Visiting the Grandparents: The Boring (But Best) Way to Use Your Points
Not every trip needs a sweet spot. Here's how to use points for the family flight you take every year — the one to see grandma.
Why Recurring Family Flights to Grandparents Rarely Appear in Points Guides
Search any points blog and you'll find guides to business class to Tokyo. What you won't find much of: the flight you actually book most — a domestic economy trip to see grandparents, twice a year, on dates that are only sort of flexible around school breaks.
Points Needed for a Family Flight to Visit Grandparents
| Distance | Points needed per person (RT, economy) | Family of 4 |
|---|---|---|
| Short-haul (under 3 hrs) | ~12,500–20,000 | ~50,000–80,000 |
| Medium-haul (3–5 hrs) | ~20,000–30,000 | ~80,000–120,000 |
Realistic value on a trip like this: 1.0–1.2 cents per point. It's not a headline redemption. It's just genuinely useful, over and over, every year.
How to Book: Prioritize Flexible Cancellation Over a Slightly Better Rate
If your dates might move (school schedules, a parent's work trip, a kid's illness), prioritize a program with free changes over a marginally better redemption elsewhere. If your dates are locked in, book saver-level space on your usual airline as early as it opens —330–360 days out for planned trips, whenever you know for last-minute ones.
Why Consistency Beats Optimization for Recurring Family Flights
This isn't the redemption to optimize. It's the one to make routine — same airline, same account, same playbook, twice a year, without re-learning the system every time.
Frequently Asked Questions
How many points does a family of 4 need to fly to see grandparents?
For a short domestic flight under 3 hours, expect roughly 50,000–80,000 points round-trip for four people. For a medium-haul flight of 3–5 hours, budget 80,000–120,000 points. Exact numbers vary by airline and route.
Is it better to book a recurring family flight with points or cash?
Points make sense here mainly for the flexibility, not headline value — realistic value on this kind of trip runs 1.0–1.2 cents per point, which is solid but not exceptional. The bigger win is picking a program with free date changes, since recurring family trips get rescheduled often.
Which points program is best for recurring domestic family flights?
Southwest Rapid Rewards is a strong default for this specific use case: no change fees, and points are automatically redeposited if plans shift, which matters more for a twice-a-year family trip than squeezing out an extra 0.2 cents per point elsewhere.