Partner award bookings are one of the best ways to use your hard-earned points and miles. By booking an award fare with one airline using frequent-flyer miles of another airline, you can often score the best value for your miles, particularly when taking advantage of partner award chart sweet spots.

While airlines have moved toward dynamic pricing for their own award rates, many loyalty programs still use a distance- or zone-based award chart when it comes to booking partner flights through their website. That means you can score low redemption rates by using the partner award chart of one airline to book fares with another airline, especially during periods of peak travel when dynamically priced fares soar due to high demand.

However, regardless of how much value you’re getting in exchange for your miles, you still want to ensure that you end up in a good seat. Paying thousands of miles to land yourself next to the toilet, in a busy aisle or an undesirable middle seat doesn’t feel like winning, even if you are getting good value for your miles.

In this article, let’s answer a common question among those new to partner award bookings: How do I book seats on a partner award flight?

Let’s get to it.

Woman watching her phone by the airplane window during a flight

How to Book Seats on Your Partner Award Flight

When booking a partner award flight, you may be able to select your seats directly through the airline with which you made a reservation.

However, in the majority of cases, you won’t be given this option because a different airline is operating the flight. Instead, you’ll need to find an alternative method to select your seats. In this case, you’ll need to use your passenger name record (PNR).

Your PNR is a six-digit alphanumeric code that’s issued at the time of booking. It contains sensitive information about your booking, such as your personal details, itinerary and payment information, and is used to manage all things related to your booking from additional luggage purchases to seat selection and more.

Each carrier typically has its own PNR. However, there are some exceptions. For example, you can use a PNR issued by Virgin Atlantic to manage Delta Air Lines flights. Likewise, a British Airways PNR will likely work with Iberia.

You’ll be given your PNR when you first make a reservation, and it’s usually emailed to you in the booking confirmation email. Alternatively, you can find it in the trip details section in your frequent-flyer account. If it’s not listed there, we recommend calling the airline or sending a private message on X (formerly known as Twitter) that issued your ticket to get the PNR associated with the operating carrier.

Sometimes, the airline you booked through may issue two PNRs: its own record for your booking and the partner airline’s record to track the booking. Usually, you’ll need to use the partner airline’s PNR to select your seats via the partner airline’s website. In some cases, you’ll be issued one PNR only, which you can use with all partner airlines with whom you fly.

Certain airlines are better integrated than others, meaning you can use a single PNR to book seats with both airlines on your itinerary. It’s more likely that you’ll be able to use a single PNR with airlines in the same alliance that use the same global distribution system (GDS), such as Amadeus or Sabre. That said, this still doesn’t guarantee that you’ll be able to use the same PNR.

Using your PNR code, you can head over to the website of the airline you’re actually flying. Simply search for the airline’s name plus “manage booking,” such as “United Airlines manage booking.”

United Airlines website - manage booking

You’ll then be prompted to enter your last name and your PNR. Keep in mind that your PNR isn’t usually called “PNR” but instead goes by various names such as “confirmation number,” “confirmation code,” “booking reference,” “record locator” or “reservation number.” Keep in mind that it is not the same as a ticket number as that is usually a 13-digit number assigned by the issuing airline.

Once you’ve entered the record locator, the system should be able to find your booking, after which you can choose your seats like you normally would. You also can use this method to add extra luggage, check in, select a special meal and make any other alterations to your flight reservation.

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)

How Do Partner Bookings Work?

Partner award bookings refer to using frequent-flyer miles of one airline to book a flight with another airline. For instance, you could use American Airlines AAdvantage miles to book a flight with British Airways, or you could use Turkish Airlines Miles&Smiles to book a flight with United Airlines.

You can book partner award flights with airlines in the same alliances—Oneworld, SkyTeam and Star Alliance—as well as those who share interline agreements with the airline through which you’re booking.

The only downside to partner award bookings is that there is often less award availability when booking through a partner compared to booking directly with the airline operating the flight. However, with careful planning, you can usually get around this problem.

Why Are Partner Award Bookings Valuable?

As more and more airlines have switched to dynamic pricing for award flights, which ties the award price of a fare to its equivalent cash price, partner award bookings have become an ever more important way to squeeze the most value out of your miles. This is all the more so when you book partner award flights during periods of peak travel, where demand, and therefore prices, are high.

Many airlines still use award charts for partner-operated flights, which price award fares based on the distance traveled and/or zones traveled between instead of basing the price on demand. That means regardless of when you fly, you’ll always redeem the same number of miles for a given route. While most airlines have moved away from award charts for their own award flights, many still use award charts for flights operated by their partners.

Final Thoughts

Partner award bookings are one of the most valuable ways to get the biggest bang for your buck. While they may seem strange and complex at first, they’re easy to get your head around, especially once you’ve worked out how to book seats on partner airlines.

If you want help when using your points and miles to book partner award fares, you can take advantage of 10xTravel’s award booking service to score you the best award rates with no effort on your part.