JTE458

Well this was a first yesterday. Booked both tickets on same reservation a month ago, got the email for my PM upgrade to C+ immediately and booked us the only 2 seats left, a aisle and window. We left on CLE-ATL and there was only 1 First seat open and we were 1/2 on upgrade list so the GA asked if I wanted to split for the upgrade. I said yes and that she will sit up front. We get to ATL to board our next flight and as she scans her boarding pass which says 13F, it spits out 15E. We don't board and GA looks up the reservation and tells me we have two separate confirmation #'s so since we bought the tix separately she isn't legible for an upgrade. I showed her otherwise from my receipt and she calls supervisor on phone who says there's nothing they can do.

So I take it the GA in CLE messed something up, but how is it even possible? We had confirmed seats for a month and right before boarding she gets bumped down and we travel separately home and are both in middle seats.

Billy Mumphrey

I'm not sure, but splitting the PNR may be the only way to upgrade 1 passenger and not the other. But you still shouldn't lose your original seat, no idea how that would happen. On a recent ATL-BWI there was 1 F seat open. I was traveling with my daughter on a single PNR and my wife on a separate one. I accepted the upgrade and gave it to my wife. I noticed that I could no longer see my daughter's name in the app and she indeed had a new PNR. So all 3 of us were now on our own PNRs, but fortunately it was the last segment of the trip and my daughter did keep her original seat, which was next to my wife's assigned seat in C+ (and where I ultimately sat).

The only thing you could have done differently would have been to check your seat assignments in the app during the first flight and you probably would have noticed the issue then. Then you might have had more time to call a red coat or get some relief from the gate agent. Once you go to board it's probably too late to do anything.

xliioper

delta.com suggests checking in separately if you are willing to split-up and let only one person get an upgrade. I don't believe this should result in a reservation split, but not positive.

WillBarrett_68

You cannot have two people in different cabins on the same PNR, that's a limitation of the reservation software and has been the case forever essentially. Once your companion is on a separate PNR then technically they are not eligible for C+ upgrades.

In the past it has usually be fine to split if the companion has already been confirmed in C+. Uncommon events such as an equipment swap would usually result in losing C+ but most of the rest of the time it's been fine. Perhaps they're sweeping more frequently now?

Billy Mumphrey

Interesting, but if you do this what happens to the upgrade priority of the companion? Does it stay paired with the higher-status passenger or do they drop further down the list?

mnbp

Nope - this exact thing happened to me departing MSP a few weeks ago. What I learned:

• My PM benefits accrue to my spouse only when we are in the same PNR.
• We can book flights together and get C+ (if available) at booking.
• If there is one seat remaining in F and I accept the upgrade at the gate, this results in our PNR being split and my spouse loses all PM benefits for all subsequent segments in our now-separate reservations. The best spouse can get is a "preferred" seat and a lowest priority waitlist for an "F" upgrade - and only by calling in for the now-separate PNRs to be manually "linked" by comments.
• Once the PNR is split, getting into or keeping C+ is impossible for the non-elite spouse.

This is the downside to the process of extending medallion benefits to the traveling companion - all of the automation that only works if there is a SINGLE PNR.

PDXNRTLHR

Isn't the purpose of allowing a travelling companion (from DL's perspective) to sit in C+ so that the party can sit together? Therefore, it's only right for the companion to be kicked back if you split the reservation to get upgraded.

JTE458

But we were supposed to be together on segment two. I did not get upgraded on that one (wasn't even close) so we had a middle and a window together. To bump her down after the first segment so now we have 2 middles in different rows can't be how this is supposed to work.

JTE458

So it really sounds like a system issue. Did you complain at all? This has never been communicated as a downfall of a one person upgrade and losing a seat you've already been confirmed on a later flight and splitting a party should not be what happens.

Billy Mumphrey

I'm not sure this happens automatically. At least it didn't to me a few weeks ago. In the situation I mentioned above the PNR was split at T-30 and my non-status daughter kept her C+ seat when my seat was upgraded to F. Perhaps if we had another segment afterwards, the system would have had more time to downgrade her on the next segment like in the OP's case.

MarkCron

Pretty sure that is exactly how it is supposed to work.

TerryK

All passengers on the same PNR need to be in same booking class, not just same cabin, for all segments.

iflyalexair

Here's a different data point:

Flying LGA-ORD with my husband. Cleared to C+ at booking. At time of departure, there is one F seat available. I tell the gate agent we will split. My upgrade clears. On the return two days later, we had been upgraded at the window (3 days before my split) and everything was in tact. We remained in one PNR and we sat if F. This has happened many times in the past. Split PNRs for a remaining outbound upgrade, but no effect on the PNR on the return.

We have even had this situation happen when using an Amex BOGO certificate. One seat in F, we split. The remaining journey was unaffected as we remained in the same PNR. There would be problematic issues splitting that PNR for sure!

I'm trying to think this through. Here's my thoughts:
1) It's 100% true that the booking class of a segment cannot be different for people in the same PNR; however,
2) Complementary upgrades do not require a ticket reissue, which means that the eticket coupon retains its booking code/fare basis and is simply electronically associated with the segment via the FQTV info in the PNR.
3) A similar example to this would be if you are booked in L class on flight 1. It cancels. The agents rebooks you in Y on flight 2 with the same routing. In some reservation systems, there would be no necessary change to the eticket. SABRE, for example, would recognize that the cabin of service, date of departure, and routing was the same so the eticket would automatically associate with new flight segment without a ticket reissue.
4) Another example that comes to mind (and I know it isn't the same and depends on the reservation system), but a non-rev can book in F but be assigned a seat in the coach cabin. In SHARES, we issued actual valueless eticket coupons for non-revs so the eticket would be an "F" ticket but it required no reissue if the segment was seated in Y.
5) In Sabre, we would do a change of class of service on the upgrade list, but a ticket reissue was not necessary as the system recognized the preferred status and auto associated the segment to the eticket coupon. If I rebooked a passenger's segment to a first class cabin, however, ticket reissue was required otherwise the boarding pass would print with no eticket associated with the segment and "flight coupon required."

To confirm my thoughts, I called the Diamond Desk just now to talk shop. I quickly explained the debate and the agent confirmed what I thought to be true and consistent with my experience, which is that a complementary upgrade does not change the segment booking class in a PNR. (She actually even sent me a screen shot of her screen, LOL!)

I venture to guess that the same cannot be said of a cleared-in-advance RUC/GUC upgrade since there's a ticket reissue. But I cannot say for sure.

JTE458

MSPeconomist