Seven Seats, Three Generations: Booking Our Family of 8 in Business Class to Europe on 100,000 Alaska Miles a Person

Booking business class for four is one kind of puzzle. Booking any class for eight people — spanning three generations, including a lap infant — is a different one entirely. This summer we got 7 of our 8 travelers (4 grandparents, 2 parents, 2 kids, one of whom flew as a lap infant) from New York to London and home from Paris, almost entirely on miles. Here's exactly how, and what it actually cost.

The trip

• Outbound: NYC → London, August 11, 2025 — American Airlines metal, booked through Alaska Mileage Plan (now Atmos Rewards after Alaska's 2025 merger with Hawaiian Airlines' loyalty program).
• Middle: London to Paris by Eurostar — no flight search needed for this leg at all.
• Return: Paris (CDG) → NYC, August 22, 2025 — also American Airlines, also booked through Alaska/Atmos.

Four grandparents, two parents, two kids — one of whom was a lap infant and didn't need an award seat at all. That's 7 award tickets covering 8 travelers.

Why book AA flights through Alaska/Atmos instead of British Airways or Virgin

This is the part most people miss. American Airlines flies the same route whether you book it with American miles, British Airways Avios, Virgin Atlantic points, or Alaska/Atmos miles — but the taxes and fees are not the same. British Airways and Virgin Atlantic both add substantial UK Air Passenger Duty and carrier-imposed fuel surcharges to any award ticket routed through their programs, even on partner metal. Alaska/Atmos does not add those surcharges the same way.

The difference shows up directly in what we paid:

$18.10 to fly transatlantic is not a typo — that's what booking AA metal through Alaska/Atmos avoided on the outbound leg. A comparable booking through BA or Virgin on the same AA flight can easily run several hundred dollars a person in surcharges alone. The return leg's higher taxes come from departing France, not from the airline program — French departure taxes apply regardless of which program books the seat.

The lap infant: a separate call, not a separate ticket

Alaska/Atmos's own booking flow doesn't handle infant tickets on partner airlines like American. We booked the 7 adult/child seats through Alaska first, then called American Airlines directly afterward to add the lap infant to the reservation — and we did this twice, once for each direction. The outbound (NYC→LHR) add-on cost $143.50. The return (CDG→JFK) cost €222.06 — charged in Euros since that leg departed from Paris.

If you're traveling with a lap infant on a partner-airline award ticket, plan on this as a two-step process for each direction: book the seated travelers first, then call the operating airline (not the program you booked through) to add the infant to that specific flight. Don't be surprised if the fee is charged in local currency rather than dollars, depending on where that leg departs.

What it actually cost, all in

Seven business-class-comfort-adjacent transatlantic round trips for a family spanning three generations, for under $1,800 in cash and 700,000 miles combined — plus the lap infant covered both ways for $143.50 outbound and €222.06 on the return. For a party this size, that's a remarkably efficient outcome.

The Eurostar trick: skip a flight search — and skip Heathrow entirely

Rather than searching for 7 more award seats on a second flight between London and Paris — which would have meant another round of the same scarce-inventory problem — we booked an open-jaw itinerary: fly into London, fly home from Paris, and cover the distance in between by train.

The award-search benefit is obvious, but the day-to-day benefit mattered just as much with a party this size. Heathrow is not a fast airport — long transfer walks, packed security lines, and a real risk of one grandparent or one stroller holding up the whole group at a connection. The Eurostar runs city-center to city-center (St. Pancras to Gare du Nord) in about 2.5 hours: no security theater, no gate changes, no risk of a missed connection cascading through 7 boarding passes. For a group spanning three generations and a lap infant, walking onto a train with your bags at your seat is a meaningfully easier travel day than clearing a connection at one of the world's busier airports.

If your itinerary spans multiple cities, this is worth remembering: you don't need to fly every leg. An open-jaw award booking plus a train, ferry, or short regional option booked separately can remove both a scarce-inventory search and a stressful connection from your plan.

The real lesson: know which programs release more than a seat or two

None of this came from one lucky search, but the bigger lesson isn't just persistence — it's knowing which programs are actually capable of releasing 7 business-class-adjacent award seats on one flight in the first place. Most programs cap out at 1–2 seats per search, occasionally 4 on a good day. Finding a program and a route where 7 seats can open together for one flight is a narrower, more specific kind of knowledge than "search a lot" — it's knowing which airlines and alliances tend to release deeper award inventory on certain routes, and checking those specific sources rather than assuming a generic search engine surfaces everything that's actually possible.

The takeaway: for a big multi-generational trip, look at how you're routing through partner programs, not just which program has the miles. Alaska/Atmos booking AA metal to Europe can mean dramatically lower taxes and fees than booking the same seats through BA or Virgin. Handle infants as a separate call to the operating airline, on each direction. And when your itinerary spans more than one city, consider whether a train can replace both a flight search and a rough airport connection. Above all, know which programs can actually deliver seats in the quantity your family needs — that's the difference between finding 2 seats and finding 7.

Want help finding seats for your own family's trip? Reach out at hello@familytravelwithpoints.com.