Lancerguy

OK so this may have been answered somewhere else but I have no clue how to search for it.

I have 3 people flying. I have 160k AA points and 110k BA points. My plan is to book 2 tickets on AA @ 80k each, and 1 ticket on BA @ 80k. Then I will book 3 short-haul flights using the last 30k BA points.

I have Plat AA status and no BA status. I would like my seat selection, priority boarding, etc to apply. The actual flights are a combo of Royal Jordanian and British Airways flights.

I know the 2 tickets I book directly on AA will have my status attached, but is there any way to get the lone BA ticket or the 3 short-haul tickets attached?

Thanks.

guv1976

What are you booking for 80K miles/Avios, one-ways or roundtrips? You might do a little better on the long-haul flights by booking one-ways rather than roundtrips.

For the three short-haul tickets that you will book with Avios, once you book them, you can use the "Manage My Booking" function at finnair.com (not ba.com) to replace your BAEC FFN in the booking with your AAdvantage FFN.

Lancerguy

Thanks for the tip! I didn't realize you could change that on the finnair website. I appreciate the help on this.

Yes you are correct, I found that for whatever reason if I book 2 one ways it's cheaper on fees. We are flying JFK > AMM and back DXB > JFK. The 3 shorthaul tix are for AMM > DXB.

guv1976

By booking all passengers in one direction with AA miles, and you and one other passenger in the other direction with Avios, you should be able to extend your status benefits to one of the passengers for all flights, and to the other passenger for all but one of the flights.

Lancerguy

OK smart guy...thanks a lot!

So I ended up booking all 3 return trips DXB > JFK on AA because the BA fuel surcharges where higher on this leg than the other way, so that saved me some cash. Status applies OK.

Then I booked the 3 outbound JFK > AMM tickets on BA, since the tix where 30k points instead of 40k for whatever reason. This saved me some points from my original plan. Got on Finnair and adjusted my FF # as well.

Finally, the short-haul AMM > DXB segment I'm going to wait a bit on. Since I now have 40k AA points leftover from my 160k, I'm going to direct my spend for a month to try and get 52.5k AA points for 3 tix rather than spend the 30k + $450 at BA for the tix.

If I'm able to get make it, I'll have saved >$400 + 10k points. If I end up just buying 2 tix on AA and 1 tix on BA, I'll have still saved a couple hundred bucks.


Thanks again!

guv1976

You're welcome! Glad things worked out for you.

The reason why AA charges 40K miles for JFK-AMM, and BA only charges 30K Avios for the same flight, is that AAdvantage is a zone-based system, so anywhere in North America to anywhere in the Middle East or Indian Subcontinent will cost 40K miles one way in Coach, with connecting flights -- if needed -- included for no additional mileage. BAEC, on the other hand, is a distance-based system, and BAEC charges for each flight flown. The JFK-AMM nonstop on RJ is presumably in the 30K Avios distance band.

brp

rj.com (Royal Jordanian) works as well.

Cheers.