Right, if AA and BA wanted to, they could offer ff credit on the trasn-Atlantic route, as this falls outside any governing law by US or UK(EU) authoritites. What they do need approval for is to code-share. When they first proposed their alliance, they held off offering ff credit on these routes as a "political gesture" since they anticipated lots of disagreement and argument from others because they would account for a large amount of the US-London routes.