Airline reservations for 2 people leaving from different cities

Posted by Mary (Cleveland) on 12/27/24 03:40 PM

Hi all. I'm traveling with my sister next summer to the UK. We are leaving from 2 different cities in the U.S. We are planning to both book Delta and meet in JFK and fly together from there. I will have a direct flight to JFK from CLE and she will have one from Norfolk.

We are not on a tour. If one of us is delayed getting to JFK, the other will fly on and wait in Manchester for the other one.

My current plan is for each of us to have separate reservations. Is this the best way to do this? Thanks!

Posted by Frank II

Freedonia

12/27/24 04:04 PM

16787 posts

I would make separate reservations for your sister and yourself. If you have it on one and one misses the flight, they might block the other one from boarding.

Just make sure each reservation is one ticket. Dont book each leg separately.

Posted by Laurie Ann

Chicago, IL, USA

12/27/24 04:51 PM

526 posts

Once you have the reservations you can call the airline and have them "link" the two reservations in their system. Then if the segment from JFK is cancelled, changed, seat assignments revised, etc. you show as travel companions and should be moved together if that happens. But I would still monitor both of your reservations regularly to make sure. I have learned that if your flight date is a ways out the airline might not inform you right away as their notice system works through sooner flights as a higher priority.

Posted by S J

Western Canada

12/27/24 05:56 PM

3681 posts

You could do this another way.
Perhaps one of you fly to the other’s city, stay one night with the other sister, then fly to the UK together.
Or: both of you fly to NYC, stay one night, then fly out together.
Have either of you traveled to the UK before?
If not, it would be nice for both of you to fly over together, hence arriving together.

Posted by Carol

Atlanta, GA, USA

12/28/24 02:41 PM

904 posts

I’m sorry, but in the Delta world linking doesn’t really do anything. If there’s a schedule change or something, the computer does the rearranging and it doesn’t see the link. The only time the link gets looked at is if you have a human actually doing something

Really the only way you can book this is to book it as two separate reservations. And then if you want to sit together, I would be checking my reservation to make sure nothing changed.

Delta does schedule changes on Saturday as a general rule. So every weekend I go into every reservation I have with Delta and make sure everything looks OK. Living in Atlanta and traveling for business I normally have several of reservations to look at, but it’s just easier to deal with it immediately than to let it slide. If Delta makes a change that’s not going to work call immediately. Because people like me are being much more proactive and you’re going to get the leftovers if you don’t call immediately.