Is there any way to indicate to an airline I am travelling with someone even though we bought tickets separately?

Question

Confusing title, let me explain...

I am travelling with a friend. We both have different last names and we both bought our airline tickets separately. We've chosen our seats so we are sitting next to each other, but all we are to the airline are two strangers sitting next to each other on a long haul flight.

Is there any way to indicate to the airline that we are travelling together?

I ask as on one of my flights previously, one member of our group had their seats changed by the airline (despite her picking the seat in advance) so they could seat a family together. We managed to fix it after a lot of trouble at the check-in desk, but I don't want the same thing to happen again where the airline splits us as they don't realize we are together.

(For reference, this flight is with Qantas, but the question could apply to any airline)

Answer 1

There are industry-standard ways to link bookings (technically Passenger Name Records) through something called a “TCP”, basically a note that will be attached to your reservation. It doesn't guarantee that the airline will never ever split you but you can definitely call them to make sure they are aware of it. It shouldn't be a surprising request and they can record this indication easily, even without combining reservations.

Answer 2

Airlines do in general have the ability to split or combine reservations, but they is entirely in their discretion and they may choose to do it or not. Splitting is fairly normal (e.g. one passengers needs to cancel, etc) but combining is somewhat unusual. You can always call them up and ask.

In your case, combining reservations can have a lot of unwanted side effects: Any change to the reservation will affect all tickets which is probably not what you want here. If your travel partner needs to make a change, than you either have to make the same change or split the reservation again.

Even if the reservations are combined, there is no guarantee that the airline will not reseat you. However, it's less likely as they pick a single traveler first. Even if you travel on a single reservation, you still may have to pay extra to sit together. This is one of the more questionable and annoying airline junk fees.

but I don't want the same thing to happen again where the airline splits us as they don't realize we are together.

There is no fool proof way to avoid this. The airline has always the right to reseat you if they feel it is required. You have a better negotiation position if you paid for the seat reservation, since you can ask immediately for a refund of the seat fee. Airlines don't like to pay money.

So in summary, there isn't a whole lot you can do. However, in my experience this is quite rare. I've done 100s of flights and I don't think I've ever been forcibly reseated.