Lunamoth

I have booked a pair of SEA-DFW-LHR business class award tickets on AA using AS miles.

My final destination is CDG. When I booked the tickets, I thought we might spend the night in London and then Eurostar to Paris the next day. However, plans have changed, and I now want to got to Paris on the same day that we arrive at LHR.

If I purchase a connecting leg on BA from LHR to CDG, will AA/BA be willing to merge the award ticket with the purchased ticket?

Specifically, can I check my luggage all the way to CDG?

If my award AA flight is delayed and I miss my BA connection, will BA be willing to book me on the next flight?

What is the best way to handle this?

Thanks in advance.

J

CDKing

you cant merge tickets. Separate tickets rarely work well without a good buffer. Thats why i'm leaving myself 2 days in LAX connecting to my EK award.

Lunamoth

I was afraid you might say that. I was hoping the One World umbrella might allow for some flexibility.

beckoa

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Bring paper copies of both itineraries. Assuming the minconnect is observed, this should be feasible if AS is the first carrier you're flying. Plan on this taking some extra time to accomplish at checkin.
This is based on the first segment being AS operated. I'm not sure how AA would work, and if it turns out its all AA/BA this is best addressed in the AA forum.

ANC

well they certainly wont merge. Domestic purchased tickets seperately dont even really merge, you can just often interline the bags but if you miss a connection on 061 stock(SEA-MSP) from an 027 flight(ANC-SEA), delta doesnt have to reaccomodate you to MSP. Whether on not bags can be checked through is going to depend on connection times and interline agreements

ANC

hopefully the OP reports back the results. In any case it seems like quite a mess. Im not sure what changes or alterations AA can do to an AS issued award to interline baggage through to CDG

Also wondering what the time is of the LHR-CDG connection? For domestic flights in this situation I leave at least a 6 hour layover conenction time frame and even thats a risk. Id leave at least 24 hours for international or as CDKing mentioned 2 days even better. If you miss the BA flight to CDG you will probably be a cancelled no show and they will be glad to book you on the next available for day of flight purchase rate

3Cforme

You may be referring to a courtesy extended by AA. I don't believe there's a specific oneworld benefit - and AS as the ticketing carrier has nothing to do with it.

missydarlin

Is there no availability to just change your award ticket to Paris instead of London?

Lunamoth

Currently, no easy way to change. SEA-CDG award availability has been terrible on the days I need. Even Expert Flyer hasn't found me a good option (6 months and counting).

And, confession, I am kinda excited about flying mini-cabin business on AA 50 to LHR.

AA has said that they will likely be able to check baggage all the way through on BA flight. AA 50 has 71% on-time arrival with avg delay = 16 minutes.

I will likely role the dice that I can get from T3 to T5 in a timely fashion and end up in wonderful Paris with an afternoon in front of me.

I'll let you know how this pipe dream turns out.

ANC RED-EYE

I don't know that I'd say that. I've done separate tickets numerous times, and never had a problem. Of course, I do understand I'm taking a risk...but I would definitely not say it's "rare" for separate tickets to work well. Rather I'd say usually it works just fine, but do understand that the risk is on you if you misconnect. However, even that is still all in theory - more than likely, if the OP showed up at the BA counter in LHR having missed onward travel to CDG, BA would merely put him on the next available flight - YMMV, of course. I know of cases where it has not happened this way. Your chances of having a significant problem are about the same as your frequency of having significant airline delays (which is honestly relatively infrequent). That is, unless you're superstitious, in which case it is a near guarantee that you'll misconnect due to the longest delay of your life...

Wow...I'm just defiant tonight. But again, I disagree. I have frequently flown on separate tickets, on multiple carriers. With a copy of my itinerary, I would say this has almost never taken any significant time at checkin. Once, AS had trouble figuring out how to tag my ticket onto a go! connection. Once AS had trouble getting my bags through on DL and SAA - but that was because I had 6 segments - apparently more than their system can handle. The only real trouble I've ever had was in OAX - the AM agent claimed that they couldn't check my bag through to my AS flight. Maybe I shouldn't admit that, but I was on THREE separate tickets that time - OAX - MEX on AM, MEX - ATL - ORD on DL, and finally ORD - ANC on AS. I had 2:30 in MEX between AM and DL, and 1:13 at ORD between DL and AS. Yeah, I realize that was a bit reckless...but the point being most of the time it will work. That was the one and only case I had trouble interlining bags. That said, don't show up at the last minute, but I don't think you need to factor in more than 5 extra minutes for this.

BTW, on the 3 separate tickets AM, DL, AS itin, everything went just fine. I collected my bags in MEX and rechecked them through to ANC. DL was delayed into ORD, but I made it to the gate - cut it WAY closer than I'd hoped, maybe wouldn't do it again, but I did make it.

This is the best advice here - what about changing your itin to go from SEA to CDG?? Of course, it would be dependent on space. If you're gold or more than 60 days out from travel, the fee should be waived (unless you booked it before the new change fees went into place - not sure what's done in that case.

Oh, and final thought, AA/OneWorld DOES have the most customer friendly policy regarding Separate tickets. I'm not sure if having this AS issued (027 stock) would make this a sticking point or not - it shouldn't, but who knows. AA's separate ticket policy.

Lunamoth

I like your optimism! And thanks for the AA separate ticket policy. That is just what I needed to sleep better. My interpretation of the policy is that if AA to LHR is delayed and I miss my separately ticketed BA flight, AA is responsible for getting me to CDG. Yahoo!

Thanks so much. I'll let you know what happens.

jackal

From the link you posted:

There does not appear to be a requirement for the first ticket to be on oneworld ticket stock. So an 027 ticket to LHR connecting to a BA flight on 125 (BA) ticket stock should qualify, if I'm understanding the policy correctly.

I agree; that is an awesome policy, and I wish Star Alliance would implement something similar. Unfortunately, my emails to the *A HQ in FRA have only proved to me that the lone CSR who handles the *A email feedback line either speaks incredibly poor English or is one of the dumbest CSRs on the planet.

ANC RED-EYE

I noticed that as well. I agree, I *think* the OP would fall under the protection of this policy by the "letter" of the policy; almost certainly in practicality. I noticed the fact that it specifically specified that the second ticket had to be on OneWorld ticket stock. Initially I wondered if it was just omitted, but that the same requirement might be implied for the first ticket as well. Then I thought about it...and I don't think so. My guess is that the issue might be that the original carrier might have trouble endorsing and changing the ticket for onward travel if it is not a issued on OneWorld stock. Clearly AA will have no trouble dealing with their own operated flights issues on AS stock, but if the onward travel were on BA but issued by some other non OneWorld partner, AA might have some difficulty dealing with them.

All of that is speculation...but frankly I think Lunamoth would likely be ok without this policy as long as a reasonable connection time was allowed in LHR. With this policy, I'd say it's almost guaranteed that AA/BA will handle any problems.

Oh, and I'm assuming by your lack of response, Lunamoth, that changing the award to simply arrive CDG is out of the question for some reason?

Waitlisted

I found this to be true. Last fall on a trip from FCO to AMS using AS miles flying on KL (for that leg, but on DL to/from PDX) but checked in by Alitalia all I had was the six letter code. At check in they needed the ticket numbers and I had to call Delta and hold from FCO airport on my mobile phone to get them. Always keep you paper ticket with you when flying internationally.

Lunamoth

ANC RED-EYE, due to the inflexibility of my travel days and my promise to my wife that we will fly J class to Europe, there are no current options available for arriving in CDG.

Thanks again for your input. I'll let you know how it turns out.