I have my wife flying in Z from SFO to LHR under one PNR and then a separate PNR on BMI economy from LHR to AMS. I learned this trick thanks to FT. It has been easy before to just tell the united agent that we were connecting on another reservation.

Great heads up but I guess the main question is now what will my wife do as she is flying on August 6th. I also have some flights booked for later in the year under the same model. Does this mean that she will have to go through customs into the UK to get her luggage and then go back through security to check into United? This seems very crazy and what is the benefit of using *A. Any help would be appreciate.