I was looking to book a one way nonstop from DFW to Florida. AA.com showed sAAver space in coach, while BA.com showed no availability, period. I called the BA US Executive Club line and was about as lucky as one could get: I received a friendly representative without any wait and she was knowledgeable enough to work around the issue, resulting in me successfully booking the trip. Here's how it went down:

I first treated the call as a regular booking attempt, without first mentioning that I'd already tried to book on BA.com. I wanted to see if the phone rep might be able to see the space right away. That didn't pan out, as the agent couldn't see any space. I then told her that AA was showing low level award availability on this flight, and that the space should therefore be bookable by any OneWorld partner, including BA, so there must be a technical issue. She agreed, and I asked her to speak with the OneWorld desk about the issue (thanks to the above comment by [MENTION=782004]Pilot37[/MENTION]). She put me on a brief hold, then said she could now see the space. Here's where it gets interesting: she saw not only the flight that I wanted, which was the sole nonstop displayed as available on AA.com, but also another earlier nonstop on the same date which was NOT displayed as available on AA.com. Could this mean that it may be best to call BA even if AA.com isn't showing any availability?

After making the booking, the agent attempted to charge me the phone booking fee, which she promptly waived after I objected that the only reason I called is because the technical issue with BA's site made it impossible for me to book online. After all was said and done, I thanked her, complimented her on her knowledge and willingness to work around the issue, and asked her if she could tell me anything that could help me guide a lesser informed phone rep to the techniques that she employed. She only said that she had to change her screen view from "redemption" to "available." She was not keen to elaborate beyond that, but did state that it did not require supervisory authority to do this when I asked. I'm thinking this explains how she came back with another flight which was not available on AA.com. The other flight was available for sale, but not for redemption, and had we tried to "manually" book the award on that flight as opposed to the one showing as available on AA.com, I doubt it would have worked out.