Weird Bug on CO.com
 

So I was trying to book a trip home (SEA-EWR) that, due to fare bucket availability, was cheaper than a NS at my preferred time. Now here's were the strangeness comes in. I basically decided to book it as a SEA-JAX, with stops in PDX and IAH, and then JAX-EWR. Well, when I try to put all these flights on a single PNR, it won't let me book it. It should also be noted that the SEA-PDX seg. is a CS with AS/HX. But despite the CS issue, it will let me, at least tentatively, book the segs as 2 separate PNRs, but not as a single PNR.

I did call up the CO.com support desk, but when they tried to book it, doing the CS seg. as being on HX instead of as a CO codeshare, they only showed V fare bucket (HX's) availability. When I search the HX flight on Worldspan, Sabre, and Apollo, the SEA-PDX seg shows up as having avail. in fare buckets below V. What gives? All the CO segs are in T, with the exception of JAX-EWR, which is in W. The SEA-PDX seg. shows T avail for HX.

The only real issue is that by doing them as two separate PNRs, there's the issue of making sure luggage and such gets on its way and also the cost goes a bit due to taxes. It's a rather nominal increase of $15, but it makes it less attractive as a MR (although it's a much better CPEQMs than a NS). It does give a double booking bonus though.

I'm also worried that having it as two separate PNRs will screw me if there's a misconnect due to a delay, as I'm booking for 9/2-9/3, Labor Day weekend. Does anyone know if two seperate itins. can be merged into a single PNR without losing the CO.com full EQM bonus?

I'm already guaranteed Silver by mid-June, but if I add this trip in, I'm only about 1750 EQMs from Gold, which would take effect towards the beginning of Oct and go through 2/08. I probably won't be flying enough next year to requalify as gold (almost certainly will hit Silver though), but it'd be nice to have the companion upgrades, 100 % bonus, better EUA chances, etc.

I guess my general question/line of inquiry is whether people have had issues with booking flights on CO.com that include either HX or AS opped CSs. This isn't the first time I've encountered this issue. Just wanted to see if it was just me or if this is a systemic problem.

- Ben