Is it possible to combine two one-way reservations into one single roundtrip?
Hi All,
I've quite enjoyed reading this forum for some time but this is my first post -- finally found something that truly baffles me.
I recently booked a trip from LAX to JFK and back on AA.com in two separate transactions; at the time I was booking the outbound I did not yet know my return date, so I purchased the LAX to JFK leg first, then bought the return flight a few days later. As such I have two different one-way reservations that essentially make up one round trip.
I'm also registered for the Business ExtrAA stressfreebiz promotion, which says:
To earn an additional 500 bonus points and 10,000 bonus miles you must book and fly one round-trip using your company’s Business ExtrAA account number by December 31, 2012.
Both flights were booked using my AAdvantage AND Business ExtrAA numbers, but just to make sure the bonus would go through I called the Gold AAdvantage reservation desk and asked them to combine the two reservations into one. The agent and then her supervisor both insisted that they ABSOLUTELY could NOT without charging me change fees and fare differences for both legs.
My first question is - does it even matter? Is there a chance I could get the bonus miles anyway?
Second; Can this really be a company policy, or did I just have bad luck and end up speaking with the wrong agent again? It's hard for me to believe that they "can't" do this -- surely they, or someone in that call center, could if they wanted to.
If it is policy, is it standard for other airlines? Is there any way I can get around the agent by doing this online, or speaking to someone else?
I understand conceptually that if these reservations were combined there would be a "change" insofar as one of them would be absorbed into the other. But it also is clear to me that, in the physical world, nothing is being CHANGED here except a number in their computer system. Same passenger, flights, dates, seats, ticket price, everything.
This is not the first time that I've called the Gold desk to make what I considered to be a perfectly reasonable minor request and felt like I'd ended up in a scene out of Kafka. It strikes me as infuriating, absurd, and, I might also argue, borderline unethical for AA to charge several hundred dollars -- an amount greater than the cost of BOTH tickets combined -- for what amounts to a small administrative courtesy. There is also something particularly grating to me about a customer service team that never (in my experience) even attempts to empathize with the people they're speaking with; over the phone, at least, I've never had an AA agent who seems willing to recognize that, as we are conversing with each other, a conversation between two human beings is taking place. I certainly wouldn't be fuming as much as I am right now if the supervisor had said something like "I know, it's absurd, but they're really strict about the rules on this" instead of turning it around on me: "So basically what you're asking me to do is change both of your tickets without charging you any change fees at all. Is that right? Is that what you want? No."
I guess this has turned into a bit of a rant -- apologies for that. I'm really not trying to slag on AA as a whole. I especially think the AAdvantage program is wonderful -- so long as you never have to speak to a person over the phone.
I don't know anything about the Business Extra part of the question but, as far as the question posed in your thread title, the answer is No. Reservations can't be combined into a single record.
Someone else likely will be better able to address possible ways of finagling around this.
Did you try already to call back and get a different response from another agent? that would be an excellent start...and it is the FT motto.
While I generally agree with this advice, I would suggest it is futile in this circumstance. Multiple PNRs cannot be combined into one, even for more legitimate reasons than the OP's.
When you check in for your first flight, ask the agent to combine your two flights. Be frank about why you want this done. Perhaps you will get lucky.
Multiple PNRs can be cross-linked (i.e. annotated that the PNRs are related, which can be useful for IRRPOS or checked baggage) but cannot be combined.
While I generally agree with this advice, I would suggest it is futile in this circumstance. Multiple PNRs cannot be combined into one, even for more legitimate reasons than the OP's.
I think it's more a case of getting the two separate trips viewed as a "round trip" for purposes of the benefit. It is possible that that can be done, rather than trying the (impossible) putting them into the same PNR.
I think it's more a case of getting the two separate trips viewed as a "round trip" for purposes of the benefit. It is possible that that can be done, rather than trying the (impossible) putting them into the same PNR.
Yes, I agree that it is a reasonable argument that two one-ways equate to a round trip for purposes of fulfilling the conditions of the promotion. However, I personally would wait until the flights were complete and present the argument to BusinessExtraa if the bonus doesn't post. Even if the PNRs are annotated as a round trip beforehand, there's no guarantee that BE will honor it or even look at the annotation.
Did you actually ask what the change fees and fare difference would be? One-way tickets frequently book into the higher-end fare buckets. Therefore, it could be that even with the added fees you end up with a new roundtrip ticket at a lower price (albeit with less flexibility).
Both flights were booked using my AAdvantage AND Business ExtrAA numbers, but just to make sure the bonus would go through I called the Gold AAdvantage reservation desk....
This is not the first time that I've called the Gold desk....
There is no such desk. You talked with ordinary AA customer service reps.
Programs: AA EXP, HH Diamond, MR Gold, SPG Gold, Hertz PC
Posts: 135
Earlier this year when AA had DEQM on roundtrips to and from LAX, I brain-cramped and booked two one way tickets. I called and was completely honest, explaining I wanted to qualify for the EQM. They combined the reservations for me and I received the bonus. I don't know if I got special treatment. If so, apparently they did Know Who I Was.
Programs: AA EXP 2.9 MM & LT PLT, SPG PLT 100 and LT GLD, TG, AC
Posts: 4,315
Quote:
Originally Posted by brp
No. Reservations can't be combined into a single record.
Perhaps not, but couldn't they manually enter the second flight into the first PNR as "HK" similar to what would I believe would happen if pax had simply informed AA of another rezzy that s/he was already holding?
I don't know anything about the Business Extra part of the question but, as far as the question posed in your thread title, the answer is No. Reservations can't be combined into a single record.
Someone else likely will be better able to address possible ways of finagling around this.
Cheers.
I've had them do this for me before when trying to merge two itineraries into one (in my case my wife and I were on separate PNRs and we wanted to merge them as I have a higher status level). If you get a nice CS rep they can waive the change fee HOWEVER you do need to pay the fare difference.
The reason is that they were technically correct when they told you that they could not merge PNRs. What they actually do is cancel your reservation, issue you a credit, and immediately use the credit on the "new" itinerary. But as the fare has changed, you are on the hook for the price difference.
Perhaps not, but couldn't they manually enter the second flight into the first PNR as "HK" similar to what would I believe would happen if pax had simply informed AA of another rezzy that s/he was already holding?
This approach requires a ticket reissue and therefore would trigger a change fee.
I've had them do this for me before when trying to merge two itineraries into one (in my case my wife and I were on separate PNRs and we wanted to merge them as I have a higher status level). If you get a nice CS rep they can waive the change fee HOWEVER you do need to pay the fare difference.
The reason is that they were technically correct when they told you that they could not merge PNRs. What they actually do is cancel your reservation, issue you a credit, and immediately use the credit on the "new" itinerary. But as the fare has changed, you are on the hook for the price difference.
My experience does not match yours. Even when a single PNR was split into two by AA, they were not able to recombine. I guess it may have been possible to cancel both records and recreate a new one (which I think is what you are describing), but in my case there would have been the fear of booked award inventory not falling back into award buckets.
My specifics are that I have an award reservation for two people (Mrs beerup and me) including a leg on BA. There was a sched change and during the ticket reissue AA "accidentally" split the reservation into separate PNRs for each passenger. Why this scenario matters to me is that as a OWE, I get advanced seat assignment on BA for me and anyone on the same PNR as a published benefit. Following the record split, my wife (AA GLD/OWR) is unable to get advanced seat assignment on the BA leg (Club Europe booked as part of a NA-EUR first-class award) without paying $32. Therefore, in this case I followed to rules to get my published benefit of pre-assigned seating at the time of booking, but because of subsequent actions by AA beyond my control, I lost this benefit and, according to multiple EXP agents, there's no going back because the PNRs cannot be recombined (and AA has cannot override the inability for advanced seat assignment on BA).
Now, two weeks before the flight, I have 1A assigned and my wife is without a seat assignment with the only unassigned seats in the cabin being 3F, 4B, 5A and 5F (i.e., no pairs). Perhaps when this came up, I should have insisted that the itineraries were rebooked into a single record and that award inventory should be created if it was not longer available but, in the end, it's only a little over a 2-hour flight and my wife and I can survive being separated for that long.
