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On Monday, I wrote about US Airways and TAM joining the oneworld alliance. That meant that US Airways and TAM flights were now bookable with British Airways Avios, a founding member of oneworld.
In the renewed interest in searching ba.com for award flights, there were some hiccups that people noted in the comments. Often the best way to plan an Avios award is to search aa.com, and then when you find the award space you want, go to ba.com to book it.
AA.com and ba.com didn’t seem to be matching up in the availability that you could book. See these two comments:
Scott, one example [where aa.com and ba.com don’t match] is DFW-HNL, 12-7 to 12-12 (My hub is DFW). AA shows availability. I see availability on the outgoing but not the incoming on BA.
and
So, I tried AA.COM to find one ways from PHX – OGG. For example, PHX-OGG 9/9/14 (or any that week) show available Economy MileSAAver Off Peak. BA.COM shows no flights available.
Why doesn’t ba.com show the same availability as aa.com?
There are two times when ba.com won’t match aa.com on Saver availability. One of the times, you can call British Airways to book the missing award space, and the other time you are out of luck.
What are the two times that ba.com won’t show the same Saver award space as aa.com?
American Airlines and British Airways are both in the oneworld alliance, so they share all their oneworld partners including now TAM and US Airways.
But each airline also has other partners from outside the alliance. For instance American partners with Etihad, Hawaiian, and Alaska. British Airways partners with Alaska too, but not Etihad and Hawaiian.
All oneworld Saver award space that displays on aa.com will display on ba.com also. But space from AA’s other partners will not.
For instance, in the first comment above, a reader saw award space at the Saver level from Dallas to Honolulu roundtrip on aa.com, but ba.com showed nothing for the return.
Mismatch #1: Hawaiian Airlines (no solution)
His problem was that the return on aa.com included a flight on Hawaiian Airlines, which is not a partner of British Airways Avios.
This is what he saw. “HA 6” means Hawaiian flight 6.
On the same day, ba.com shows no award space because British Airways doesn’t partner with Hawaiian.
The second commenter above had the same problem on his September 9 search of award space from Phoenix to Maui. It brought up an itinerary that included a Hawaiian Airlines flight, so ba.com didn’t have access to the itinerary.
If the only award space you see on aa.com is with Hawaiian Airlines, and all you have are Avios, you are out of luck.
Mismatch #2 Alaska Airlines (call British Airways)
Another partner of American Airlines that is not displayed on ba.com is Alaska Airlines.
Imagine you searched for space from San Diego to Lihue, Kauai on January 20, 2015 on aa.com. This Alaska Airlines flight would show up with Saver economy space.
Unfortunately BA.com doesn’t display Alaska Airlines flights, so this itinerary doesn’t show up at ba.com.
But as I noted above, British Airways does partner with Alaska Airlines, so you can call British Airways at 800-AIRWAYS and request the flight by number. The agent will see the space and charge you 12,500 British Airways Avios to book it.
Recap
When you search aa.com and find Saver award space, ba.com will have access to all the same oneworld space.
BA.com will not display Hawaiian or Alaska award space that you find on aa.com.
Hawaiian is not a British Airways partner, so Avios can’t be used to book its flights.
Alaska is a British Airways partner. You can call 800-AIRWAYS to book Alaska award space you find on aa.com.
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Good post!
What about award space on USAir? I see saver award flights on aa.com that are completely on USAir metal but when I try to find those same flights on ba.com I get nothing. Am I missing something obvious? Has ba.com not been adjusted to include USAir availability yet?
Please give me the route and date.
Sadly, it looks like now availability is gone altogether. Next time it comes up I’ll definitely post a comment about it – thanks Scott!
Hi, on AA.com, I was able to find availability on US 2193 (LGA-DCA at 7:00PM) on 5/23/14 at the saver level. However, the latest departure time showing on BA’s website is 3pm (US 2185) for this same route. If I call BA, should they be able to see both flights? Thanks!
Actually, it’s interesting…availability shows up for this flight if I used “LGA” as my originating airport, but it does NOT show up if I use “NYC” (which should include LGA, JFK, and EWR). Very strange…
Actually, it’s interesting…availability shows up for this flight if I used “LGA” as my originating airport, but it does NOT show up if I use “NYC” (which should include LGA, JFK, and EWR). Very strange…
I’m having a similar situation. I can see a full booking of Boston to Little Rock on Aug. 3rd on aa.com, but ba.com will show the same flights only if I search leg by leg. Otherwise, it shows no availability. Maybe because the first flight (BOS-LGA) is US Air and the second (LGA-LIT) is American Eagle?
BA.com is pretty awful at finding connecting routes. I’m sure it missed because of the connection that spans two carriers. You can call up and book the flights.
I’m having issues booking a flight than includes an international component on BA.com. Trying to get the tickets on the same itinerary to get the baggage included on both legs.
1) AA.com shows the two-legged itinerary that occurs on the same calendar day and comes from an international location.
2) BA will show availability if I search the flights separately, but not if I look for them together on this date.
3) BA does show availability on the same two legs for a previous date (so I know it can).
BA.com is pretty awful at finding connecting routes. You can call up and book the flights.
I’ve been trying to find AA availability on BA.com for a trip from LHR to NYC (any NY airport will do). There’s a ton of AA reward availability on AA.com, but can’t find it on BA.com. In fact, I find it next to impossible to find an AA flight using Avios on BA.com when LHR is involved in the trip. I tried calling them and they (unhelpfully) said “American Airlines is a different company, we don’t have all the reward availability they have”. Any thoughts on a solution – or do I have to live with taking a BA flight if I want to involve LHR in my journey?
Please give me the dates and flights involved, so I can investigate.
Sounds good. Am trying to book first class on flight AA101 on July 20th (LHR to JFK). AA shows reward availability, but BA shows nothing.
The other time BA seems to mismatch with one world carriers is with LAN routes. When we were in Peru last year, AA was able to see and ticket LAN flights while multiple calls to BA agents yielded nothing.
Hey Scott!
Quick question : is it normal that AAnytime availability cannot be seen on the BA website?
I know this is an old posting, but I’m finding a lot of discrepancies on BA.com for USAir flights that show milesaver Economy and Business availability on AA.com. but most often on BA.com they will show only first availability – no economy available. An Example, US5474 SRQ> CLT on Nov. 17 shows milesaver economy and business availability on AA.COM, but only first availability on BA.com. Calling in didn’t help – the friendly BA agent I spoke to after waiting 30 minutes on hold couldn’t find the seats and couldn’t explain why except that maybe US was keeping the seats for their own and AA’s program exclusively. If so, I wish I had collected AA miles instead of Avios.
US Airways calls the two cabins on the SRQ-CLT flight economy and FIRST. AA charges the economy and BUSINESS prices because there are only two cabins on the flight and domestic first is hardly a true first class product. BA charges the economy and FIRST prices because they’re big meanies.
Sorry.
Also ignore what the BA agent said.
It doesn’t explain why both US and AA shows several milesaver economy seats available for the flight and BA.com shows no economy available, and why the BA agent couldn’t find it either. That’s what I’m more concerned about.
I just confirmed the problem. I investigated it, and I think aa.com is showing phantom space.
I say this because when I tried to book each segment, it disappeared from aa.com.
I’m actually in the same situation as Anthony. Any known website workarounds to get BA.com to display US saver award seats?
What flight number, date, cabin?
I think the problem is aa.com showing space that isn’t there.
US 5722 (DCA-MSY) on 3/12 for example – shown on AA.com and us airways.com; no availability on BA.com. Strange thing was I saw the same thing as you when I tried to book it on AA.com: the flight disappeared. However, I was able to successfully book with US miles…
Thanks for checking this. I’ve got plenty of Avios, but not enough USDM or AAdvantage miles to test. I’d be pretty pissed if I’d converted points to aadvantage at a steep conversion rate to get a phantom award.
I use aa.com to search for availability. Seems like it’s not very reliable for US airways awards right now. Seems like it might be a US airways > oneworld problem? I wonder who we could alert?
I wonder if it’s unintended award space by US – there are some routes with usually no availability now wide-open… Ended up booking mine with USDM: 20k for a $550 direct flight isn’t too bad in my book, although I’d rather it had been avios.
[…] My first search showed a calendar with award space on my preferred date. Unfortunately the space was on Hawaiian Airlines flights, so I couldn’t book it with British Airways Avios. […]