Multiple Record Locators for the Same Family-Bad
 

We have discussed the problems that can be associated with different record locators for parties travelling together. Another example: A couple of days ago, called SMS to book a PVD-SAN trip in June to see beloved Red Sox play in California. I booked a PM upgrade, wife upgraded on a NAMU and two children with FC SkySaver awards. Gave credit card for all including award tickets. I am on one record, the wife on another and the award tix on a third record. Seats selected etc. Done deal, right?
Was checking itins on the web today, and no June 19 trip showed on the list. Called SMS, and the wife was ticketed normally as were the children's award seats, but my record locator never showed as ticketed, and of course, the reservation had timed out. SMS restored it quickly and painlessly.

Attempting to dissect what happened, the only answer can be that my itin never got ticketed in the mess of jumping from record to record to select seats etc.

DL Technology needs to develop the following capability: Ticket an entire party travelling together on a single record locator, and simply split out a separate line for each ticket dealing with form of payment, use of vouchers, type of upgrade etc. I know the people working at the reservations centers would love this! So would we passengers!

Russ, please try to find out the "why not" for this proposal and let us know. Thanks.

Robert, I can't explain it (or speak for DLTech), but it seems pretty obvious to me. If a party of four is to be booked in V/G and R class, how could they all get in the same PNR?! Just as two business partners going on a trip, and one wants Y and the other L, they couldn't be in the same PNR.

Do other airlines' computer systems allow this?

I'm sure its frustrating, and I'm sorry the orig SMS agt didn't "ticket" your PNR, but I'm glad to see that it did get resolved w/o creating another problem.



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The information I provide is in no way the authoritative voice of Delta. I do not work for Corporate Communications, nor in Customer Care. I do not represent the final word for Delta when asked a question. I simply try to answer questions to the best of my knowledge, and try to direct people to the correct answer and/or point them in the right direction to find that answer. If you want to double check my answers, please E-Mail Delta Customer Care or just send an e-mail to: [email protected]

Thank you for letting me participate.

The way things are now, they cannot be on the same PNR, but if things were tweaked to allow V/G and R all on the same record with a "form of payment" line attached to each ticket. Right now, if two family members are travelling the same itin in the same class, but one wants to use a voucher and the othera credit card, that's 2 records. Let people be bunched into the same record but keep separate line for each as to form of payment, upgrade method etc. I mean if one individual on a record wants a special meal, it doesn't require a separate PNR. If one pax in a party requires a wheelchair, we can do that without a separate record. A potential way do this is to have a master PNR with each ticket its own sub-PNR (which it actually is anyway). And I do not know what other airlines do...



[This message has been edited by RobertS975 (edited 05-05-2002).]

Now I can't speak for systems like Leomatic, but in SABRE (and the stnd res agents that used SABRE QIK) there are very few things that can be different between multiple parties in the name field. Every single pax needed to be booked in the same bucket for each leg. Now each pax could be booked under a different fare (like maybe an adult fare, infant with own seat, senior) but that was it. For example, say the base fare is $300 on a K26. You could have 1.1 PASSENGER/ADULT on K26 at $300, 1.2 PASSENGER/INFANT on K26/IN50 at $150, and 2.1 PERSON/OLD on K26/SC10 at $270. That was basically all that could be done where any of the passengers were "different". Once you started bringing in different FOPs and heaven forbid a different schedule, there was just no way to do it in the same booking. The only saving grace was if PNRs were split. Then they would automatically be xrefed to each other. SABRE and I am assuming the other systems are fairly unforgiving. Only occasionaly could you use some tricks to get around it, but they were few and far between.

ANd while I write about this, one of the biggest pet peeves I had and I hope any TAs out there listen up. If you ever call the A/L for help on a record, get out of the dang thing first so I can actually save my changes!!!!!!!! They would pi*s me off to no end when you would spend 30 minutes fighting with SABRE to do something on a record, go to end and save changes, and the systems returns an UNABLE TO MAKE SIMULTANEOUS CHANGES response because the TA was messing around with seat assignments. Talk about frustrating!!!!!!!!!!!

Well, in this case, I would be a K fare V upgrade, and my wife would be a K fare, G upgrade. Same flights, same fare paid, but Delta forces it to be 2 separate locators.

Only after the upgs are made. Two parties can make one PNR if both are booked in K class. After the upg, now they're booked in V and G. The system must divide the two to be able to compute that.

I don't know what else to say. http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/frown.gif



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The information I provide is in no way the authoritative voice of Delta. I do not work for Corporate Communications, nor in Customer Care. I do not represent the final word for Delta when asked a question. I simply try to answer questions to the best of my knowledge, and try to direct people to the correct answer and/or point them in the right direction to find that answer. If you want to double check my answers, please E-Mail Delta Customer Care or just send an e-mail to: [email protected]

Thank you for letting me participate.

That is because you are now booked in two separate buckets. This requires the booking to be divided and filed.

I understand that this is the way it has to be currently, but I am arguing that it would be helpful to passengers, check-in agents and reservations agents to FIX it so that it would not have to be on separate records!