Hi all,

For trips to the US, involving domestics on AA metal (transatlantic legs could be either BA or AA), is there a consensus on whether to book through BA or AA? I'm mainly wondering from an irrops perspective following some bad ones in the summer.

- I will always be crediting to BA Exec club
- I'm exec club silver, shortly gold
- I understand the tier point differences between booking through AA vs BA / AA vs BA flight numbers
- not too concerned about Avios earning rates

I got stuck at Orlando in summer, en route to JFK, due to a series of American technical issues on multiple planes. The situation was:
- It was an AA booking in domestic first
- we had to deplane before take-off due to a shattered windshield
- The only reason it wasn't a complete disaster was we managed to get to the customer services desk at the head of the queue (3 agents rebooking a plane of ~200 people)
- I actually forgot who I'd booked with and so called BA in the first instance, who, quite reasonably, directed me to call American

It got me thinking, is it preferable to have booked through BA or AA in this instance? In general, the American agents were much more helpful and empowered then I've ever known BA agents to be (both at the airport and on the phone). However, I wonder if BA status would make it more sensible to have to call BA in this instance? I guess that might be offset by the fact that I'm more likely to find AA agents to deal with in person?

Any thoughts welcome.

Many thanks