Help us out: your experiences of using two frequent flyer numbers with the same booking

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• Dan says:

  14 Mar14 March 06:43

  I’m in scenario one. I got a RJ match (to my expiring Hilton Diamond status). I’ve found I can make one change easily using the RJ website, but the second change back doesn’t work. It does however on Royal Air Maroc – it doesn’t always look like the change is saved but going back into the BA booking shows that it does.

• HM says:

  14 Mar14 March 06:46

  Relatedly, I’ve experienced unintentional FQTV changes lately with QR:

  I typically book QR flights with my QRPC account for easy form-filling, MMB, etc.

  Although I always change the FQTV from QRPC (no status) to BAEC (status) immediately after booking, it often switches back at check-in, unprompted. I had this a couple of weeks ago at MXP check-in – fortunately, I noticed this immediately, and my BPs were reprinted then and there at the desk.

  However, the first time this happened, I failed to notice in time, and then had the delightful 3-month task of claiming the TPs / Avios retrospectively.

  This also caused issues for a family member recently at SYD trying to long-check bags to LHR on separate QR and BA tickets.

  Slightly off-topic, but hopefully a useful FYI!

• Mitch says:

  14 Mar14 March 06:51

  BA’s social team can do it if you provide them with:

  Before we transfer you to an agent, we need to know:
  – Your full name
  – 6 character booking reference
  – Date of travel

  We also need you to confirm 3 of the following in your message:
  – Email address
  – First line of billing address and postcode
  – Last 4 digits of the payment card used for booking
  – Name one other passenger
  – Passport number (if in the booking)
  – Passport expiry date (if in the booking)

  Once you reply, we’ll connect you with an agent who can assist. Please note that the team are very busy and we’ll reply as soon as possible.

  Or you can reply with a number to select an option listed below:

  Before we transfer you to an agent, we need to know:
  – Your full name
  – 6 character booking reference
  – Date of travel

  We also need you to confirm 3 of the following in your message:
  – Email address
  – First line of billing address and postcode
  – Last 4 digits of the payment card used for booking
  – Name one other passenger
  – Passport number (if in the booking)
  – Passport expiry date (if in the booking)

  Once you reply, we’ll connect you with an agent who can assist. Please note that the team are very busy and we’ll reply as soon as possible.

  Or you can reply with a number to select an option listed below:

  1. The request
  2. Full name
  3. Booking reference
  4. Travel date and then 3 of:
  • Email address
  • Billing address first line and postcode
  • Last 4 digits of payment card
  • Passport number
  • Passport expiration

  It’s a faff to type it all out but after you’ve done it once you can copy paste most of it for next time. Once sent, just relax until you get the confirmation message back. In my experience it’s done in under an hour.

• Mark says:

  14 Mar14 March 06:56

  I’ve double dipped BA/Finnair a couple of times on Finnair flights but not really by design. Any amendment to the booking seems to revert the booking to be tagged to the Finnair account and I’ve changed that when checking in back to my BA number then ended up with credit on both accounts although not necessarily on both legs on the trip.

• Andrew says:

  14 Mar14 March 07:02

  The easiest place to change FF numbers I found was Air Maroc. It was the only place I could find to do it myself without asking BA or RJ directly

  I only have Avios bought bookings so this is not a problem with switching to earn

• Jake says:

  14 Mar14 March 07:15

  Used the Royal air Maroc website to alter the frequent flyer number on a BA avios booking.

  The website said it hadn’t worked but on phoning BA later they were able to confirm it had indeed been processed.

  Seems to be an issue with the RAM website.

  I was able to get the Bronze benefit as entitled on the booking.

• Ian Booth says:

  14 Mar14 March 07:20

  I am BARC Gold. I booked BA LHR-ATL W cash on the app, UUA to J on the phone. Departure beginning of February.
  Used MMB whilst logged in to allocate seats.
  Used RJ website to delete FF info from booking – this was a bit of a pain.
  Used MMB whilst NOT logged in to add QR FF details.
  Flashed Gold card in the app to use F check in T3. Used the same to access the Cathy First Lounge. Cathy agent made a not of my number in the computer but this did not affect the BP
  Avios and QPoints credited within 48 hours – never had this with BA, I always have to call and chase them when I UUA.
  I’m a recently retired journalist, travel and achieved GGL through personal travel not business. Now moving to QR

  • Rahul says:

    30 Mar30 March 05:02

    Does this only work for direct flights? Or could you do this before each flight in a trip?

    I have BA Gold and fly UK-West Coast US often
    Say, I flew LHR-JFK-LAX in Y, could I delete my FF info at the First Lounge in LHR and keep my seat selection for both flights? Or would I need to switch it back to BA, then again delete the FF info prior to the second flight?

• Throwawayname says:

  14 Mar14 March 07:25

  The scenarios seem identical to me. I was doing this as part of my SAS challenge, using my AZ status. TLDR: accessing lounges was fine almost always, making use of the additional luggage benefit was a royal pain in the arse.

  – One airline, namely Air Europa, was able to use the two fields after a 10-minute chat at their ticketing desk in MAD.
  – One airline, SK, told me at check in that there was no point in bothering to add my AZ number as I wasn’t going to miss out on any benefits- they were correct, as they don’t use a lounge at BHX and my fare already included luggage.
  – One airline, VS, denied me lounge access at an outstation (BOM) but let me in at their hub (LHR).
  – Two airlines, VN and GA, proactively went out of their way to provide me with benefits (fast track, priority bag tags) when I mentioned my status at check in (asking whether I could use the lounge).
  – Three airlines (AF, KL, RO) made my life difficult after having sold me tickets without luggage allowance. In all three cases I had to switch my frequent flyer number – this worked fine with RO, was a bit annoying with KLM and turned out to be highly problematic with AF who denied me boarding twice. In the first case, I had to switch numbers again at the gate and frantically call them to switch it back once I was onboard. In the second case, the gate agent was able to add a booking remark and let me through. This is the really concerning bit, as I just needed to use the benefit with four airlines, out of which only UX were able to handle things properly.
  – One airline, KE, only let me into the lounge after a protracted argument. It was the worst lounge of the trip, too (GMP domestic).
  – 10 airlines (KL, RO, UX, AF, VN, CI, MF, MU, GA, DL, KQ) were happy for me to use my status to get into lounges by showing a screenshot of it while having the SK number on the boarding pass. This included all contract lounges (e.g. when flying KQ from CAN) and those operated by alliance partners (e.g. AF lounges in BOS flying DL and BKK flying VN).
  – I only had an interest in taking advantage of priority boarding once, and DL were happy to oblige…by inviting me to board with Group 4 (my BP was showing 7 I think).

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