United Airlines MileagePlus Premier members can now link reservations on the United app in order to share Premier benefits like Economy Plus or preferred seats for companions who may be traveling on a different reservation.
Share MileagePlus Premier Benefits With Traveling Companions By Linking Reservations On United Airlines App
Reservation linking has been tested since October 24 allowing select MileagePlus Premier members to share their Economy Plus and Preferred seat benefits with travel companions. This has now been expanded to all MileagePlus Premier members.
In a memo reviewed by Live And Let’s Fly, United says this will “assist with minors traveling on separate PNRs” [reservations] and will help “keep customers together during seat and reservation changes.”
Here are some key factors:
- Reservation linking is available exclusively on the United mobile app
- MileagePlus members can opt to send an invitation to another member to link reservations
- The receiving party will receive the invitation by SMS or email and can choose whether to accept the link
- After accepting the link, the receiving party can select seats as part of the original member’s benefit
- Contact center agents will know if a reservation is linked, but won’t be able to initiate or change the link
- Policies around seating benefits aren’t changing, but some requirements must be met for reservation linking.
- All flights in the itinerary must match
- To link reservations, one must be revenue, and one must be award travel
- All customers must have MileagePlus accounts to share seat benefits
- Seat benefits are based on the traveler’s Premier status
This is still in beta mode and if the Premier member runs into a tech issue, contact center agents can still help assign seats.
I’ve never seen this before, but sure enough, it now shows up on an upcoming reservation:
I find it a little odd that one reservation must be revenue (paid for with USD) and the other an award (paid for with miles), but I suppose this minimizes fraud? After all, you can link anyone you want…
If you are traveling with a companion who is on a separate paid reservation, it is still possible to share your Economy Plus benefits via the contact center.
Tip: With United Premier 1K status, you and up to eight companions can access Economy Plus seats at booking, along with other perks like pre-boarding and free upgrades. This is true even on separate bookings as long as the 1K member is on the same flight
CONCLUSION
United now allows you to link reservations on the United app, though only award reservations and revenue reservations can currently be linked.
This is a handy tech innovation that will be useful for some and avoids the hassle of a phone call.
image: United Airlines
Why not call this the Take Your Mistress benefit?
That’s what my husband uses it for.