quemalo

The Oneworld Priority tags are apparently taken seriously right now, since the luggage I had to bring with me on a quick trip to LA this weekend was held at both ends next to the plane and loaded just prior to the strollers. They were in the first few bags off the belt in each direction too.

RAD_PDX

This will be a great perk if it stays like this and doesn't turn into AA/UA/DL where half of the plane has a priority tag for one reason or another.

zs58

I was on AS 988 on April 4, KOA-SEA, and counted 26 bags on the conveyor (I was there as the first one came out) before I saw the first one with a priority tag on it. Considering the fairly big deal the gate agent in KOA made when affixing one to my bags ("this means your bags are the last on and the first off"...), this seems like a mismatch between intent, training, and operational delivery.

DMPHL

Just wait until you fly AA to places like GRU, GIG, or EZE. For me, consistently, the Priority bags are nearly the last bags to make it to the carousel.

icelandman2

I get the impression that AS IT is extremely short-staffed, has been forever, and likely will be for the foreseeable future barring any major disasters

Flying for Fun

AA may be having a few implementation issues too. An interesting observation! While doing another dummy AA booking as a guest with my AS FF number, after selecting MSC seats for a $0 charge, just before payment, I was advised that I could apply 500 mile stickers.

James

JIMCHI

I just made an award reservation on AS using AS miles. I waited until it was ticketed and went back in and tried to change my FF number to AA so as a OW Sapphire I could select premium seats. No way to change the FF number. Maybe this process just won't work when booking a reservation using AS miles. All OW benefits are lost then?

Mwenenzi

Refer to post 60 (again)
A method used by some on other ffp's is book for someone else (who has the same name as you )

JIMCHI

OK- I should have looked back to see that message. It just seems to me that your basic OW benefits (baggage and seat selection) should be able to be used on any OW airline. I don't have this problem with award travel on BA and after ticketing having my AA number applied and free seat selection available.

Mwenenzi

Not all frequent flyer programs work the same way. Benefits can be tied(locked) to the freq flyer number in the reservation.
With some ffp's people have had issues getting lounge access trying to cherry pick benefits.
It varies. With some it OK to change the ffn and others is not. With AS ffp time will tell
As time goes I expect more status benefits with OW airlines/ffp's to be locked to the (unchangeable) ffn in the reservation.

econ

I'm looking at making a similar type booking, but even if you book for "someone else", it won't let you change the FF program when making the reservation (the FF# field is blank, but you can't change the program from AS).

Mwenenzi

Can you enter the ffn of the "someone else" when making the reservation?. Or leave blank?
AY, RJ & QR manage booking have been used to change ffn

Xrayman

I’m curious how this will be for trip to Cabo today.

JIMCHI

Well, you should be able to "charry pick" benefits. Supposedly with OW status you get certain benefits when you fly a OW carrier. Certainly advance priority seating, priority boarding and club access should be available to all those holding the applicable status regardless of whether traveling using miles or cash and whether you want to accrue miles with one carrier or another. Otherwise what's the great benefit of having OW status ?

eponymous_coward

(emphasis added)

Generally, the "hey, I want to use one program's status benefits while burning a different program's miles (or accruing)" crowd is a use case of FTers (or similarly knowledgable flyers) trying to save some money on lounge access or luggage fees, or get the absolute best earning deal.

Not surprisingly, airlines are in the business of making money and want to hold their costs down. Lounge access, for instance, is charged to the airline the elite belongs to. Miles earned incur charges (the airline earning miles will get to debit the airline that is transporting).

So this is why an airline will say "if you want to use your status with us or burn our miles you need to use your FFN in our program, you can't have a different airline for earning or status". It's a cost control measure preventing them from incurring additional costs beyond what they have to give you for status or burning miles. And of course frequent flyer program rules are the creation of airlines (and they can make and enforce their own rules as they see fit- in the end, using a FFP is 100% optional, millions of people fly airlines every year without crediting an airline).

The AY tool to edit your FFN that is mentioned works just fine with AS, incidentally. It worked BEFORE the OW merger because AS was an AY partner.