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Multi-city booking & tier qualifying

AvKrayez
Explorer A

Good evening everyone. This may seem like an odd or petty concern: I started flying again over the last couple of years and when I do it’s purely for fun and to explore other parts of the country. I fly on average every 5-6 weeks and it’s typically out and back in the same day or over two days and quite often involves multiple cities. This year I should qualify for A List (for the heck of it.)  

 

Has anyone else booked a multi-city itinerary in one day and noticed that the system seems to combine two separate, nonstop paid flights into one flight with a connection? I’ve done some research and the segments in question aren’t part of a regularly scheduled flight/route and not the same flight number through like a direct. Specifically the booking is this: DAL-BUR-OAK-LAX.  DAL-BUR is a confirmation by itself. The second booking is BUR-OAK and then OAK-LAX. The email displays everything how I would expect it (two flights, listing depart/arrival) but online and on the app it shows as one depart/arrival with a connection & plane change in OAK. Additionally when I later went to add EBCI it only assessed $15 which is what drew my attention to the matter. My concern is the system doesn’t recognize part of it as a separate paid flight which would qualify towards tier status. 

5 REPLIES 5

Re: Multi-city booking & tier qualifying

DancingDavidE
Aviator A

How long are the layovers? Maybe something is in the ticketing policy about short layovers on separate confirmations.

Home airport MDW, frequent visitor to MCO to see the mouse.

Re: Multi-city booking & tier qualifying

AvKrayez
Explorer A

The shortest layover is 2 hours. On separate confirmation numbers everything stays as booked (unless it later audits them and cancels and it just hasn’t happened yet.) A few days ago I called customer service regarding it and the CSR hadn’t seen that happen before, couldn’t logically or legally explain it and was just as perplexed as I.  It originally happened with a DAL-BUR-OAK booking which is part of a scheduled route but I wanted different times than what was offered. At that time he had split BUR-OAK onto a separate confirmation and at that same time added the OAK-LAX flight to the same confirmation and it did the same thing to him after submitting it.

 

The CSR best assumed it was due to a contract of carriage conflict in the computer system being all same day but couldn’t really say with certainty. I may eventually cancel the segment in question and rebook it separately to avoid my concern If the price falls back to what I originally paid, OR it gives me a reason to find another trip later in the year to add to tier qualifying numbers. 

 

Re: Multi-city booking & tier qualifying

DancingDavidE
Aviator A
Solution

To have separate TQ flights I think you must have separate confirmation numbers, I would have the agent NOT add the flight to the same confirmation, that sounds like why the routing is being consolidated if you have occasion to try again.

 

One risk of having them separate is during irregular operations if one of the earlier flights is delayed or canceled, you'll be asking for an exception to be accomodated on later flights (which would likely be granted, but may not be guaranteed) so I can absolutely see why the ticketing system would prefer to have things under one confirmation number, it helps them protect you from delays and cancelations.

Home airport MDW, frequent visitor to MCO to see the mouse.

Re: Multi-city booking & tier qualifying

bec102896
Aviator A
Solution

Hello

 

so what you are looking at doing is a RT in a day or a point to point (one way and return to different city) 

 

i have booked these point to point flights several several times and RT in a day and it has counted as 2 flights not one. 

 

One example on Saturday I flew AUS to PHX RT in a day and I got 2 flight credits towards A List 

i have also done flights where I book AUS HOU MCO (point to point) in the same day and it has counted as 2 flights however doing it this way with a layover over 4 hours will require you to check bags in again and the airline doesn't recommend doing point to point with a short layover (under 4 hours)  because if you get a delay you may be considered a no show on the other part of the reservation. Also I have noticed when I tried to book a point to point last week it gave me an error message at check out saying the seats at the selected fare are no longer available so I think southwest is catching on to point to point bookings under 4 hours and blocking some of them. 

 

If your booking a RT in a day or go today return the next day I would book as one ways so you can check in for the return without issue. buying EB would fix the issue on the return check in as southwest only allows so many boarding passes at once. 

 

Also it is only charging the EB fee once as it is acting like a connecting flight from my past experience. But 2 hours in between can be risky I always do closer to 4 and since I am A List if I get to the first destination n time or early I will go standby on an earlier flight If available. 

 

If you have any further questions about point to point (multi city reservations) please let me know and I'll be glad to help!

 

Hope this helps

Blake 

Re: Multi-city booking & tier qualifying

AvKrayez
Explorer A

What I ended up doing is changing it and deleting the OAK-LAX leg and leaving BUR-OAK on one then booking a separate one OAK-LGB instead of LAX which gives me a longer layover and works out perfectly because the friend I’m visiting works for Boeing at LGB so he doesn’t have to go far to pick me up. HAHA. And it ended up saving me a few bucks as well. 

 

Thank you everyone for the advice  and information.