Originally Posted by
ringingup
When splitting the booking into different PNRs, would I have to ask to link them for seat assignment purposes, i.e. to be able to choose a seat for the non GCH?
Originally Posted by
corporate-wage-slave
For the seat selection, I think the answer is clearer since TCP only applies in the same cabin, so it won't work if in different cabins and a split booking.The logic being to allow the GCH the ability to have their companion sat near them, as opposed to donating GCH seating privileges to other travellers.
In my case, it was the Gold who upgraded. Before doing that, I made sure that the Blue was sitting in the better seat of the already-allocated economy pair, and AFAIK that pre-allocation was never cancelled or moved (although it would have cost money to move the Blue to another seat).
On the non-upgraded half, seats together had already been pre-allocated for both pax pre-split. There was a curtain shift post-split, and both the Gold and the Blue were moved, albeit into different rows. When splitting the booking, I had asked the agent to TCP the bookings. However, it was entirely as expected that the TCP note would not have been read or noticed by the machinery that automatically moved both pax on this sector. It would have cost money to move the Blue via MMB. If necessary, I could have called again to get the two pax seated together for free - but as it was actually better to move the Gold to sit next to the Blue, there was no need to trouble seating with a request.
If you're going to be in different cabins on both sectors, then the TCP seat allocation privilege won't apply, as
c-w-s says. But my experience suggests that before splitting the booking, you should pre-allocate a decent seat for the other passenger, and then hope for the best after the split.