I'm travelling with another person on the same PNR. Is it easy to call up NW and ask them to split the PNR? I have some business reasons for doing this and need to know if its a hassle or if NW will just go ahead and say 'sure, no problem'.

THanks in advance...

Yes, PNR's can be split - but be forewarned, once they are split they cannot be combined back together.

This is typically only a concern for plat elites, as if you are travelling with a companion on the same PNR, the companion will be upgraded when the platinum member upgrade clears. If you split the PNR, your companion can only be upgraded at the gate.

But yes, it is easy to split PNR's, just call up NW and ask.

Wil is 100% correct. It is very easy to split a pnr I do it all the time. As mentioned once split can not be put back in same pnr.

kind of off topic- but do the companions get upgraded if all are on award tickets?

Mike

Only Plats and Golds are eligible for upgrade from award tickets.

If there are any silvers or base members in the same award PNR as a plat or gold, nobody will get upgraded in advance.

For more details:
http://flyertalk.com/forums/showthread.php?t=540039

Watch out for automatic seating re-assigments while spliting a PNR as well. If one of the travelers is not elite they will lose access to any preferred seats they had. So I claim...

Have you actually had this happen? In my experience it seems they don't automatically re-assign anyone unless there's an equipment change. But I haven't done much splitting of non-elites into their own reservation, so I'm not really sure.

It's happened to me. After I made a reservation for a non-elite colleague and myself, the colleague insisted that her ticket be purchased with her credit card so that she would get some cash-back benefit. Knocked her right back into the cheap seats. So I then had to give up my cozy exit row seat to be able to sit with her. Sux don't it.

Family vacation coming up in a couple weeks so called in this morning to have the PNR split in two. I was assured that seats assignments would not be lost. Checked both PNR's after the split and everything is fine but will keep an eye on it.

There are five of us so did a 2/3 split to try for EUA companion upgrade and then see what can be done at the gate. Everyone had bulkhead except for my teenage son who is really fun these days.

That's a case where you split the PNR before ticketing, which may be why your friend got booted. In most cases on here people are talking about splitting a PNR after it's all been ticketed. In those cases, I've never seen anyone automatically booted except after schedule changes.

Good to know. Thanx TM. Still, I'm not inclined to let anyone split one of my PNRs again any time soon.

Sort of related:

If I wanted to book two tickets (one for me, one for my brother) but wanted to buy my ticket and use miles for the second, how do I go about doing that on a single PNR? Could I do this online or would I have to call in. Would this be the same if I wanted to buy both tickets, or get two award tickets?

Sounds like, if I travel as a companion (brother) on one PNR they can access the P/E seats, correct?

There is no way to have an award ticket and a revenue ticket on the same PNR. Period.


If at least one person on the PNR is elite, everyone can access the P/E seats.

themicah, thanks for that good info about award/revenue PNR combo. Never knew that.

Sorry for the dumb questions (haven't book too many multi-ticketed PNRs)... I presume that if I book a revenue ticket for my brother and I under one PNR, that I could earn my miles and my brother could as well by having each of our WP#'s on our own ticket, correct? Would the PNR show up in both of our accounts (or just mine since I made the booking)?

I assume it's against NWA to have one person earn mileage for both correct?

Hmmm, as for EUA. If I have someone else on my EUA as a gold I would get passed over. Is it worth it to keep a non-elite on the PNR as gold to get the P/E seats or take a chance on EUA and airport companion UG...

You are absolutely correct.

As a precaution measure, I would suggest that you split the PNR 10 days before departure time. This way, you won't miss Plat EUA run while minimizing the risk of schedule/equipment change that would kick the non-elite pax to bad seats.