It’s great to see BA continually invest in improving the BA.com experience. They have recently made it easier to find partner flights and to compare the cost of flying in different classes of service.
Avios are an incredible way to fly on short flights for just 4,500 or 7,500 Avios each way. They’re also easy to accumulate thanks to Membership Rewards, Starpoints, and Ultimate Rewards points all having Avios transfer options.
And of course there is the Chase British Airways card which gives 50,000 Avios for spending $2,000 with the annual fee waived for the first year.
However they are confusing for people which is why I wrote an Avios Knowledgebase and a tutorial to get American benefits when using Avios on AA flights.
When you book a flight with Avios you get a BA confirmation number that won’t work on AA.com. The big improvement that I haven’t noticed before is that BA.com can now forward you into your AA.com reservation which gives you your AA confirmation number and allows you to select seats.
When I went onto BA.com I logged in, went into “My Bookings,” and entered the BA.com confirmation number.
Then you can click on your flight number and choose “View or change seats for this flight.”
You will then get a message that you will be sent over to American’s website. Agree to that by clicking on reserve seats and you’ll be redirected into your AA.com reservation.
Once forwarded you’ll want to save your AA confirmation number. You’ll be able to use that to checkin on AA.com within 24 hours of your flight to print up your boarding pass.
Besides for choosing seats you may also be able to enter your AA AAdvantage mileage number.
While you don’t collect miles for flights booked with miles you can get a free bag for yourself and everyone on your itinerary if you have AA elite status or the Citi AA credit card. Elites can also select preferred seating once their mileage number is in the reservation.
If you are unable to enter your AA number in your reservation you can still use the Finnair workaround that I wrote about in this post.
HT: Meir W.
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21 Comments On "More BA.com Improvements: Choose Your Seat On Partner Flights"
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I had the BA card a couple years ago. Can I get the signup bonus again?
You can. My wife and I did it in 2011 and closed the cards in 2012. We signed up again this year with the same BA number and got the points with no issues.
The Citi AA Select Amex also gets you the bags, etc. (i.e doesn’t have to be Platinum.)
When issuing a AA ticket with Avios can I select a seat right away if don’t have status with AA ?
Thanks meir Yechiel you are the best
dan this is old news ; worked a month ago by me
@menachem_m:
It cant be any AA cc, just the Platinum and Select levels.
The Gold level with $50 annual fee, does not have free bags.
https://www.citi.com/credit-cards/credit-card-details/detail.do?ID=citi-gold-aadvantage-world-mastercard
Dan could you please assist i am trying to secure a ticket for someone living in Israel who is coming to US to earn money because of isralei gov cuts. It would be a real hesed if i can secure him on a free flight! I tried booking one way from tel aviv to new york with avios points with air berlin for oct or Nov and nothing comes up. what am I doing wrong??
I remember booking same flight before. any suggestions
when i searched on AA website I saw plenty of Air Berlin flights with that route but agent from avios told me that just because it is on AA website does not mean they offer that flight or have to honor that flight, is that true?
Please assist we would really appreciate it
Dan
hi and thanks for all your great deals and offerings, i always take of advantage of the items you link!!
just a question, i have 200,000 aa miles, but i find very hard to book anything to Israel or Europe by just going to aa.com the options are limited with many connecting flights coming up in the search,
is there anything i do wrong or anyway to get around it to get better results and maximize my benefits?
Is there any way to guarantee yourself the free bag due to having the credit card? At checkin – especially LGA – they frequently deny it…
I just flew last week cle-lga. i was checking in 2 bags as i was connecting to a Tlv flight and they said that bec i booked through British i get 2 free bags.
@Davidd: check out this post: http://www.dansdeals.com/archives/27665
I WOULD LIKE TO KNOW IF I CAN BOOK AN AA TICKET WITH AVIOS WITHOUT PAYING THE FUEL SURCHARGE
Any idea when the next MR to Avios bonus transfer will be next? is there a pattern
Can I connect someone else’s AAdvantage number to my BA booking and get benefits like a free checked bag?
Dan, have you had any success or heard of anyone else using Avios to fly on British Air short haul in South Africa? ComAir flies under the BA name from JNB-CPT and various other spots in southern Africa… many of which would be only 4500 or 7500 points each. Just curious if you’ve heard of anyone using Avios that way.
@Status:
Yes.
@Anonymous:
News to me and I haven’t seen it mentioned online.
@barry:
You need to call them to book on partners like El Al.
@m:
Change your mileage number online.
Checkin via a kiosk.
@chaim:
It happens sometimes.
@123:
Sure as long as you don’t cross an ocean.
@Dogo:
I’d assume we’ll see one by the end of the year.
@Lanny:
Sure, it’s bookable on BA.com.
JNB-CPT is 7.5K+$44.
Suggestions for booking Rio and Capetown on the same points. From either IAD, JFK or MIA using AA, BA or USAir pts.?
Oh!
I thought that you wrote,
“Choose your seat and partner on BA flights”! 🙂
A Gut Shabbos!
DD Fan
Do BA reward flights open up closer to the date of departure. I am looking for the end of February and there is nothing available now? Thanks
@yael:
Can change daily.