Combining PNRs to waive bag fees?

Old Jun 15, 2019, 6:17 pm
  #1  
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Combining PNRs to waive bag fees?

Question about getting checked bag fees waived when traveling with others who ordinarily won't qualify for free checked bags...

We are a group of four, two couples, traveling together on AS. Two of us have the B of A Alaska VISA so we each qualify for free checked bag. Our in-laws, visiting from far away, do not have the AS Visa. None of us have status.

The booking is slightly complicated...
We will book 2 seats as one booking, and the other 2 seats as a separate booking.
Two seats will be on paid tickets (actually one full fare + companion certificate), and the two other passengers will be booked as awards (although I'll be using American Airlines points to book the awards). So there will be two separate bookings.

(The reason we're booking two paid seats and two award seats is because there are only 2 award seats at the low level on these flights. The reason I'm using AA points to book the seats on AS metal is because I have a shipload of AA points, and AS points are a lot more valuable to me, though I'd rather sit on an AS plane than an AA one).

Of course, the two of us who have the AS Visa (me and my spouse) will get a free checked bag each. But I'm wondering if there's any way to link our reservations (or otherwise combine the bookings) so all four of our group would qualify for a free checked bag each.

We have not booked the flights yet (booking window opens up about a week away). Is there any way to slice this so all 4 get a free checked bag, and the two of us flying on the paid tickets earn miles?

I'm not aware of any trick to accomplish this, unless I can simply call AS and have the two bookings "linked" or merged. I assume they'll be OK with "linking" but that won't accomplish what I want. Am I missing any options here?

Thanks for the input.
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Old Jun 15, 2019, 6:23 pm
  #2  
 
Join Date: Mar 2017
Location: British Columbia
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Originally Posted by nwflyboy

Of course, the two of us who have the AS Visa (me and my spouse) will get a free checked bag each. But I'm wondering if there's any way to link our reservations (or otherwise combine the bookings) so all four of our group would qualify for a free checked bag each.

We have not booked the flights yet (booking window opens up about a week away). Is there any way to slice this so all 4 get a free checked bag, and the two of us flying on the paid tickets earn miles?

I'm not aware of any trick to accomplish this, unless I can simply call AS and have the two bookings "linked" or merged. I assume they'll be OK with "linking" but that won't accomplish what I want. Am I missing any options here?

Thanks for the input.
I added a suggestion in the other thread. If you are booking through AA make sure your AS Mileage Plan number is on the AS flights. Your bag fee waiver is tied to your Mileage Plan number.

James
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Old Jun 15, 2019, 6:31 pm
  #3  
 
Join Date: Mar 2017
Location: British Columbia
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What is the better value? Earning EQM/RDM 1 for the flight or paying $302 for baggage fees, assuming 1 bag each? How long is your flight? Is EQM important? $55.00 + tax will buy you 2,000 RDM.

The simple answer is no, you cant combime an AA award to an AS paid itinerary to get baggage fees waived for all four of you if the parties on the AA award don't have a fee waiver.

James

Last edited by Flying for Fun; Jun 15, 2019 at 6:37 pm
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Old Jun 15, 2019, 6:54 pm
  #4  
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Yeah, I figured I'd need to do some math (value of the miles, the earned cost of checking bags, and other ways to get miles/how much it would cost to get that same number of miles otherwise...). I figured I'd just check first to see if there was some way to effectively attach the two bookings together and enjoy the bennies...but as I suspected, there's only so much magic one can manage in this case.

The flights are not terribly long, and we will all be in coach, so the number of miles in play here is not great. It probably makes more sense to pair up one of us with a card, along with one of them who doesn't (so one person on the paid booking has the card, and one person on the award booking has the card, that way each booking has one person who qualifies for the free bag which I assume is extended to both passengers on each booking, so we get all 4 bags checked for free, at the cost of foregoing just a relatively small number of miles. I can live with that.

Thanks for confirming and for the input.
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Old Jun 15, 2019, 7:17 pm
  #5  
 
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Originally Posted by nwflyboy

Thanks for confirming and for the input.
No problem! Since you will be purchasing the cheapest fare, are you getting good value out of your companion certificate?

James
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Old Jun 15, 2019, 8:49 pm
  #6  
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Originally Posted by Flying for Fun
No problem! Since you will be purchasing the cheapest fare, are you getting good value out of your companion certificate?
As good as it's likely to get. Not as good as it would be if we were doing a long trip on short notice, but it's the best we will be able to do before this particular cert expires (then we will get another one then). Frankly, I do most of my leisure traveling on award bookings, so I don't get a chance to use the AS companion cert all that often, so this is more of a win than usual. Of course, booking nice award flights is even better (and I get to do that reasonably often so no complaints).
^
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