gadhawinner

I currently have two people on the same award ticket for BOS-DEL roundtrip.

I now want to add a stopover on the way back from DEL to BOS in FCO.

And have the two people depart BOS on different days (but travel on same days from DEL onwards).

I called United few days back and they told that I could split up the reservation, and then do the modifications for each person.

Today I called in to do that, and they said I would need to redeposit the miles for both people first and then rebook everything. They also said that it is not even possible to redeposit the miles for one person only (and modify the existing reservation) because all flights are on partner carriers.

I tried to find the rule where it says that I would have to redeposit miles instead of splitting up a reservation. Is there such a rule? Would I have to pay $200 to cancel the current reservation for both people?

sbm12

They don't like splitting an award PNR with partner flights because there is a chance segments will drop and customers seem to dislike when that happens.

To only change one involves splitting the PNR so it is basically the same thing.

mduell

What determines this chance?

mahasamatman

I thought it went further than "don't like". I thought it was either "cannot" or "will not under any circumstances".

BF263533

I was told the same then posted here on FT. I called back and got the reservation split.

They got a bad computer systems and segments drop for this and other reasons. I regularly check with the other airline to make sure they still have the segment. A few years back ended up with two LH F seats on the same MIA-FRA flight, which could have been from the schedule change or the split.

UA's computers communicate poorly with their partners.

fulthrust7

There's also the potential for sliding by without paying the extra miles should your change incur that increase.

gadhawinner

What do you mean segments will drop?

I want to split the reservation up, and then move both people's flight to new dates (based on what is available then).

mherdeg

In a recent FlyerTalk discussion in June 2013, someone had a need to split an award reservation containing partner flights; they were told it was not possible but eventually it was found to be possible. See discussion at http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/unite...t-debacle.html .

Contributor MatthewLAX, who does this stuff for a living or a lucrative side project, urged the poster to call the "RTW desk" and in fact the poster did eventually (after several phone calls) reach a "Star Alliance desk" who could do the right thing. He included a link to a blog post he wrote in January 2013 with the ambitious title "Splitting a Record Is Always Possible", http://upgrd.com/matthew/splitting-a...-possible.html .

So there are examples of people getting a UA agent to split a partner award PNR; those examples generally include a step of "ask the RTW desk" (the "Star Alliance support desk").

gadhawinner

Thanks, that seems helpful! Though I was transferred to "RTW desk" for some reason last night and they are the one who told that you cannot split it up. Let me try again.

WineCountryUA

In the case of partner award flights, the splitting of a PNR into multiple PNR, can look like a "new" reservation in the partners system. The new PNR may need to be (re)-confirmed by the partner. It is this process where the partner might look at existing inventory and see no award space -- and may decline the "new" PNR. This a detail / process deep in the systems connecting airlines and may not look logical to an outsider. It requires a knowledgeable agent to be successful and may not work for all airlines -- hence the advice of this thread is this can be a risky avenue to pursue.

gadhawinner

The article shows how to do with reservation. I am trying to do with an already ticketed ticket. Is that still possible?

Oh, ok. Even if I am changing dates, the split up will require to find space on current booked flights. I see the risk. But then again the worst is that they have to redeposit the miles, right? They have already been telling me to pay to redeposit.

How? They have been quoting me the number of miles needed after devaluation.

I think I got it to work! Thank you guys

lewende

I am glad to find this thread - I was trying to split an award booking with a CA TPAC segment and then make changes to one traveler, but premier desk told me no way. After researched here, I went ahead to let premier desk transfer my call to RTW rep. The agent there is very knowledgeable and experienced in doing this, although she still threw out a disclaimer "no guarantee"...

After nail-biting 10 minutes, she came back telling me everything is all set and she has already called CA to confirm all segments are visible and intact!

Kudos to FT!

Madone59

Flyertalk to the rescue. Thank you ^^^^


I have a o/w F award for this Sat all LH and TG. I split our records so I could put my wife in LH F because only one seat opened on a particular segment. I guess I'll be her guest at the FCL

pizzabox

I just split a reservation that included LH and SK on the web using the change button. It instantly reissued the ticket and I got an e-mail within seconds. I called it in earlier but the agent couldn't help because she said it would cause issues to split partner reservations. Everything looks okay checking the reservation on LH...

JPG3392

You might wish to keep an eye on the SK segment for a few days to make sure that everything is OK. About a year ago I used UA miles to book an award flight IAD-CPH-MUC on LH/SK. Everything looked fine at first, but the SK portion didn't ticket. After about a week I phoned UA, and ended up flying LH IAD-FRA-MUC with a good connection that wasn't available for online award booking.