bradbel

First off, please direct me to the right link if this question has been answered 1000 times over. My family and I are traveling to London in early June and have about 120,000 Skymiles. I know that I will not be able to buy all three tickets with miles but one (or hopefully two). I would really prefer to have all three tickets on one reservation because I have TSA Precheck and would prefer to keep us together. Help me understand if there is another scenario outside of these two:

1. I have to buy one (possible two) tickets and add them to my ticket which means one (maybe two) people do NOT get precheck
2. Do the “Miles and Cash” option and pay $1,395 AND 315,000 miles (boo!)

Is there a way where I can spend all my miles and just pay the cash balance like you can on Chase or US Bank?

Thanks in advance for your help.

Duke787

Where are you traveling from? MSP I assume from your location?

The crazy option is you can snag JFK - LHR flights (and DCA/ORD - JFK - LHR flights and BOS - LHR) for as low a 42k miles/person RT on some dates. You could use all miles for the TATL and then buy a separate RT cash flight on DL for MSP - JFK / DCA / ORD / BOS -- get the two linked but then all 3 of you would be on both reservations.

NoStressHere

By the way - TSA precheck is per person so you can not take others... except kids under 13.
https://www.tsa.gov/travel/frequentl...-precheck-lane

bradbel

Nostresshere: I was always able to have my wife and 12 year old get precheck on my ticket record/reservation code. Bummer if that changed.

bradbel

Duke787: Thank you for the idea. What is TATL?

onebobobo

Transatlantic

Orange County Commuter

dlflyer00

Literally every time I have flown with a coworker/friend/etc on the same PNR they have been given precheck. Once I forgot my KTN and after adding it after check-in (on UA) both my coworker and I went from both not having it to both having it. This behavior 100% exists, how reliable it is is a YMMV thing I guess.

NoStressHere

Lots, and I mean LOTS of people get precheck that have not paid for it. They just get it. My sister in law gets it 90% of the time.

Do not assume that somebody got it because you have it. Could just be luck.

Orange County Commuter

Cledaybuck

You could try buying three one way tickets and then flying someone else back. DL wants stupid money for one way EU-USA tickets, but sometimes other airlines have decent fares.

griffy208

Everytime I fly with my wife, she gets precheck and I don't. I believe it is linked to her having an Infant-in-arms on her ticket.

wetrat0

I can confirm what others have said that PreCheck is tied to the traveler not to the ticket. Just because someone you traveled with got PreCheck doesn't mean it was because they traveled with you.

Just go ahead and book the tickets separately.

Zorak

It doesn't mean it wasn't either

A friend has traveled with me roughly once a year over the last several years (in addition to occasional travel on his own). He gets PreCheck when we are on the same PNR, but says he otherwise never gets it (whether solo or with other people that aren't me). So at least in his case, it's either because he's traveling with me, or an interesting series of coincidences over 3-5 years.

Of course I would not presume that this can be extrapolated to all companions traveling with all PreCheck travelers, or even all companions traveling with me (the only person I travel with vaguely frequently already has PreCheck on their own so can't be used as a data point)

Gig103

Do you have a Skymiles credit card? If so, you can use its exclusive option to "Pay with Points". You would purchase all three tickets on one itinerary, and at checkout you get a fixed rate of $0.01 per point for your Skymiles.
https://www.delta.com/content/www/en...ith-miles.html