Booking for 4 other people. Using points from our two RR accounts?

[LokiRN]

Wife and I are planning to purchase tickets for a family of four- a couple and 2 children ages ten and twelve yrs old. Not enough points in either of our RR accounts for all four tickets.

Online search for 4 tickets reveals the total points per ticket. 

We will need to purchase some points to arrive at total.  Need to purchase fewer  points (approx half) using  the second account to buy last ticket rather than using only the first account for all purchases. 

Plan is to make two purchases— three tickets from one account and one ticket from other account.

Anyone done a similar deal?

Dread the thought of completing one purchase online and the second transaction failing.

Can I call to make the booking to ensure that it goes through or must it be done online?

Thanks for any assistance.

[TheMiddleSeat]

Your plan works.  Here are a few thoughts....

-Be careful buying points.  Depending on how many points you need to buy and what the cost is, you could easily spend close to what it would be to purchase the ticket with cash.  Maybe you use points for all but one ticket and then cash for the last ticket.  See the next note for more on this.

-I suggest booking one way flights.  While this adds to the number of transactions you'll have to make, it also allows you to easily rebook flights should the price go down.  If the price drops you can get a refund for the number of points it decreased.  Also, if you're short a few points, now you can perhaps use points for all but one one-way ticket and cash for the remaining one-way.  Or maybe you have enough points for 6 one-ways (RT for 3 people), puchase a few points for a 7th one-way, and pay cash for the 8th one-way.

-There is no risk in booking flights over multiple orders when purchasing with points.  If at anytime you change your mind or run into a snag you can cancel all the purchases and get a full refund of the points used.  You cannot get a refund for any points you've purchased so that is some risk.

-Calling wouldn't make things any easier, they would split the order as you stated in your original message.  Personally, I like to see what I'm booking on the screen versus trying to understand what is being said over the phone.

Hopefully that helps.  Let me know if I've confused you with the one-way discussion.  Info about the number of points in the accounts and number of points required for the flights might help.