Travelling with non-relatives: Separate bookings or split payment?
 

So this is an interesting one that comes up from time to time. I was curious about the FT community's take on it:

Let's say you're travelling with a friend who isn't a spouse or immediate family member. And let's say you want to use your credit card's travel insurance.

Most premium credit cards require you to book your entire trip on the card in order for it to be covered. But few insurance policies will cover travel companions that aren't family members or members of the same household. So, presumably, you'd each want to pay for your own ticket separately on your respective credit cards.

In this case, do you:

A. Reserve the flight online, and phone in to split the payment across two cards? Do any airline websites allow this anymore?

B. Each book your flights separately, and phone the airline to link the PNRs? Does this even do anything anymore?

C. Book the whole thing through a travel agent or third-party site?

D. Buy an entirely separate insurance policy that isn't dependent on your credit card?

E. Something else?

Just curious as to what people normally do in this situation.

F) Wonder why it is necessary to be booked on the same PNR.

Linking reservations is a useless waste of everyone's energy so definitely don't bother with that.

Beyond that, generalizations about what various travel insurance plans do or do not cover is likely to lead to bad results. Pick your plan based on your specific card and needs.

Presumably linked PNRs or a single reservation would mean that travel companions would be rebooked together in case of IRROPs or whatnot. It also means that, if two people book their tickets separately, there's less of a chance of a flight being sold out for the second person after the first person hits the purchase button. It's a good point that, other than that, there's probably very little issue in booking separately.

Insurance varies wildly, but I've never seen a credit card policy that covers anyone other than the cardholder and their immediate family.

I really wouldn't worry about being on the same PNR. I am assuming you are both able-bodied adults and if you were in IRROPS both would be able to navigate an airport and meet up at the final destination. As for the likelihood of one person booking a ticket and then within an hour the flight magically sells out is pretty low. In the case of United, there is a 24-hour cancellation policy so if your scenario plays out you could just cancel.

Hotels are generally paid at the end of the trip and most hotels can take multiple forms of payment.

As someone who has traveled with friends, I have taken a cruise with them and there was no problem taking two forms of payments.

What other scenario are you thinking about?

This is a bad assumption IMO. The "linking" is a manual thing that doesn't really matter at all unless you get an agent to look closely at the SSR notes on a reservation and that's rare.

If there are two seats available then buying one is VERY unlikely to cause both to disappear from inventory. It is possible, but sufficiently rare that I wouldn't consider it a legit risk. If in a US market the 24-hour policy is useful to mitigate that.

The other advantage of being on the same PNR is that you’re more likely to be able to get seats together on the plane.

The flight is unlikely to be sold out unless you're booking a FULL Y/J/F fare. Otherwise what's more likely is that if you buy one ticket separately, it costs less than the second ticket, but if you purchase both together (on the same PNR), each passenger pays the higher fare.

This is not the case IME.

If seats are available to assign then getting two together on separate PNRs is just as easy as on the same PNR. The main difference is if there is an aircraft swap or other issue that requires the airline to reassign seats you're slightly more likely to stay together. But still not guaranteed and really not a huge deal to arrange otherwise.

Booking two unrelated adults' tickets together invites all kinds of complications. You'll have to figure out payment. And what if one of you needs to change or cancel plans? Booking this way for free travel insurance is letting the tail wag the dog. Book separately, handle your own payments, be responsible for yourselves, and spend a bit extra if necessary for suitable travel insurance.

There are all manner of reasons not to do what OP proposes and very few reasons to do so.

First, generalizations about what travel insurance does and does not cover is a particularly bad reason. The only what to determine what coverage you have is to read the policy. Doesn't matter that every other policy covers, all that matters is your own.

Second, travel insurance is cheap. If your CC does not cover it, you can buy it.

Third, tickets can't be linked. Carriers will make PNR notes to get you off their back as a sop. But, those mean nothing and won't get you rebooked together if there isn't space and if there is space, just ask to be rebooked together.

Here is a solution. Agree on an itinerary. Book your travel and have your friend book his travel.

I'm not familiar with travel insurance ins and outs. Does it have to be a round trip ticket to be covered? Would booking a pair of seats, one for outbound and one for inbound, work? Then each person could pay for one direction.

Your thread has a broader title than just getting travel insurance, and piqued my interest. Aside from getting travel insurance, which I do not specifically seek out, I'm in search of easy(ier) answers to the various methods of splitting travel expenses. I frequently travel with friends. Sometimes I book the tickets, and get paid back. Sometimes I coach them on the phone how to book their own ticket. Sometimes I book one direction and the friend books the other. Sometimes we tally the expenses after they've been paid by one person or the other. When traveling, we run a loose tally and try to balance it out every couple of days. At restaurants, we generally split the bill without adding up individual items. I don't want to seem like a cheap skate tracking every penny, yet sometimes it seems hard to remember and track who spent what. I have added it to my phone notes, and that was helpful.

There are a lot of threads on traveling with friends and the pitfalls.

1. Insurance - You have to carefully read the policy. There are no general answers. The broader the coverage, the more it will cost. Buying the wrong policy can be costly because it can leave you having purchased a policy and then spending a lot of money on something which you though was but is not covered. Pay attention to definitions such as "ticket" and "connection" as those may matter a great deal.

2. The bottom line to traveling with friends is to have a clear understanding in advance of the deal, roughly what it will cost and how you will handle the split. This is relatively easy when traveling with others who have the same financial freedom as you do, e.g., it doesn't matter who covers the drinks at a bar. It is tougher when you or the other person (people) are of different financial circumstances. It is unfair to ask someone who expects to spend $50 on dinner to spend $200 and equally unfair of that person to ask you to eat dinner from the happy hour leftovers. On the other hand, many places won't do separate checks and it is a real PITA to sit there and break out the cost of every pat of butter.

3. Payment is the same. Don't pay for someone's tickets unless this is someone you know, trust and is reliable. It is far better to have them book with their own CC or, if you are the expert, let them provide their CC. Don't play TA when you don't have the expertise.

There are also things which go beyond money. People who sleep until noon are a bad mix for people who are up at the crack of dawn. People who drink until they pass out are not a good mix with people who don't like the bar scene.

Good friendships are ruined all the time over perceived issues during travel. If there is an understanding about who pays what and what it is likely to be, that solves the problem. Someone who won't discuss this with you is a person you don't want to travel with.

BTW - You use the term "non relatives" in the thread title. I would extent the above to include anybody not in your immediate family where you are picking up the entire tab. Aunts, cousins and the like present the same money issues.

Thanks, all. I didn't really mean this to be a broader thread about the pros/cons of travelling with friends -- though generally speaking, [MENTION=297911]Often1[/MENTION] makes some good points.

I was really just specifically asking about airline reservations. And it sounds from everyone's responses like there's no real advantage to having both tickets purchased on a single reservation, other than a few rare circumstances related to IRROPS. Thanks for the reply.

Just my opinion but I would book and pay separate. You can always get together by phone or whatever when choosing seats.

One advantage of having the highest-status person book them together is that some elite benefits will carry over to the others on the PNR. I've booked buddies together on my PNR to get all of our golf clubs checked. I can also usually select seats at booking-time, whereas they may see a blocked out seatmap without status. (Can't upgrade them all, but can select decent Y seats.)

Barring something like that though, we usually just book our own.