Getting AA Benefits On A Flight Booked Using BA Avios

CLE-LGA
I checked one bag free of charge by showing my authorized user American Airlines credit card.

@reuevenhunt:
Nice, but that doesn’t always work with an AU card
YMMV!

when traveling domestic with AA purchased with avios, which card do i need to get 1st checked bag free Citi aa or chase ba?

so i’m a bit confused- i booked using my avios number, yet i also want to get the free bag (citi platinum). do i erase my exectuve ba number or how do i add? or….do i just show up with my citi aa plat card?

i got the record locator thing, but what is the point of doing the finnair.com thing

@chaim:
AA.

@sara:
Go to Finnair.com to change from the BA number to your AA number.

@KidOOO:
To change from your BA number to your AA number to get the benefits attached to your AAdvantage number.

When I try using checkmytrip.com for delta and alitalia it gives me a error message.

I use classic.checkmytrip.com to obtain my aa#. Then I go to aa.com to enter in my Alaska MVP number which gives me elite perks. I’m not sure why you need finair, can you not just do it all on aa.com?

@Ryan:
AA.com does not let you change the frequent flyer number of a ticket booked with BA Avios.

Why the extra step at checkmytrip.com? Been using Finnair for a while now (Royal Jordanian scares people), but that’s been enough for me.

@AA+:
To get your AA record locator so that you can select elite seats on aa.com.

I replied to your message Dan but do not see it posted. You most certainly can change the ff# for a ba booked ticked on aa. I do it all the time. Just go into the reservation using the aa locator and modify the reservation details.

finnair and check my trip both say 0 free baggage, although i did change the ffn to my aa one associated with my citi aa platinum card. as long as i bring said card to the airport i should still get the free baggage right?

Does this enable TSA pre check on AA? If so, that’s awesome!!

@Ryan:
That has never worked for me (and for many others who have posted on DDF as well.)

@sara:
As long as you’re the primary cardholders and you have your AA mileage number attached to it then you should automatically get your free bag at the airport.

@Elle:
It should.

Thank! You’ve just made packing for Pesach so much easier :p

can i use my Dad’s AA number with same middle and last name and get free checked bag, he has the AA credit card, also is there a way to change AA advantage number online, thanks

Dan, not sure what I’m doing different, but I’ve literally done it dozens of times directly on AA as recently as 2 weeks ago. I always use my Alaska MVP #, not AA if that makes a difference but it looks like I can type in any FF#.

@sara:
Enjoy!

@TK:
Not a wise idea.

@ryan:
Consider yourself lucky!
Never seems to work for me or for many others.

I’m still waiting on SPG to transfer my points to Avios. Its been 34 days so far….

“and only charges $2.50-$10 (just the 9/11 fees) to cancel a domestic award.” i thought it was $65 and i just verified with that that is the case… how do you cancel for such a nominal fee?

@still waiting:
Did you try calling? Sounds like something went wrong.

@milzz:
If you cancel online it only charges you the taxes paid. I’ve done it many many times.

thanks

Is it just me or is it becoming harder and harder to find availability on AA with Avois? Just a few months ago I generally had easy time as long as some time in advance – as of late, never anything around.

Has AA started releasing less seats?

Just called. Said it should take at most 1 month, so they will look into it and see what happened.

@Yid:
Nothing to do with Avios.
Search AA.com to see their sAAver availability.

I recently utilized AA miles to book a one way British airways ticket in First. I went to BA.COM to see if it would credit missing miles and it worked! I was able to get over 10,000 avios per ticket!

Thank you!!! It has been driving me nuts not having my AA number in the BA reservation – causes lots of problems at check in if I want the free luggage from being gold. I knew how to find the AA record locator via checkmytrip but did not know the Finnair part – thanks so much!

@bitzy: 0
Very cool! What route did you fly?

@Nikki:
Your welcome, enjoy!

I recently flew to Chicago on aa with avios miles. At check in I swiped an aa credit card and got the free bag. thanks for all your information

I actually added my AA# and got the benefits by tweeting @AmericanAir. They told me to send them a DM with my info.

I am flying AA to LHR, I am AA elite and want to get the perks plus extra piece, but want to collect on my Avios account. How to go about it?

@Dan: I just got home from a trip from ORD-LGA booked on this basis. I called AA to substitute my AA number for the BA one once the reservation showed as ticketed on aa.com. I got all my Exec Plat benefits including standby priority both ways and free drink and food. TSA pre-check worked at both airports too. Thanks for the Finnair tip though – I will try that next time.

Forgot to add in my reply above: first I got my AA locator from BA by phone, and added that manually to my list of reservations on aa.com. Then I called AA to substitute my AAdvantage number for exec club. So two phone calls were needed.

I checked aa for saver availability and its available for dates thar I need.
I have an avios acct with no miles in it
I have amex that I would like to use
do I need to transfer before seeing availability on ba?
does transfer from amex happen instant or a few days?
how many points do I need for round trip ewr to ohare?

@Tova:
Well this should be a bit easier.

@ally:
After you change your AA number and get a better seat and check your luggage you can switch your mileage number.

Though if you’re AA elite you’ll get more miles by collecting the miles on AA.

@John:
YW!

@flyer:
-You can search awards on BA.com without any miles in your account.
-Transfer from AMEX MR are instant.
-15K.

Lhr-Iah

tried to follow this but Finair won’t allow me to change the ff# – it defaults to Avios and is a non editable field? I was able to change wifey ff# on same res#

You can skip the finnair part by selecting “no” for the question if “Will account holder be traveling” when booking on ba.com. All “yes” does is populate your name and avios ff number. “No” leaves ff field blank which is fine since you want the aa one anyway. You can then proceed straight to checkmytrip and then attach that record on aa.com

@Dan: I did run into some trouble at the airport with my free bag. The guy doing curbside check-in first said that I’d have to pay for the bag, eventhough I had the free bag confirmed. I had my AA credit card with me though, and it all worked out.

ba.com only shows british airways flights. how do i search for a partner airline(aa) and award flight ?

on aa.com go to my trips and log in. no need to find out your record locator number

@bitzy:
Nice!

@Quickroute:
Did you leave your BA number in your res when you made the Avios ticket?

@Nic:
When I tried that I wasn’t able to enter my AAdvantage number on Finnair or on AA.com

@flyer:
Incorrect.
Just be sure to login and then select pay with Avios.

Dan you are the man, I was just having a conversation with someone about this in Beachwood Place today!!

@chilzech:
😀

“though occasionally you get free luggage anyway when booking with BA Avios” How?

@KG:
Happens randomly.
See comment 30, which had nothing to do with which card the commenter swiped at the kiosk.

Every time I make an AA ticket with avios I get priority access and 2 free bags.
I used to think it was bc my cousin who has the same name as me has AA gold but apparently they just randomely give it.

I recently flew DFW-DEN on Avios. Swipe my AA Platinum in self check-in, still had to pay to bag fee to check a friend’s bag on my ticket. I didn’t bother to ask ticket agent.

@james:
Lucky you 🙂

@MichaelP:
Next time add your number via Finnair!

Booked a trip to Bermuda on AA using Avios, called AA to get the record locator and asked them to replace the BA number with my AA number and I was able to see preferred seats, etc, immediately. Good tip on the Finnair website, a call to the AA will work too!

Just booked a ticket on BA, YYZ>ORD. Got the AA record locator through classic.checkmytrip and updated my AA profile on AA no problems. I know I’ve posted several times already, but this seriously works 100% of the time, no Finair needed.

I don’t log in to my AA account if that makes a difference and even if the system hangs when updating it still actually updates.

@ryan:
Dude, you’ve said this a half dozen times already.
As I said, lucky you.

I just booked another BA ticket, went to AA.com without logging in, and it does not let me change the mileage number.

Checked on my grandmother’s ticket, same story.

There’s no need to do the extra CMT step. AA will accept BA confirmation numbers.

@Dan: Dan, Ryan’s trick works ONLY IF you do NOT add your BA Executive number to the reservation when booking on BA (even if you are using your miles to book for yourself). Only when you leave the BA number blank when booking, can you go to AA.com and add your AA or AS number to the reservation.

I know that if you use your BA number when making the reservation AA will not let you change it.

@azhoopsfan that’s correct – that’s what I was trying to convey in #39

@Nic: I’ve also avoided checkmytrip.com by searching AA.com by flight number and city, which usually finds the reservation.

@Dan As said by others AA.com will not let you edit the FF# once it’s already added to the reservation to avoid this try booking yourself next time from a different BA account (not yours) and see what happens than

Any idea why ? i just flew aa through a ba ticket and they didnt charge for bags. i dont have aa cc just reg status . ( both ways i did curbside check in but the guy told me that the system says no charge ) ?

Use Finnair all the time. There are random times when it wont work, and for no apparent reason..

@golan It’s a glitch. Enjoy it and don’t complain!

Thanks Dan! for those less savy you missed a step. step 2 should be to click on update your details which take you to new page. Then you can…
-On the next page I scroll down to “additional details,” select American from the drop down menu, enter my American AAdvantage number, and confirm the change.

When I check on AA.com using my record locator my AAdvantage number is attached. However when I login with my AA number and check my reservation it does not show up. Is that normal?

Is there anyway to select a seat on Air Berlin without paying if I dont have air berlin status

This worked like a charm the first time I did it and I am pretty sure I did it immediately after making the BA reservation but cant remember for sure. Now today I did another BA reservation and when I go to Finnair, its not allowing me to modify the frequent flyer number in the additional details. Has anyone ever seen this? Should I maybe try again tomorrow?

dan how do i book with ba avios from nyc to la june2-june6 redeye? on ba.com it only show ba i never see any other partners available and for ba it says

British Airways does not have traffic rights to operate directly between these two cities.

do i call ba? try to use iberia or aa? how do i use my 120k ba avios?

Dan, Great seminar in Chicago
Im attempting to book using Avios points 3 seats for 2 people (my wife needs the extra space) on a flt fro ORD to LGA and im told by BA that it cant be done using Avios spoke to supervisor to no avail
ive done this with AA, UAL,and Delta

any suggestions
marvin

I do not see the option on Finnair.com anymore to change the Freq Flyer number
Would you please check

use rj.com to aa number

Dan,

I am an AA EXP, and was wondering if I use avios to fly from xmn to bkk (stopover in hkg), would I be able to use the lounge? Thanks.

@Evan:
Yes.

Dan, been using this method for a while now to get AA benefits when using Avios for award redemptions on AA flights. Just now trying again but noticing that the Finnair site no longer allows me to change BA to AA FF#. Any other methods you’re aware of to change the FF# from BA to AA?

I just make a booking on a short haul AA for a family member (well, American Eagle or soon to be Envoy) flight. Neither of us have elite status on BA or AA. I did notice that I was able to select a preferred seat at no charge on the Avios booking, but I had purchased the ticket through AA, the fee would have been $6 or so. Based on this it seems like there is Priority Access and potentially a free bag. We will see.

Once you switch to AA locator, can I change the flight to a later flight that day for free?

does not work anymore. it seems finair has locked the option to change number.

IS THERE ANOTHER WAY TO CHANGE THE FF NUMBER?

Sorry for the capitals. My problem is- I booked with Avios and the flight is USAIR. I have Gold status on American. DO I need to change it now to American or is the merger enough to honor the status?

@aa:

-1 just changed the number, no problem!!!

I see it when I log onto aa.com.
however it doesnt show me if I will get free bags, its shows and error in that spot.
In the past I have gotten free bags no problem.

Can you tell by the receipt if you’re going to get the free bag?

To get the AA record locator you can simply go to change seats and it redirects you to the AA site and your AA record locator is there. You can add your AAdvantage number there as well. No need for the whole runaround

@ron:
You can’t edit the AAdvantage number if you used Avios from your account.

finnair won’t let me edit the BA number. Am I doing something wrong?

I think once you put in your AA number on finnair it gets added to your AA profile- you don’t need to go to checkmytrip. Because I followed the finnair and checkmytrip steps and i went to AA expecting to need to put in my AA record locator – but it was already there when I signed in.
Might be a recent change though.

question I haven’t found answered anywhere – despite searching. Can I book my BA Avios on the flight they show, then change to my AA number, then go standby on an earlier flight that BA is showing for much more points?
either standby without paying the $75 or even with?

@Dan
It looks like finnair has updated their website and the instructions described above are not available anymore.

Are there any other ways to add my Advantage # to my BA flight?

@yehuda:
Which part doesn’t work?

@Dan

Changing from the BA # to my Advantage # on finnair.com
There used to be “additional details”, now there is “update your details” but its bringing me to an error page

I am reporting same issue as yehuda. never used to have a problem with this, hmmm…
is there another place/way to change my FF# besides finnair?

same here

Confirming prior posts re Finair workaround to no longer be working…. I f anyone has a fix, please share. Thanks.

@Joe:
Try http://www.rj.com/en/online-booking?tab=4&_=119

on the rj booking do l need to put in all my info or just aa # bec its not letting me go on without my personal info.

Just followed all the steps in the original post and it worked perfectly.

Any point in doing this for a lax-jfk booking in business class? The only status I have is that I have a Citi Executive AAdvantage World Elite credit card.

Finnair locked me out after I changed it for one booking. RJ changed my wifes, but asked me for a DOB, but there was no field to input it. However, Sri lankan allowed me to change the BA to the AA number, WOOHOO!

Just FYI my BA booking ref worked on AA today, (although still needed to use finair to change my FF)

does not seem like you are able to use finnair to change frequant flyer number anymore….is there any other work around?

what benefit is there for having a ba number on ur ticket ??

I made sure to erase BA number and was still hardcoded on Finnair. Had no problem on AA.com though