Double booking same flight
 

I am dealing with a rather frustrating issue, wondering if others have experienced this before.. would greatly appreciate if you can share any insights~

basically I found a one way trip redemption availability for 2 people in J (this availability is an exclusive availability only for DMs - ones with a black star), but I am unable to find award availability for the outbound leg. Upon checking, I see that the one way flight from HK to Japan is actually similar price as a round trip return leg. As such, I book the round trip leg and hoping to use miles to "upgrade" the return flight only. However, upon trying to speak with a representative twice via whatsapp and trying the online route, I cant upgrade the return flight leg. The return leg is not selectable for upgrade (i have booked an upgradeable ticket), and the whatsapp rep is also hopeless where he/she is unable to see the award availability given these are only seen by selected members...

so I am contemplating now if i should just redeem the return leg in J and keep the overall ticket. However, im concerned that there might be issues with checking in since I will basically be double booking the same 2 passengers on the same flight with separate seats... is this an issue that i should be worried about or this is fine?

what's wrong with buying two seats for yourself?
esp. for people of larger sizes I'm sure that'd be appreciated by fellow pax

As data point three years back I had two bookings in Y, namely AAA-BBB-CCC & AAA-BBB-DDD where the first leg were the same flight - upon check in ground staff asked which itinerary I wanted to keep and cancelled the other one
(but travel was on company expense, & for both legs the FAs blocked an entire row of seats for me to lie down in, so that was all cool)

When you have two bookings on the same flight, especially with the same FFP number, it is usually detected by the system well ahead of checking-in.
Different airlines have different responses. If the loads are very high, their IT is likely to be more "agressive" in cancelling a booking.
My understanding is that you booked for 2 pax a cash return Y ticket A-B-A and a B-A award in J. This is different from buying two adjoining seats.

Be ready to be contacted by CX and offer to cancel the award ticket. Maybe releasing 2 J award will increase the chance to have upgrades open on that flight.

what's the latest on this for double-ticketed revenue ticket on same flight.

I have to make a change on BNE-HKG-YYZ flight, but knowing CX often reschedule about 3-4months ahead and I just need to make the BNE-HKG leg without affecting YYZ leg. Instead of paying cancel penalty charge now, can I purchase a NEW ticket where the BNE-HKG will be different dates, but HKG-YYZ return leg remains same date so booked double on same flight with aim when schedule gets changed I cancel free of charge?

Thought I would just provide an interesting point as I often wondered what would happen in this scenario just to help those in the future wondering how this works. I had the same OWE FFP on both flights.

• HKG-SGN-HKG return booked in Y on Sunday 5pm / Tuesday 7pm (business trip)
• For RTW positioning reasons I booked SGN-HKG//-KIX in business, as starting a trip in SGN is about 30% cheaper than starting in HKG. This meant it was directly overlapping with the original trip but not on the outbound, only on the return/inbound

Outbound: No problems at checking in, nor getting my boarding passes from the Cathay F desk. So, no problems getting on the outbound flight.
Inbound: I was not able to check-in online for the SGN-HKG flight until the whY fare was cancelled by my corporate TA. Then online check-in went just fine. The error message was non-descript, and it wasn't a "pick-up the boarding pass at the airport", it was "unable to check you in"

So my takeaway and the nugget of insight is: Cathay is checking for two seats on the same flight, and is aware if you have them, even in different cabins. Obviously I made their life easier with the same FFP / same names & passport etc. I have no idea what would happen if I had turned up to the airport, but presumably the same - one ticket would have need to be cancelled before I could get my boarding pass.

Datapoint:
I had a dual booking for HKG-YYZ in April as i knew i can cancel the travel once the NS2026 schedule came out and as expected 10min delay I managed to cancel the ticket.

in order to avoid problem, 1 new booking I left no FFP number and other original booking had my FFP). No automatic detection even 2months out. Cancelled old booking, went to CX App to add my OWE back in wola all good to go.

"Purchasing an extra seat
Please get in touch with our local reservations team to book your ticket. Do not book your extra seat online."

https://www.cathaypacific.com/cx/en_...n-baggage.html

I had pretty much the same fact pattern.

HKG-SGN-HKG work
SGN-HKG-KIX fun

Pretty much same result except I never cancelled the return leg of the first and just checked in at the desk. I even told them at check in I was double booked but I don't think he totally understood what I was saying. Got on to the plane and they actually came on right before the door closed and asked me which ticket I wanted to use and I said the second. Wasn't sure if they clocked it as the first if my HKG-KIX would get canned.

Interesting, were your bookings in the same class, or like me, work economy, fun business? Does sound a bit like a check-in mistake - mind you, check-in for me last night was fine, but the economy line 3 hours before departure when the desks had only recently opened snaked around the whole aisle, and they had a separate "online check-in with no bag" counter, that was weighing hand luggage. So was fairly "mad" and the agents were overworked.

Y for both. Didn't feel like paying obscene amount for (probably) a recliner. NH and JL were also obscene for a direct since they hate one way fares. I basically just blocked the seat next to me with the first ticket. I had my number on both tickets and the senior pursuer or whoever it was also looked at me super confused when she greeted me presumably because she saw I was down for adjacent seats.

It wasn't busy at the desk when I rocked up. On a side note, a shout out to the SGN desk who have done me some solids like getting me on in J when my travel and "the system" said it was booked out.