booking four tickets together

Old Aug 6th, 2011, 03:45 PM
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booking four tickets together

Hi Everyone,
I am ready to book our tickets tomorrow for our flights next May/June. My husband and I will be using Delta miles for our flights, LAX-FCO and COP-LAX May 18-June30. I will also be booking my son and girlfriend's flight on credit card: LAX-FCO and VIE-LAX May 18-June 2.

Is there any way I can do this all at one time on one screen or do they have to be done separately. I am nervous about making one set of reservations and then trying to make the next and having the seats taken. Or am I being unnecessarily nervous about this. We all want to fly together there, so would need four seats.

Thanks for your help,
Michele
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Old Aug 6th, 2011, 03:55 PM
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Its the ff seats i always worry about having the needed seats. I dont think u need to worry about the seats on the paid tickets given how far out u r booking. I'm not an expert on computers but i dont c how u could book all 4 at the exact moment on judt 1 computer. U could open 4 windows and then sequntially book one immediately after the other. Take each window all the way thru to the booking page and hit the final button one following the next. Last time i booked ff tix, we used 2 computers and sat next to one another and hit the buy button at the same time. It worked, but first time I ever tried that.

To be really safe why dont u call Delta and pay the charge at least for the 2 ff tixs? then book the 2 paid tixs right after on your own.

good luck!
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Old Aug 6th, 2011, 04:10 PM
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Thanks yestravel,
That's a good idea about using two computers or two screens. I'll probably do that. I already "dummy" booked both and it shows seats available for the miles seats. It is mainly the flight LAX-FCO that I'm concerned about. There are other combs available if we need to, just want the four together on the way there. Thanks for the help.
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Old Aug 6th, 2011, 05:15 PM
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You can simply do two people on one booking and two on another. Then do the seat assignments ... you are way adhead of the flight and there will be no seating battles at this point. You can save $25 per person by booking online instead of calling.
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Old Aug 6th, 2011, 08:08 PM
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After you book online you might call Delta and ask them to link the reservations.

My brother-in-law did that on a trip when he used miles for my nephew and paid for a ticket for himself (both booked online).

Of course, your main concern is getting seats together, and his was making sure that Delta knew that my nephew was not flying as an unaccompanied minor (and keeping one of them from having a reservation that was changed while the other's wasn't). But you could ask Delta if there is any reason to link them. It didn't cost my brother-in-law anything.
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Old Aug 7th, 2011, 02:58 AM
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your main concern is getting seats together

Actually, there's an even more important concern. IfWhen DL makes their schedule changes for next spring, you want to ensure that any changes made to OP's flights are also made to OP's son's flights.

I wouldn't trust that to happen if you ask DL to link the reservations after you make them. It might happen, it might not. You stand a much better chance if you call Delta to actually make the reservation even though that does incur the phone reservation charge.

Don
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Old Aug 7th, 2011, 03:16 AM
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Just did this was a hassle had to do 2 computers

best for to call Delta get them to suss it out.

seatguru.com might check for best seats legroom wise

usually exit centers in coach

with 4 abreast
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Old Aug 7th, 2011, 03:23 AM
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You can easily do this on one computer using 2 browsers, eg firefox + internet explorer, or google chrome.
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Old Aug 7th, 2011, 03:37 AM
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Delta website allows you to put ff ticket on hold and I've never had any problems. Booking and purchasing 2 tickets for your son and his girlfriend can be done in one transaction. Delta doesn't allow holding but has a 24 hour no-charge cancellation policy.
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Old Aug 7th, 2011, 07:15 AM
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For a while I used the multiple browser technique, which is comparable to the two computer technique. But I found is was too easy to make mistakes, particularly as inventory is constantly changing. I only did it because my favorite airline was giving bonus miles for booking on-line, so I could get miles for each of us. When they quit giving the bonus miles, I booked both of us under my account.

I think you cannot book all four of you under one account, because your itineraries are not identical. I also wonder whether Delta can link disparate tickets. Since the linking is important to prevent them from making changes to some of your tickets and not others, I think is would be worth the cost of calling them to get that question answered and have them do the linking at the time of purchase. I don't know about Delta, but my experience with my airline is that I get much better information and availability for tickets bought with miles by calling, rather than flailing around on their web site.
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Old Aug 7th, 2011, 08:24 AM
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I do not have experience with Delta, but I have tried several times to have UA link the PNRs and they say they can not do this. They will make a note in the record for whatever that may be worth. What I have done is regularly check my schedule for any ticket changes. There have been changes to seats due to aircraft switches and I just call UA and have them relocate us so that we are in adjacent seats. Even if there are schedule changes, one of us has never been moved off a flight.

In my experience the biggest risk with FF tixs is that while 2 seats may show up when doing a dummy booking, when u actually book, there could be just one seat.

I have a question booking with multiple browsers (which I have done and it has been fine) but how can u still book 2 seats on different browsers at the exact same moment? I have to hit the enter for one browser and then the next one which seems to be the same as having 2 windows open.

michele-pls let us know what worked for u
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Old Aug 7th, 2011, 01:28 PM
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Thanks everyone for your help.

I booked the four tickets this morning using two computers because the regular ticket Delta page was not loading completely on my laptop. I used my new netbook that just arrived two days ago (perfect timing) and did two on that computer and our two award tickets on my laptop.

I just went back and forth between the two reservations until the final purchase so that one would not time out and I would have to start over again.

Big exhale when I was done. I also just called Delta and linked the two reservations together in case of any changes. That is something I didn't even think about. Thanks again everybody.
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Old Aug 7th, 2011, 02:39 PM
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Good job! Wonder why U says they wont link tickets...
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Old Aug 7th, 2011, 02:52 PM
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If you are flying nonstop LAX to FCO,are you on Alitalia or going through Atlanta?
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Old Aug 7th, 2011, 03:51 PM
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We are on Delta going through ATL.
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Old Aug 8th, 2011, 06:06 AM
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>Wonder why U says they wont link tickets...

Because often it raises false expectations. Linking is a soft connection; it is simply a manual note in each PNR referencing other PNR(s). No automation is involved and a change affecting on PNR is not automatically applied to another PNR nor is a message even sent to a person.

Only if an agent personally reads the notes and takes action is the link useful.
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Old Aug 8th, 2011, 08:54 AM
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totally agree with what NoFLyZone said about linkages on ANY airline.

to the OP - be sure to check between now and flight time on a regular basis that your seat selections etc have have held up and if there are any flight time changes, esp of you have any connections. There's a LOT of time between now and next May-June and it is very very likely there will be schedule changes.I doubt very much that a change to one reservation is going to carry through to the other one automatically.

I don't know that any airline can link PNR's beyond making notes in the reservation record.
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Old Aug 8th, 2011, 04:50 PM
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Thanks guys for heads up on the linking. I will check periodically to be sure any changes apply to both reservations. I know last time we booked with Delta, using FF miles, we did so 330 days ahead. Our flights were changed twice before flight time. Thanks for the good suggestions.
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