Why not book each leg on separate PNR?

[Pushka]

And just yesterday I booked the first flight to Japan next year on the day outgoing was released. Now waiting a month to book the return leg. My flight Adelaide to Sydney the day before will also be booked separately.

Post automatically merged: Apr 17, 2024

Well if using EK, you don’t want redeem SIN-MEL and put MEL-SIN on a different booking (nor do you want to book MEL-SIN-MEL).

Not that we ever do this as we simply don’t like using EK from MEL-SIN any more. Not a fan of a circa 3am departure.

We did this at Christmas time. We were dreading it plus a long layover in Singapore (but at fab F QP) and it was actually ok. We had flown in from Dubai then connected to the Qantas flight.

 

[MelbFlyer]

If you've got sufficient time between each leg (talking about at least a few days) and you're not travelling on a OWA, separate PNRs is fine.

In fact, my next trip is on 3 PNRs even despite them all being on the same trip. Each leg has at least 4-5 days apart.

I did this due to the difficulties in changing existing legs on my now done OWA last year - the usual responses I had included :

- "The flights / seats you see online are only for new bookings and can't be used for existing bookings"
- "There are no reward seats showing for the day you have requested" (even despite me looking at them online in the multi city booking at the time of calling)
- "You are unable to change to this seat"

Among other BS responses.

For the above reasons plus very limited availability of award seats overall, I booked all my flights on separate PNRs as soon as the flights and class I wanted (business) were available.

I didn't want to risk Qantas not re-ticketing all flights as they're all partner airlines and causing issues down the track.

It's harder to keep a tab on as I have 3 PNRs, but at least it's easier to amend / cancel if need be.

 

[Pushka]

If you've got sufficient time between each leg (talking about at least a few days) and you're not travelling on a OWA, separate PNRs is fine.

In fact, my next trip is on 3 PNRs even despite them all being on the same trip. Each leg has at least 4-5 days apart.

I did this due to the difficulties in changing existing legs on my now done OWA last year - the usual responses I had included :

- "The flights / seats you see online are only for new bookings and can't be used for existing bookings"
- "There are no reward seats showing for the day you have requested" (even despite me looking at them online in the multi city booking at the time of calling)
- "You are unable to change to this seat"

Among other BS responses.

For the above reasons plus very limited availability of award seats overall, I booked all my flights on separate PNRs as soon as the flights and class I wanted (business) were available.

I didn't want to risk Qantas not re-ticketing all flights as they're all partner airlines and causing issues down the track.

It's harder to keep a tab on as I have 3 PNRs, but at least it's easier to amend / cancel if need be.

And then there's the married segment issue which you don't know about when booking and only when you want to change it.

i send all my emails to TripIt and everything gets loaded automatically.

 

[MelbFlyer]

And then there's the married segment issue which you don't know about when booking and only when you want to change it.

Yes, that too.

i send all my emails to TripIt and everything gets loaded automatically.

I personally don't (want to) use any 3rd party websites / apps like that since Check My Trip (and we all know the whole debacle since that very fateful update which rendered it absolutely useless).

 

[offshore171]

There are many scenarios where separate PNR's are the way to go:

1. Simple return flight on reward points. Secure the outbound reward seat as soon as it's available. Book the return leg later when it becomes available. If you wait until you can get both on the same booking, you run the risk that leg 1 has been sold.

2. Staging flight to Asia to pick up a cheap premium fare onward to europe. This is quite a good option as long as you lay up for 1 night each way so you have some "fat" in your plan. This also works for classic rewards when you can find seats from asia to europe but the sector to AU is unavailable (which is quite common).

3. Travelling routings that aren't "allowed" on one PNR. Eg: As described in linked post, I wanted to fly from AU to Alaska one stop. Solution was a "nested" ticket via Hawaii.

Landing in an Alaskan blizzard

This trip had us taking off in Sydney in warm autumn sunshine, and touching down in this:

www.australianfrequentflyer.com.au

Two PNR's allows SYD - HNL -ANC
One PNR means you have to do SYD - LAX - SEA - ANC. Yuck!

 

[Pushka]

There are many scenarios where separate PNR's are the way to go:

1. Simple return flight on reward points. Secure the outbound reward seat as soon as it's available. Book the return leg later when it becomes available. If you wait until you can get both on the same booking, you run the risk that leg 1 has been sold.

2. Staging flight to Asia to pick up a cheap premium fare onward to europe. This is quite a good option as long as you lay up for 1 night each way so you have some "fat" in your plan. This also works for classic rewards when you can find seats from asia to europe but the sector to AU is unavailable (which is quite common).

3. Travelling routings that aren't "allowed" on one PNR. Eg: As described in linked post, I wanted to fly from AU to Alaska one stop. Solution was a "nested" ticket via Hawaii.

Landing in an Alaskan blizzard

This trip had us taking off in Sydney in warm autumn sunshine, and touching down in this:

www.australianfrequentflyer.com.au

Two PNR's allows SYD - HNL -ANC
One PNR means you have to do SYD - LAX - SEA - ANC. Yuck!

Yes. Doing that to Bali in June then from Denpasar the J class seats are so much cheaper. Then another seperate PNR to Faro Portugal from LHR. Then another PNR from Faro to Barcelona. Then another PNR from Barcelona to LHR. Then the return trip ( same PNR ) to DPS. All of these in J. To top it off another PNR to get from Bali to Adelaide - in Jestar as it's a quick five hour daylight flight.