Will I need to book all my children’s flights separate to redeem points?

[Itzroxy814]

I have children ages 9-13 and they are going to be flying for the first time. On the first trip, I will book our whole family’s flights on one order. I know that I have to get them all their own RR #. 

My question is about once they have earned enough points for a free flight. Will I have to book all their tickets under separate confirmation numbers to redeem their points? Therefore checking us all in separately and possibly being seated all spread apart? I would not want my 9 year old to end up boarding first or last in our group in case we can’t manage to get close boarding groups, so this worries me. 

[dfwskier]

You would book a points flight the same way you would book a flight paid for with money. So everyone would be on the same reservartion and should recieve sequentila boarding positions.

[Itzroxy814]

So under my RR login, I would book their flights and mine and can redeem their points and mine all in the same transaction?

[dfwskier]

I missed the point that the points are in different accounts. If that is the case, then they would need to be booked separately.

[bballflyer]

If you are redeeming points from different accounts, I believe they would all have to be different reservations.  If all the points are in one account they could be on the same reservation;  Anytime you have to use different payment methods or fare types (dollars for one person, points for another;  IWG+ for one person IWG for another) they are on different reservations;  The difference with children under 17 is that you will be asked to link their reservations to an adult and all the linked reservations will be checked in together.  So you will want to make yours first, then go into each account and make theirs, at that time the system will ask if traveling with someone over 18 and if so provide the reservation information and it will link them.  This does make it more difficult to make any changes using the app because you either have to cancel the one to remove the link or just call customer service and they will change all that are linked together.    For adults, they don't provide that ability to link them.  This is something i keep asking SW to improve on, is a way to book different type of fares together so that my traveling partners can take advantage of checking in with my early A status check in.  Another option is to transfer points to one account, but there is a charge for this and it is pretty expensive. 

[DancingDavidE]

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@Itzroxy814 wrote:

I have children ages 9-13 and they are going to be flying for the first time. On the first trip, I will book our whole family’s flights on one order. I know that I have to get them all their own RR #. 

My question is about once they have earned enough points for a free flight. Will I have to book all their tickets under separate confirmation numbers to redeem their points? Therefore checking us all in separately and possibly being seated all spread apart? I would not want my 9 year old to end up boarding first or last in our group in case we can’t manage to get close boarding groups, so this worries me. 

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This is a good strategy question and I have few follow ups to clarify

• How often will you and the kids be flying? If you'll be taking a lot of trips just let the points earn until each one individually has enough points to book the others. This might be a while, but will add up over time if each is flying a fair amount.
• Points can be used to buy anyone a ticket, so the points for one kid aren't reserved only for that kid, they could buy all the tickets for the group when the points build up enough.  Or wait until the points are enough to buy for multiple people in your party so you can be on fewer confirmation numbers - maybe not all on one but if you can get it consolidated to two confirmations or at least get the youngest kid with you it may help.
• Book one-way flights in order to use fewer points for more tickets, then buy the other one-way as a group like you are doing.
• Do you have A-list or will you eventually have A-list?

You can always board later than your position so the younger child would never be "forced" to board earlier. Just move back to the first older child or yourself so they can board as a pair.

But it would be easiest when you are all on the same reservation and therefore have sequential positions.