Using BA Miles on AA flights

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Fuerza

Guest
I was hoping someone could give me a run down on how to book travel with BA miles on a AA flight?

The scenario is that I'm still looking for efficient ways to book my holiday travel (ELP to ICT). I'm in the following rewards programs AA, UR, and MR. I didn't realize the UR and MR can transfer to BA. I've got 75k UR points and about 10k MR points. I still have some earning potential or I could churn an Amex Platinum or CSP for an additional 40k points.

Now going back I would like to know if transferring miles both my miles programs to BA and using BA miles to book an AA flight would work in my favor. My reason for doing BA miles is that I will most likely have to travel through Dallas TX (AA's home) to get to Kansas. I was playing with the BA website and kept getting an error message on booking a flight within the US. Like I said I don't know how to do it properly. Any coaching is appreciated. Thanks!
 

smittytabb

Moderator
Staff member
I was hoping someone could give me a run down on how to book travel with BA miles on a AA flight?

The scenario is that I'm still looking for efficient ways to book my holiday travel (ELP to ICT). I'm in the following rewards programs AA, UR, and MR. I didn't realize the UR and MR can transfer to BA. I've got 75k UR points and about 10k MR points. I still have some earning potential or I could churn an Amex Platinum or CSP for an additional 40k points.

Now going back I would like to know if transferring miles both my miles programs to BA and using BA miles to book an AA flight would work in my favor. My reason for doing BA miles is that I will most likely have to travel through Dallas TX (AA's home) to get to Kansas. I was playing with the BA website and kept getting an error message on booking a flight within the US. Like I said I don't know how to do it properly. Any coaching is appreciated. Thanks!
Check out @Matt 's tutorial here on this thread: http://saverocity.com/forum/threads/possible-avios-devaluation.1528/

Sounds to me like if you are changing planes in DFW that you might have more than one leg on your journey. BA Avios are best for one leg journeys because that way they are fewer points than a similar AA itinerary. If you are changing planes, it might not make it worth doing as AA might have a roundtrip that is not much different in redemption value.

Just note that if saver award is not available, you cannot see or redeem on BA. Like Matt suggests, it is helpful to first search AA to see. I only use BA for very specific shorter routes when not making a lot of connections.
 

janetdoe

Level 2 Member
I was hoping someone could give me a run down on how to book travel with BA miles on a AA flight?

The scenario is that I'm still looking for efficient ways to book my holiday travel (ELP to ICT). I'm in the following rewards programs AA, UR, and MR. I didn't realize the UR and MR can transfer to BA. I've got 75k UR points and about 10k MR points. I still have some earning potential or I could churn an Amex Platinum or CSP for an additional 40k points.

Now going back I would like to know if transferring miles both my miles programs to BA and using BA miles to book an AA flight would work in my favor. My reason for doing BA miles is that I will most likely have to travel through Dallas TX (AA's home) to get to Kansas. I was playing with the BA website and kept getting an error message on booking a flight within the US. Like I said I don't know how to do it properly. Any coaching is appreciated. Thanks!
If you are going ELP-ICT, using Avios will cost you 9k per trip - 4500 for each short segment. You will likely have to book the tickets leg-by-leg (use multicity to specify ELP-DFW and DFW-ICT), as BA is terrible at finding connections. But it is nearly a 30% savings. You will also have cheap cancellation up to 24 hours before the flight, you only lose whatever taxes you paid ($10-$20). Date changes are $40 or $50, so it is cheaper to cancel and rebook.

AA frequently has ELP and/or ICT on the Citi AAdvantage discount list, which reduces the price to 8,750 each way. But they do add a $25 phone booking fee for using the Citi discount, which makes it a slightly worse deal ($25 versus 250 miles savings). Although AA does charge $150 to re-deposit the miles if you cancel, you can always use the free date change to move your ticket to a later date - you know you will use it if you have family there.

The bottom line is, BA is a slightly a better deal than AA when ELP is on the Citi discount list, and a much better deal when you can't use the Citi discount. BA is also great for cheap positioning flights to DFW at 4500 Avios. I wouldn't move a ton of miles to BA, just what you need for immediate bookings, since it's trivial to transfer whenever you need Avios. If you see a transfer promo bonus of 20-40% for transferring MR/UR into Avios, then it is worthwhile to consider transferring a chunk that will cover your Avios needs for a year. (The promos seem to have slowed down to ~annual.)

Hope that helps.
 

fr33b13

Silver Member
Very nice Janet!

I'd also add that it'll be best to book your trips as one ways in case you want to stay longer at your destination or need to change your outgoing date. It costs the same amount of AVIOS to book a RT or as 2 one ways.

I've had times where I booked it as a RT and had to cancel the whole trip because I wanted to start my vacation earlier.

If you can, I'd also see if you can call up BA and get them to book the award over the phone and waive the fee if you can't get the connection flights you want to show up on BA.com. This would allow you to check your bag all the way to your destination (free if you have the Citi AA card). It would also help if something happens with the connection flight.
If you want to add your AAdvantage # to your booking, make sure that BA does not put your BA # when you book the award. You can then go to AA.com and add in your AAdvantage number to your booking.
 

GA400

Level 2 Member
great advice here on this topic. I have used both BA and AA miles (using the 8750 mile routes) this year and even used BA points to buy tickets for my mother. It has worked very well and another trick you can use to straighten out the BA FF# to an AA FF# is to direct message the AA team on Twitter, they did the switch for me that way a couple weeks ago.
 
F

Fuerza

Guest
Bumping this thread again.

So planning a Disney trip. ELP to SNA/LAX. I've got 100k UR points. 160k AA miles and a combined 90k MR points. I'm interested in trying the BA points again. So far I have planned and priced AA, SWRR. SWRR is cheap at 90k AA is expensive at 170k. I would kind of like to burn my MR points and use Avios miles. If I could get ELP to PHX then PHX to SNA. Is still 4500 BA miles per leg? So 18k miles per round trip ticket? That would be 72k BA miles for a family of 4 a nice bargain IMO.
 

KennyBSAT

Moderator
Staff member
@Fuerza Yes as long as there is saver space on the flights, and the price of coach awards isn't changing. But if you can find saver space ELP-LAX nonstop or on a direct US Airways flight with a stop but no flight number change in PHX it's just 7500 Avios. https://saverocity.com/miles4more/saving-avios-with-direct-flights/ let me know if you need help searching or finding direct flights.

Edit: if your itinerary is a US Airways flight to PHX and then an AA flight PHX-LAX you will have to book each one separately. Otherwise search for flights you find on AA.com at saver level, on britishairways.com.
 
F

Fuerza

Guest
When I search on BA it is very limited on availability. I know there are a lot more AA and US Air flights than what BA.com is listing. uh.. frustrating.
 
F

Fuerza

Guest
Whoa, I think I scored! I went ahead and searched ELP to LAX round trip. Found flights that might fit! 60k Avios points plus tax. Now the question on how to get my MR points from my account and my wife's MR account to my BA club account.
 

SanDiego1K

Level 2 Member
Now the question on how to get my MR points from my account and my wife's MR account to my BA club account.
That can be done very quickly. Log into your American Express account. Where it shows your Membership Rewards points on the right hand side, click so that it takes you to that program. Then follow the menu to where it shows the various airlines to which you can transfer points. When you find BA, you will be asked to link your credit card to your BA account. Your wife will need to do the same. BA has to confirm your membership, usually a very quick matter. At that point you can each transfer points to your respective accounts. If you have a family membership, you can pool miles for everyone in it.
 

Matt

Administrator
Staff member
Whoa, I think I scored! I went ahead and searched ELP to LAX round trip. Found flights that might fit! 60k Avios points plus tax. Now the question on how to get my MR points from my account and my wife's MR account to my BA club account.
I just booked it. You can have it for 80K MR plus tax :)
 
F

Fuerza

Guest
That can be done very quickly. Log into your American Express account. Where it shows your Membership Rewards points on the right hand side, click so that it takes you to that program. Then follow the menu to where it shows the various airlines to which you can transfer points. When you find BA, you will be asked to link your credit card to your BA account. Your wife will need to do the same. BA has to confirm your membership, usually a very quick matter. At that point you can each transfer points to your respective accounts. If you have a family membership, you can pool miles for everyone in it.
You have to have a family BA account? Can I add her to my account and make it a family account?
 

KennyBSAT

Moderator
Staff member
You do not have to have a family account. If you are able to transfer the correct number of points over, you can book for each other or each of you can book one ways, as needed. There are good reasons not to set up a family account.
 
F

Fuerza

Guest
Ok. well Flight booking is on hold! MR won't accurate my wife's points because they are from the PRG 50k MR promo. Uh come on! I've only got 42k available.
 

fr33b13

Silver Member
Ok. well Flight booking is on hold! MR won't accurate my wife's points because they are from the PRG 50k MR promo. Uh come on! I've only got 42k available.
Did you mean you put the BA award on hold? I didn't think you could do that.

You can call AMEX and ask them to give you an advance on your points by telling them you need them to book a trip. You would go negative and then work off your points balance.
 

Matt

Administrator
Staff member
There's two different things going on here:

  • Can I transfer MR to spouse?
  • Can I combine BA to a central (family) account?
The family account is an option, and now I have one again, but i've had times where it isn't so useful (non-family account makes it easier to book for others). I swap back and forth based on need...

I've also just sent MR to spouse in the past too - I do that with certain accounts that I want to keep active.
 
F

Fuerza

Guest
Did you mean you put the BA award on hold? I didn't think you could do that.

You can call AMEX and ask them to give you an advance on your points by telling them you need them to book a trip. You would go negative and then work off your points balance.
I tried to do that through Chat with Member rewards they said no because of the bonus award. The flight isn't on hold my plan to book is on hold. Might end up loosing it. Just need to decide if I want to use my MR and UR to transfer over to BA.
 

Mountain Trader

Level 2 Member
On a kinda related note, recently I wanted to transfer BA miles to IBeria. Both of our BA accounts are in a household account and I thought I would have to undo the BA household account to do the transfer.

Not the case. I first tried to push miles from each of our BA accounts to each our of IB accounts, and it wouldn't go. I then tried to transfer miles through the Avios.com website, and that didn't work either. Then I played around with the IB site a while and came across a 'transfer Avios' page. I was able to pull miles from BA to IB for each of our accounts.

Note: I was pulling miles from my BA account to my IB account, and same for my wife. I do not know but doubt that this would have worked had I been pulling, say, miles from my BA account to her IB account.
 

janetdoe

Level 2 Member
When I search on BA it is very limited on availability. I know there are a lot more AA and US Air flights than what BA.com is listing. uh.. frustrating.
Assuming we are talking OneWorld carriers and not AA partners like Hawaiian... If you can find it on AA.com at the saver level, you can book it through BA. You may have to search leg-by-leg, or you may have to call in. But if you cannot book it online on ba.com (for example, I don't think you can book any US flights on ba.com, at least not 3 weeks ago when I did it) then they will waive the phone booking fee for booking the award.

I still don't understand exactly why your wife's MR points are not available, but assuming they are going to stay that way... consider booking one-ways, say outbound with Avios and return with WN. At least you'll get half the savings, and you can maximize by booking the cheaper half of the trip on WN.
 

Mountain Trader

Level 2 Member
Assuming we are talking OneWorld carriers and not AA partners like Hawaiian... If you can find it on AA.com at the saver level, you can book it through BA. You may have to search leg-by-leg, or you may have to call in. But if you cannot book it online on ba.com (for example, I don't think you can book any US flights on ba.com, at least not 3 weeks ago when I did it) then they will waive the phone booking fee for booking the award.
Not sure of recent changes, but it used to be that BA.com did not show partner flights if flights on BA metal were available that day for the route chosen. To get at partner flights, you had to find a day on the desired route when no BA flights were available, then force the screen to go back to the desired travel date, and then the partner flights came up.

Anyone know if this has changed?

Also, does BA have a policy to waive the phone fee when booking can't be done or is it on a CSR by CSR basis?
 

mawmaw

Level 2 Member
Not sure of recent changes, but it used to be that BA.com did not show partner flights if flights on BA metal were available that day for the route chosen. To get at partner flights, you had to find a day on the desired route when no BA flights were available, then force the screen to go back to the desired travel date, and then the partner flights came up.

Anyone know if this has changed?

Also, does BA have a policy to waive the phone fee when booking can't be done or is it on a CSR by CSR basis?
as far as i know BA dont have a policy to wave the fee but you should be able to find a rep that will wave the fee if not on the first phone call the second phone call should do it good luck
 

adam0619

Level 2 Member
Does anyone have any insight on the recent inability to book any AA flights through ba? aa website shows ample milesaaver availability, but nothing shows up on ba. This has been the case for the past few days... Hoping it's just a glitch in the ba system.
 

smittytabb

Moderator
Staff member
Does anyone have any insight on the recent inability to book any AA flights through ba? aa website shows ample milesaaver availability, but nothing shows up on ba. This has been the case for the past few days... Hoping it's just a glitch in the ba system.
Kind of worth knowing, especially before I transfer MR to BA before the devaluation.
 

rhinodh

Level 2 Member
I noticed this last Thursday and OMAAT posted about it last Thursday or Friday. If you call BA and give them the specific flight info, they should be able to book it for you without charging phone booking fees since their website is messed up.

A friend of mine just did this earlier today.
 

adam0619

Level 2 Member
Yikes. Have you tried calling ba?
Tried calling twice, no dice. Didn't have time to call again at the moment...

I noticed this last Thursday and OMAAT posted about it last Thursday or Friday. If you call BA and give them the specific flight info, they should be able to book it for you without charging phone booking fees since their website is messed up.

A friend of mine just did this earlier today.
...and now I wish I did.
Great, thanks! Glad to hear it's not a done deal, just some good ol' HUCA.

Sure hope they fix the site soon, though...
 

Matt

Administrator
Staff member
Tried calling twice, no dice. Didn't have time to call again at the moment...


...and now I wish I did.
Great, thanks! Glad to hear it's not a done deal, just some good ol' HUCA.

Sure hope they fix the site soon, though...
I just DM my number to them on Twitter and have them call me. Generally works, other than the odd time they have called after 10pm.
 

Matt

Administrator
Staff member
<facepalm> hadn't thought of that. Thanks!
It's not very well known. I asked them if I could blog about it and they asked me not to. Don't go into the DM entitled, just ask if they can help, you can't get through, can you DM etc..
 

Voyaging Doc

Level 2 Member
That's awesome! Thanks for the pro tip Matt. I made a reservation with them waiting on hold forever. Thankfully got an agent literally with only a few minutes to spare before the 24 hour change deadline
 

Chasing The Points

Administrator
Staff member
That's awesome! Thanks for the pro tip Matt. I made a reservation with them waiting on hold forever. Thankfully got an agent literally with only a few minutes to spare before the 24 hour change deadline
On a related note, that's what I've been doing a lot for my reservations. I didn't want to call Hyatt for a C&P night in June. I DM'ed them Hotel name, dates, GP# and they were like, done!
 

janetdoe

Level 2 Member
On a related note, that's what I've been doing a lot for my reservations. I didn't want to call Hyatt for a C&P night in June. I DM'ed them Hotel name, dates, GP# and they were like, done!
That is genius! The only thing I don't like about Hyatt (aside from the fact that they don't have enough hotels :D) is that you have to call in and it takes forever to book a C&P award.
 
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