Questions and Answers

I am wondering why chase after an Elite airline status. We have been traveling with United since the merger with Continental and buy 20 round trips between LAX and HNL every year for the past 11 years. One of us is 1K because we buy 1st/business class ticket for him since he is tall and need space so we do not want to be at the mercy of an upgrade. Since we are not able to buy 2 tickets under the same reservation to take advantage of the 1 K status we have to purchase 2 separate tickets and my wife can not benefit from my 8 annual regional plus global upgrades. She is Platinum and the old Presidential Card holder. My question is why is the airline reservation booking system so out of touch with the latest technology that they can not figure out and offer booking multiple tickets with different fare class under the same reservation number to be able to use the 1K benefits?
I have no use for my 1K United status because I buy 1st/business class tickets for myself and either coach round trip or half 1st and half coach.
What is your suggestion? Thank you.

Agreed that there should be a way to do it online in this day and age, but they should be able to do that if you call in to ticket your reservation.

Obviously an extra step, but should be worth it for the 1K benefits.

Also, the reservation number should not dictate whether or not you can use upgrade certificates. You could give those to a total stranger to use, so I don’t think your wife would be an issue at all!