Hello one and all,

Having recently returned from Europe on an AA award flight that included BA metal. My wife and I encountered a couple problems caused by issues with the AA & BA computers. I first flew BWI-ORD-LHR-PRG and returned LIN-LHR-RDU-IAD.

When attempting to get my actual border passes at BWI for all three flights, the all so patient AA agent had enter my confirmation number and print out the boarding passes three time before the third pass for the BA leg printed. She said the AA and BA computer systems don't work together at random times. If it had not been able to get the BA pass, I'd have to get one whilst trying to do the LHR Terminal 3 to Terminal 5 tango in under two hours. Never a fun experience.

The second SNAFU was after getting our return BA boarding pass for the LIN-LHR leg. While we were able to get seats together on that first flight, our AA boarding passes processed by BA now had us sitting separately on the following two flights. I knew when I booked the trip, I had requested specific seating assignments together. When doing the reverse LHR tango, we fortunately had time to get new passes sitting next to one another. The gate agent again told us that the AA & BA computers mess up previous seat assignments all the time. She then noticed that the AA computer showed us having duplicate assigned seats, I guess for our clones.

So lesson learned, be careful and attentive when flying award travel which includes a BA leg. Let us hope that with the EU/USA dual approval of AA's and BA's super sized partnership, such computer issues will not only be noticed by both airlines but also corrected.