Is CO splitting PNR's automatically now?
 

Hi guys,

I have a reservation booked on ual.com but all flights operated on CO. I'm CO PLT and have a companion with no status. I know I can request an upgrade for my companion but we both have to do that on the day of dept. at the airport if we are in the same PNR. If we split the PNR, at least I can get a chance of being upgraded during my normal window time and the companion can be placed on the upgrd list using my status on the day of dept.

So I called CO and they advised me that because this is a UA PNR, I need to talk to them. I am connected to UA and was told that they cannot split the PNR (this is a UA Elite agent in the US, not overseas by the way and the agent checked with a supervisor). She stated that CO will process the upgrade and not to worry about it. That did not sound right to me because over at the CO site it is still suggested that one should split the PNR if the elite member wants to get upgraded at the normal window, so this morning I called CO back and was told that the computer will run the upgrade as expected and that once I clear to F, my PNR will be split automatically. If this is a new procedure, then why wasn't it communicated on the CO/UA site? I also find it frustrating that I am switched back and forth between CO and UA while they are supposed to be the "same" company now. So I guess I want to verify if indeed PNR's are being split up automatically for those in my predicament. Thanks.

Under the new new program starting next year there is no need to split and everything will work. Today the UA folks CAN split a PNR and the CO system still requires that it be split to be processed correctly for the elites.

Get UA to split the PNR; they can do it.

Yup, weird process. On an international flight with a domestic portion a few weeks ago, thee PNR was split automatically when the domestic portion cleared for only one of us. A bit annoying, my preference would have been that we both clear or do not clear. At least one cleared, the other enjoyed the back.