This summer, LD was going to the West Coast for a conference, and I also wanted to go to the West Coast for fun. When I checked flights, I was shocked: from the little town where we live in the East to the West Coast, during peak season, the cheapest fare was close to $600!!
LD’s conference flight is naturally reimbursed, so she didn’t care, but I was paying out of pocket to go for fun, and buying my own airfare would have really hurt. What should I do?
Thankfully, LD has a Barclaycard US Airways card. Although US Airways was about to merge with American Airlines, they are still operating as separate carriers right now, so LD could still use her US card’s companion ticket benefit. The US card’s Companion Certificate is mailed separately after approval, and this companion ticket has to be booked by calling US, so we called US and said “Reservation” and then “Representative,” and finally heard a tired-sounding US lady:
Lady: “This is XXXX, how can I help you?”
LD: "Hi I wanna use my US Airways Companion certificate."
Lady: “Okay, what are the travel dates and airports? ”
After I gave the airports, she offered a few flights, and one of them even had a Chicago connection (so it can include AA flights!!). We were prepared, fed the details to her one segment at a time, so it went smoothly and didn’t take much time. In the end, she said one ticket was around $580, and the second ticket was $99 plus taxes, about $150 total, so about $730 for two tickets. We were very satisfied and quickly asked her to ticket everything. After she gave the confirmation number, I checked it on the US site and it was indeed $730 for both tickets.
Nice……?
Then there was a problem. LD’s conference is reimbursable, but both tickets were on one reservation. For LD’s reimbursement, the booking with fares has to be shown, and when issuing the ticket, my name would be on it, so it wouldn’t be eligible. How do we solve this?
Thankfully, I was prepared and called US again. This time it was a male agent.
Me: “I am calling to split my reservation. The record locator is XXXXXX. ”
Agent: “Let me check it for you......ahh I see two passengers in it. Do you want me to split one from the other?”
Me: “Yes, please.”
Agent: “I will give you a new record locator, is that okay?”
Me: “Sure, thank you.”
The agent then gave me a new confirmation number. After I politely thanked him, I looked up that new confirmation number on the US site, and at the bottom of my ticket fare section it showed:
When I logged into LD’s reservation, I found that her confirmation number included only her own name, and the fare shown was exactly the original $580, so LD could use this ticket for reimbursement.
In other words, I successfully used $152 with the US card companion ticket to get a $580+ ticket!
Unfortunately, the US card no longer accepts new applicants. The companion tickets from older cards can still be used within this year. So with credit cards, apply early—if a good card disappears, regret won’t help later.