WinnipegJet

Hi there,

I was wondering whether it's possible for two separate SA bookings to be linked together. I'm booked on an SA itinerary that is supposed to arrive in JNB around 5:00pm, and a separate itinerary booked to leave JNB (back to LHR) on SA236 at 8:30. Unfortunately it was not possible to book these two separate itineraries together on one booking, so I thought I would call in to the call center to have them link the two bookings.

I received a fairly stern warning that linking the bookings was impossible, notwithstanding the fact that the incoming and outgoing flights from JNB are both SA flights. I was somewhat surprised as I haven't really had too many problems doing this on other carrier -- however, if that's the policy, that's the policy. Still, thought I would ask here first to see if I got the correct information and/or if there is anything else I should consider doing. If it matters, I'm Star Alliance Gold (Air Canada).

Thanks very much.

Ditto

What was the reason you couldn't book those 2 flights as a single itinerary? Most airlines would not allow you to do that, for various operational and/or commercial reasons.

FlySAAUSA

Hello WinnipegJet,

Thank you for choosing South African Airways.

We see that you've already contacted our Customer Call Center to request assistance with this, and it seems they've correctly advised that we're unable to "link" two separate bookings, even when both contain SAA flights.

In order to see if we're able to offer another option, can you please (via private message) send us your reservation details - reference number, name on reservation, etc.)

Once again thank you for choosing South African Airways.

South African Airways - North America
1 (800) 722-9675

SAWorldVoyager

The information provided by the call centre is incorrect. Amadeus allows for two separate PNR's to be linked "in conjunction with" and they therefore can link the two separate bookings which you have.

The system purposefully allows for this where passengers have revenue and non revenue PNR's. I have a list of competent people at SAA who are able to do this in a heartbeat.

WinnipegJet

At its simplest: one itinerary was booked for me, and one was booked by me. I couldn't really force the part to be booked by me into the itinerary booked for me.

FlySAAUSA -- thanks very much for the offer. I've sent you a message.

SAWorldVoyager -- many thanks to you as well. If things don't go well with FlySAAUSA, I may reach out to you for that list as well!

Yoshi212

Linking two PNRs is one thing but not the same as having 1 single PNR. Same can be said for the benefits of linked vs single PNRs. Some airlines will treat two PNRs better than others. Some will send baggage all the way through and some won't. Some will protect you in the case of misconnect or IRROPS and other will not.

WinnipegJet

Totally agree, and was just trying to scope out the limits of the "linking" here -- especially since the first response I received from the call centre was "there is no linking whatsoever". Fortunately, FlySAAUSA has been able to assist with the linking/cross-referencing -- many thanks to that team.