OneWorld, but multiple languages
 

recently booked a trip thru AA, crediting to AS (outbound BA PE, BA Y; return IB PE, AA Y) … AA PNR shows both the BA and IB PNRs

AA leg allowed MCE seat selection; IB worked fine, but BA app says I have to pay for seats on both flights

BA chat rep said he can see AS (Atmos) number, but not OWE status; his suggestion was to contact AS

“not sure why would I need to do that when I’ve never had any issues with AS status pulling through to AA for domestic flights”

long silence … “you will need to have AA change to AAdvantage number”

”that won’t work because I need to credit to AS”

c’mon, people, isn’t one of the principal goals of an “alliance” to facilitate seamless travel across all partners?? :rolleyes:

I suppose I can have AA add my AAdvantage number, but I’ll have to remember to switch it back to AS when we check in for the BA flights


grrrrrrrrrr

My wife, at the time an AS non-status Flyer, recently received her JL boarding pass for an AS award ticket and it showed “Sapphire” for her status.

I remember other threads in past years after the OW integration where OWE flyers only saw Sapphire on their boarding passes.

I don’t know how OW airlines communicate flyer status - do their programs feed into a central database and airlines then look up status from there? I imagine it can’t really be part of the ticket/reservation as status changes frequently.

BA has a known problem with seeing AS Emerald status. I encounter this problem regularly and it affects seat selection all the time.

AS has known about this issue for a long time and refuses to work with BA to fix it.

AS also has a problem with rectifying the similar issue with JL.

in this case, though, it’s AS talking to AA who’s talking to BA

as mentioned, AS talking to AA wrt status hasn’t been an issue for domestic travel, so that leads me to suspect that AA only sends AAdvantage info across (i.e., doesn’t pull actual OW status from profile, and/or has no mechanism to associate status from a non-AA source with a booking on BA)

Is a BA agent empowered to just remove the AA #, save the PNR, then input your AS#? If so, that would theoretically remedy the issue, unless it is a field inhibited from BA change once ticketed. What FF# is showing when you access your PNR on BA? Are you inhibited from changing it?

It sounds like the format in which AA is sending the AS # to BA is a more generic data field that needs further translation. Unfortunately, AS will likely tell you it is "out of our hands" because you booked through AA.

I wonder if you had booked this with AA, but as a "guest" and input only your AS info if this would have been an issue.

As a recent aside, booked directly with BA, my AS# input showed OWE and I had no issues.

I learned my lesson with "seamless alliances" and what a crock they are a long time ago with a UA/LH issue.

both of these make me further suspect that whatever AS sends to AA gets lost in translation between AA and BA

Ask the BA agent to remove your FF number from the booking, and then in BA MMB (Manage My Booking) add it back yourself (or ask the agent to do that, but I would recommend doing it yourself online). That *should* fix the issue.

Yup, had a similar problem last year booked a flight to Africa on AA but it was a BA codeshare. It looks like the it pulls your OW status at time of booking. If you go from one tier to the next you need to remove and re-add your FF#. I did it over the phone. I updated it for 2 passengers flying with me and forgot for another and the 2 showed updated status but not the last one.

This year we booked direct with BA for BA coded and BA metal flights, and BA had real trouble (we're talking hours of troubleshooting) to see the OWE status of the AS 75k.