In booking award tickets on a daily basis, I often encounter situations in which I must split a record before ticketing. Put simply, say there are two people on an award reservation and they want to use their own miles to pay for their tickets. If miles are coming out of two accounts (with some Household Account exceptions), the reservation must be divided. Each passenger will subsequently have their own confirmation number from the ticketing carrier. The point of this post is this: when an agent tells you it is not possible to split a record, push back.
This may seem so trivial, but the ramifications are tremendous. An interaction with a United employee today prompted this post. A client told me they had 150K United miles and asked me to book a one-way trip from Tanzania to the USA for two passengers. The cost of such a ticket is 60K for business class and I was able to find some pretty nifty space on Swiss/Austrian during the peak safari season. As is customary for me, I placed the reservation on hold and presented the client with the space.
The client loved it and told me to ticket it–but when I asked for his MileagePlus info I found he had 80K in his account in 70K in his wife’s account. Consequently, I could not just call United and tell them to pull 60K from each account–I had to split the record so that the tickets could processed correctly.
As I expected and am told so often, an agent informed me that it was not possible to split the record. We would have to remove one person from the reservation and request the space again she claimed. That works fine when there is additional award space in inventory, but in this case (as is often the case), there was no extra space. Now to be honest, oftentimes when you release award space it instantly or quickly returns to inventory and you can book it again. But playing that game is an inherent risk because sometimes the space does not go back–it is an unnecessary risk.
I pushed back (gently) against the agent and told her it was possible to split the itinerary and I did not want to risk losing this space. Bottom line, I don’t think she knew how to do this, but she offered to check with her support desk. Five minutes later, the reservation was split and tickets were in the queue for issuance.
This is not a problem unique to United Airlines. US Airways, Delta, and American (though much less so on American) all have given me similar stories. And to be fair, there is a chance something could go wrong when records are split with partner airlines, because in you are technically requesting the seats again from the carrier (meaning the carrier could say no). But in practice (and remember that Award Expert redeems millions of miles each week), this risk is much smaller than removing someone from the ticket and crossing your fingers that the space will become available again.
If an agent says splitting a record is not possible, push back or hang up and call again.
The irony of UA saying the record cannot be split is lovely since my last few itineraries were split against my will by SHARES. Different from this i know, but still made me smile.
In my experience with United, it has not ever been possible to “split” a record once it’s been created (i.e. to divide a single record into two reservation, each with their own PNR). That said, I’ve never had trouble using two separate Mileage Plus accounts to pay for two tickets on the same record.
How did you get United to hold the ticket in the first place? I thought they removed that option in the last week.
@Arun: Indeed–I appreciate the irony!
@Tim: Your experience is just the opposite and quite frankly, I didn’t think it is possible. First, the record definitely can be split. But UA’s system is set up such that an award cannot be ticketed without mileage being deducted. For a 100K award, that requires 100K from a single account. Would you mind explaining how you had no trouble using separate MP accounts. I at least assume you had enough in each account to pay for each each traveler (i.e, you did not take 25K from one account and 75K from another for two 50K awards).
Has anyone else had a similar experience to Tim?
@Zach: I still see the phone option quite regularly, though you can always hold an award if you do not have sufficient points in the account.
great post, i m about to have the same situation, my wife and I have split accounts but need to book the same itinerary. If I call in and ask from the beginning that the points will come from two accounts, will they give me the same trouble ?
Oh, I read this a day late! Yesterday, I “grabbed” two first class seats sea-fra-fco-bkk and booked under one number. I called back later to split and replace two separate existing res. Said it couldn’t be done. Agent was able to rebook all portions except sea-fra. United said cancel first res to open up the seats I took. Hmmm now I’m missing that leg and seats haven’t returned! Arg
@choi: It will be easier just to book from two separate reservations from the start.
I just called United again, as one of the first class seats has opened (I could see it yesterday, but the agent couldn’t). I asked if she could add it to my reservation and hold it like the other agent did. “sorry, no that was a one time courtesy” As an added note of surprise, this “held” itinerary ended up in my Qatar air flight information!
@norman: call and try again.
I had an agent tell me “You can’t just piece together segments like that”, when I was reading her flights that I knew had availability. Times like that it’s just time to call another agent.
Exactly. Just say you have another call coming in. Be as nice as possible so they won’t write something nasty in the record. MJK
Ok, sometimes magic happens. I called 2-3x and there was only 1 seat in F. When I explain what happend the last agent found the old reservation-one that I was told was cancelled and was nowhere in my account-and had 2 F seats(thats why they were not available-never closed out). This agent was not only able to revive the old one, but split it out AND only use part of it (she did call her support desk). I was so excited I had to tell her supervisor how great she was! Its all who you talk to…
Hi Matthew,
I have exactly this conundrum now. I have booked 2 tickets for an epic RT-OJ on *A and cannot get out of X. I am sure that I will get one, if not both ticketed in I class if I can split – but there is no availability on my flights and I am sure that I will lose them if they do this wrong…
Is there a special team or dept that we can feel confident won’t mess this one up? I have been using the *A RTW Desk as they seem quite switched on, but they are also the people who told me if I split I risk losing my seats…
@norman: Congrats! 🙂
@Matt: I always use the RTW desk myself–usually no hold and the agents (hence, I don’t talk about it 😉 ), though SLC-based, are pretty good. I suppose there is always some risk, but I would do it through this desk. But if you have the points in one account, you can ticket the reservation then split it yourself online (as long as the reservation is not too complex).
Do you know how to do that? If not, I better do a post on that.
Hi Matthew
I’d love to see a post on this. My award is a little convoluted…
JFK-IST
IST-MLE
CMB-SIN
SIN-NRT
NRT-JFK
80k in coach using open jaw and stopover.
I love the route to MLE as it comes with about 8hrs in IST which is great for dinner, then a night flight to MLE.
I really only care about the NRT-JFK leg getting upgraded, the rest would be nice (but cmb-sin is on SQ so not happening)
The IST – MLE leg is all TK which I can survive… Just that last long leg…
Hey, do you have any experience with Avianca life miles splitting PNR? Thanks.
No experience, but it is possible (technically). Good luck!