Originally Posted by
sukn
This policy has been slightly amended in the last year or so. At the time of booking, if the EXP and the companion share at least one segment on their individual itineraries, there is no phone ticketing fee.
In this scenario, it also does not matter if one passenger is on an award travel and the other is on a paid fare. Sharing a segment is all that is required to avoid the phone ticketing fee for the non-elite.
Are you sure about that? Do you have multiple sources that have confirmed it? I do plenty of EXP companion booking and have always been told that the record locator must be the same in order to waive ticketing fees on the companion(s). (except in cases of PNR splits for upgrade list purposes, IRROPS, etc...but all of that is after the fact in any event)