Family travel

[Rachelism]

Hello knowledgeable people

We aim to travel to Mauritius once a year as we have family there. We tend to choose Air France, British airways and air Mauritius (less of the later due to rewards)

Therefore, we got an amex gold to accumulate points to be flexible.

With the new Barclays avios card, it makes sense to stick to this, which begs the question as to whether we should go all avios for both cards and get the companion voucher. Maybe even two cards to get two companion vouchers

How do people make this work with school age kids so that we are restricted to peak times and weekends/bank holiday in case of short haul travels?

[memesweeper]

You should price the points + cash required for your preferred routes and airlines. Air France or Emirates+Air Mauritius might be significantly less than BA.

In terms of availability you should expect nothing from BA at peak times for family travel. The ways around this are:
– phone and book at midnight (or 0100 summertime) -355 days
– get a BA Premium Amex and use that voucher, which may open up extra seat availability
– be prepared for sudden child sickness a day or two before/after travel

There’s a mid-August lull as well, you can sometimes get availability then. It’s going out at the start of a holiday period, and/or back at the end, that’s damn near impossible on BA Avios.

[Gary]

Agree 4 J seats for school holidays almost only feasible by booking on release at midnight/1am especially with popular beach destinations. Be aware if the companion vouchers are in 2 BAEC accounts, CS can grab the initial 2 seats for one account and repeat the same for the other with a time lag in between which means risk of only having 2 if someone else also grabbing them. Solution is you and OH call meaning both potentially up til 1am!

[NorthernLass]

Flexibility is key when you’re stuck with peak travel dates. You might not get 4 seats to MRU, but maybe you could to DXB or similar then get a connecting flight? If your budget can stand it, use a 241 for one adult and one child, and book the other adult and child on a BA holiday, especially if you usually rent a car.