Originally Posted by BDLMSYDL

When we travel as a family, I regularly purchase my ticket and use miles for wife and kids. Obviously can't have a rev and award tickets on the same PNR so I always call, they do the "linking" in the notes and put us together in MCE. When I get to the airport, never had issues checking bags and have never been charged fees. Same flights - just on 2 PNRs.

This time around, both agents gave me a hard time about saying that the agents that have done it in the past have broken policy and NEVER should have done it. At LAX, was told that it's never done, which I can confirm it was because that's one of the airports I fly with my family out of. They ended up waiving the fees for 2 bags since I get 3 as EP, but told me that it was a once in a lifetime waiver and I would never be able to do this again. Next time, guess I'll pack larger bags for the 5 of us (wife, myself & 3 kids) so I can get to 3 instead of 5 carry-on size ones.

The last time I did this in 2017 as an EP and 2016 as a Plat, no one ever pushed back, told me I was expecting something against policy or even reminded me. Just couldn't believe how much they were pushing back on me this time - sort of seems like there's a policy that's being hard enforced now that wasn't in the past. Guess AA wants me to either buy all of the tickets outright or use miles for all of them so it's 1 PNR.

Anyone else had experience with this?