Last roll of the dice – destination suggestions for family of four – Summer 2026
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Hey all
I’ve been busy collecting and spending Avios with companion vouchers for the last few years and have been lucky to have made use of them and travelled CW a few times. It’s now getting harder and harder for me to earn enough Avios to stay in this game and I’m looking to use up my Avios balance and 2 x vouchers for a last big family trip in Summer 2026.
Trying to narrow down some options on where to travel and looking for long haul flights to get max use of the lounges/CS experience so not considering Europe. Trying to nab 4 x CW is not an easy feat (I’ve felt the pain previously!) … so wondering what destinations would give me the best chance to travel as a group of 4 in CW in June/July?
We have travelled to SEA quite a bit last few years now so we are looking for a change. The US and Middle East doesn’t appeal to us so that takes a chunk of options away. I looked at Peru but there only seem to be max 2 CW seats there on the flights I could see with availability (perhaps due to code share reasons?).
The dream would be a safari in Bostwana/Okavango followed by a few days at a beach but CPT seems to be another sought after destination so happy to look at other options.
Appreciate your thoughts and inspiration!
The destinations that you can nab 4 CW seats ‘easily’ would be the least desired routes, be definition. Typically destinations such as Bahrain, Beijing and south Asian cities such as BLR, HYD and MAA have pretty good CW availability. You can use them as a connecting point or a base for other places nearby.
But the recent engine woes have pushed BA to cancel some of the routes (good avios availability is more likely on least profitable routes). I hope BA brings them back soon.Take a look at Costa Rica. I think summer flights require you to start in Madrid, and you’ll need to plan dates and locations around seasonal rains (but even in “rainy” places it’s far from constant).
Wildlife, beaches and scenery are the highlights.
You could fly direct LHR to Nairobi and and do a Kenya safari followed by beach in Mombasa or Zanzibar. We used our companion vouchers to do that trip as a family of 4 a few years ago and it was a great holiday.
I think the June/July difference is important as regards any availability, as school holidays will have commenced by the later dates.
My top tips:
Even in the school holidays Tuesdays (and sometimes Wednesdays) tend to have off-peak pricing on BA, which can save thousands of avios.
Use SeatSpy now to look at what’s still available over the summer (more than you might think), and this is a good indicator of the easiest seats to grab.
4 seats in CW is the minimum BA will release at T-355 (no similar guarantees with IB or EI), on routes with loads of services, like NYC, you’ll often see more, even at peak times.
You’ll always find availability to the US, and from there it’s easy to connect to Latin America, the Caribbean and Hawaii. It can be fun to break up a long journey with a city break somewhere like New York or Washington DC.
Inverness
Thanks for the responses!
Hoping for 3rd week of June (son doing A levels) and back mid July so should escape the peak school break dates.
Costa Rica also looks amazing Memesweeper – but will save that for a future trip once we are not so tied to school holidays.
Nairobi is a great shout FH2 and availability seems to be decent looking … that with a side trip to Mombassa could def work. Would love to hear what your itinerary looked like FH2 and if you had any trouble booking CW x 4. Also, I assume the A350s that BA use for Nairobi are all fitted with CS now and not the old ying/yang layout?
I’ll keep Nairobi in my pocket as a plan B but will if I can get in/out of JNB and then hit Botswana for safaris and Victoria Falls in place of a beach break.
edit: Thanks NorthernLass – I’ve been using the BA site as I was thinking Seatspy was not so accurate and didn’t show the extra reward seats with the new CV BA provides now … has that changed?
Ah, the post-exam escape! I felt so smug doing this after my son’s GCSEs and A levels, lol. You will have many more destinations and off-peak dates to choose from.
Just make sure you have the correct exam board dates to refer to and don’t do what my friend did which was book for them all to fly to Italy the day before her son’s last A level exam! (She ended up buying him another ticket and he joined them the day after the last exam, but it might not be so easy getting to Botswana or wherever).
SeatSpy is as you say, but still gives a good general guide to availability. If you’re booking at T-355, the extra availability won’t have been released anyway.
Ouch! Thanks and I will make sure I have the right dates/boards before considering my outbound! I’ll check to see if the dates are published for 2026 already.
SeatSpy – maybe I’ll stump up for a monthly plan nearer the time so I can pounce once I see availability
Thanks for the responses!
Hoping for 3rd week of June (son doing A levels) and back mid July so should escape the peak school break dates.
Costa Rica also looks amazing Memesweeper – but will save that for a future trip once we are not so tied to school holidays.
Nairobi is a great shout FH2 and availability seems to be decent looking … that with a side trip to Mombassa could def work. Would love to hear what your itinerary looked like FH2 and if you had any trouble booking CW x 4. Also, I assume the A350s that BA use for Nairobi are all fitted with CS now and not the old ying/yang layout?
I’ll keep Nairobi in my pocket as a plan B but will if I can get in/out of JNB and then hit Botswana for safaris and Victoria Falls in place of a beach break.
edit: Thanks NorthernLass – I’ve been using the BA site as I was thinking Seatspy was not so accurate and didn’t show the extra reward seats with the new CV BA provides now … has that changed?
We did our Kenya trip in July 2022 and booked our BA Club seats using 2 companion vouchers in Aug 2021. There were lots of seats available at that time, probably due to the pandemic restrictions in place. At that time the plane used for LHR-NBO had Club Suite – not sure if that is still the case.
We spent one night in Nairobi at the Tamarind hotel, which is very convenient if you have an early flight from the domestic airport the next morning. We would have spent an extra night in Nairobi to see the Giraffe Sanctuary but our schedule didn’t allow for it. We flew to Masai Mara and did a 5 day safari, staying at the Sarova Mara Camp which I highly recommend. Then we flew to Mombasa and spend a few nights visiting family in Diani followed by 5 nights at White Sands hotel on the North Coast.
It was a great trip. Happy planning!
Usually plenty of available seats to JNB for your potential Africa adventure, and plentiful connections from there. 2 hours will get you nearly everywhere and apart from Vic falls which always seems expensive, will probably be cheap.
Hotel recommendation for Victoria Falls – we stayed at the Royal Livingston. Beautiful hotel with giraffes and zebras roaming freely. Also free entry to the falls which are in walking distance of the hotel.
I find Flighttimecalendar very good for checking availability https://www.flighttimecalendar.com/
Many thanks all and thank FH2 for your breakdown and details!
Think I’m set now on an African adventure for 2026! We have done a few tiger safaris at the amazing Ranthambhore Reserve in India but that was almost 10 years ago now so we’re ready to go safari again.
Currently, leaning towards East Africa as it looks more straightforward to organise and might be better suited for a first time safari in Africa and still has options for mixing up with scenery in different parks, lodges/mobile safaris etc. Plus we may welcome the beach break at the end after busy, dusty and thrilling days. If we can do late June/early July we may miss some of the heavy school hols visitors – dunno! Also, I think Kenya/Tanzania seems a touch cheaper (none of this is cheap mind!). I can of course always consider Bots in future for me and the wife if we fancy another safari trip.
Will do some (a lot) more research now and then finally decide on Kenya/Tanz/Beach or Botswana/Vic Falls option.
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