Question re: linking separate Northwest reservations

[Big Kid]

Four of us will fly roundtrip from Detroit to Orlando in January. DW, DS, and myself are flying the same dates; DM (dear mother) is flying to Orlando with us, but going back by herself on a different date. I would like the four of us to sit together on the way down, and the three of us together on the way back. (Actually I don't know if there are four adjacent seats on these planes--they are 757s both ways.)

The tricky part is that I can't book mom with us on the same reservation because her return date is different. Further complicating the task, I have enough NW frequent flyer miles for one person to get a free flight, and my wife has enough frequent flyer miles for two people to get free flights. I have played around with Northwest's website a bit, but can't find a way to book the flights on a single reservation.

So my question is this: if I make one reservation for my mom, a second one for myself using my frequent flyer miles, and a third one for my wife and son with her frequent flyer miles, can we get adjacent seat assignments once they are available?

Thanks in advance for any information and/or suggestions.

P.S. Airtran is definitely cheaper and we've flown them before with no problems, but NW's departure times work far better for us in both directions.

 

[snowbunny]

if I make one reservation for my mom, a second one for myself using my frequent flyer miles, and a third one for my wife and son with her frequent flyer miles, can we get adjacent seat assignments once they are available?

Sometimes my DD and I fly together on different confirmation numbers, if we have credits to use in our different accounts or whatever.

When you are ready to select seats, just open a separate window for each reservation, log in, stake out where on the plane you want to sit, and claim the seat number you want for each reservation. You can always go back online and change them later (one at a time like this), if you want. A 757 is a single-aisle plane with three seats on each side of the aisle.

Thus there is no reason to "link" the reservations and I don't know whether that can even be done - but you could call NWA and ask, if you don't want to do it this way.

 

[esk]

I've done this...had one ticket with frequent flyer miles, 2 tickets booked through a credit cards reward program and the 3rd ticket bought from the airline directly with a voucher.

I just called them and they moved our seats all together and linked the 4 reservations. It helped that I booked these tickets in, I think August, for a December trip, so there were plenty of seats left to find 4 together.

Always help when there is a child traveling because the airline doesn't want him or her sitting by themselves.