Booking award seats for a family is harder than booking one, because airlines rarely release several saver seats on the same flight at once.

Start searching as early as possible, ideally when seats are first released, and agree family flexibilities on dates and airports before you search.

Split strategies work: book seats across two programmes, mix award and cash tickets on the same flight, or split across two flights on the same day.

Use points for the most expensive seats first, usually long-haul or peak-date flights, and buy cash tickets for cheap short segments to maximise total saving.