Originally Posted by
checkerboard
Mixing award & revenue tickets in a single PNR, booked in a single transaction? Upon simple request, EXP desk would do this for me all the time... I'd receive two separate e-ticket receipts, both mentioning the same PNR. And, FWIW, I vaguely recall that they were also able to add revenue bookings to a PNR already containing ticketed award segments, but that adding award segments to a PNR with already ticketed revenue tickets was impossible.
There are 2 distinct different situations: 1) all revenue, but splitting fares results in a lower total [which happens more and more as airlines specifically make rules preventing automatic low-fare combinations to increase revenue] and 2) revenue/mileage ticket combination for bag-check purposes.
For 1) you have to either check yourself if different individual combinations results in lower fares, then ask a phone agent to do that for you or have a great travel agent who will automatically do that for you.
For 2) you need to have done the research in advance to determine what revenue ticket you want connected with a mileage ticket [usually because mileage space isn't available on the short segments], and ask the agent to book them at the same time in the same record. They may need to go to their support desk to get it done, but it can be done.
Trying to combine records after the fact is impossible from a computer point of view. Previously agents would/could use a manual over-ride to create a bag tag [often by inserting pseudo flights into one record] that would be thru-checked. But management specifically is forbidding them from doing that now, alliances be damned. In typical fashion, they're expecting the public to understand their arcane rules and archaic computer systems, which is nearly impossible. All in service of less liability for themselves [lost bags on misconnections] and slightly less work on ticket issuance, and also in the case of revenue - a lot more $$ by preventing most fare combinations.
Airlines are NOT on the side of the customer/passenger or even logic, no matter what they say. They're after personal longevity/income/status, then company/stockholder revenue. Everything else is incidental.