I've got 4 people on an award itinerary, 2 with status, and I'm trying to decide whether to waitlist for a higher class of service on one leg -- and if so, how to go about it. Here's the situation:
2 pax with status (me + wife), 2 without (our young kids)
Currently, all four traveling on a saver business award SYD-LAX-ORD-DCA. SYD-LAX is in C, LAX-ORD in F, and ORD-DCA in Y. But on the ORD-DCA flight, there are two award seats open in F (it's an A319, but mid-week late-night, so not high business traffic).
As I see it, I've got three possible strategies:
(1) Split the reservation 2-and-2, put the kids in F, waitlist parents for F, and figure that parents' status will probably clear us.
(2) Split the reservation 2-and-2, put one parent and kid in F, waitlist the other parent and other kid for F. Potentially reduces chance of clearing into F (at least off the DM list, where kid has no status), but ensures that each of the separated itineraries has a pax with status in case of irrops.
(3) Don't split the reservation at all, so that everyone will stay together in the case of irrops, waitlist for F and don't expect to clear (but don't fret much about it, since ORD-DCA isn't a long flight).
What would you do? Is there a better approach I'm missing?
2 pax with status (me + wife), 2 without (our young kids)
Currently, all four traveling on a saver business award SYD-LAX-ORD-DCA. SYD-LAX is in C, LAX-ORD in F, and ORD-DCA in Y. But on the ORD-DCA flight, there are two award seats open in F (it's an A319, but mid-week late-night, so not high business traffic).
As I see it, I've got three possible strategies:
(1) Split the reservation 2-and-2, put the kids in F, waitlist parents for F, and figure that parents' status will probably clear us.
(2) Split the reservation 2-and-2, put one parent and kid in F, waitlist the other parent and other kid for F. Potentially reduces chance of clearing into F (at least off the DM list, where kid has no status), but ensures that each of the separated itineraries has a pax with status in case of irrops.
(3) Don't split the reservation at all, so that everyone will stay together in the case of irrops, waitlist for F and don't expect to clear (but don't fret much about it, since ORD-DCA isn't a long flight).
What would you do? Is there a better approach I'm missing?