'll be flying along with the rest of the country in the days before Xmas this year.

Any tips/tricks for this NJG on booking holiday travel are most welcome!

 

[asthejoeflies]

I just ran into a similar dilemma for Labor Day - obviously not the demand but a lot less flexibility in dates. What I did was set up a Kayak alert and concurrently keep an eye on prices and for award space. My goal was to pull the trigger on whichever looked like "non-peak" prices first. Found a non-stop one way flight from LA to BOS for $200 and pulled the trigger. Was getting nervous for awhile though...

 

[Matt]

Ha, ha, liked that one @Matt !

I too am thinking about Xmas travel as we hope to go to FL to see friends and family. Wondering if it is even worth looking for award tix or if I should just try to find something that isn't exorbitant. We almost never travel at Xmas - or if we do, we fly/drive on Xmas Day - but I fear we'll be flying along with the rest of the country in the days before Xmas this year.

Any tips/tricks for this NJG on booking holiday travel are most welcome!

Depending on your travel days, I think you can find great space... but yeah, traveling on Christmas day itself is a big help, days before and after can get busy..

 

[Maverick17]

Book travel for Dec. 23rd, take a bump from a full flight, and your trip is paid for.