This past long weekend, I flew DCA-FLL on US and then home MIA-DCA on AA, booked through US. Because of the snowstorm, my DCA-FLL cancelled and I had to rebook CLT-FLL through the US call center. Phone agent said I should have no problems with the original return.

24 hours before the flight, I got the check in email from US but couldn't check in through either the AA or US apps. Called US and they said the ticket was still fine but I'd have to check in with an AA agent at MIA.

When I got to MIA yesterday, it took the AA agent about 30 minutes to reach someone at US to get my new eticket number, as her system was showing me as EXC. It worked out fine because I was traveling with a friend who was on an earlier flight and so got to the airport much earlier than I usually do, but I did feel bad holding up the line behind me while the one priority access agent tried to figure out how to issue my boarding pass.

Is there any way to avoid this in the future, such as asking US for the new e-ticket number (I didn't see one on any of my new documents)? I have a couple mixed itineraries coming up and getting to the airport two hours before for a domestic flight is not really something I plan to do.

Thanks!

These mixed itins can be a nightmare during irregular ops. A few weeks ago my US flight was cancelled so I was put into a direct AA flight. When I went to return from PHL (trying to standby early as a winter storm was setting in) I was told that because I had not been offloaded properly from my US flight the remainder of my flights were cancelled. It took an agent and a supervisor nearly 30 minutes to get my flights reinstated. Getting mileage credit is a constant sending in a form for miles. Unfortunately, until the two systems are merged successfully these bugs are probably going to continue to happen.

The airline integration won't happen for a while - perhaps even early 2016.

In the meantime, codeshares mean potential savings, and potential problems with regard to standby, rerouting, irregular operations and whether or not reroutings to other airlines can be made, etc.

IMO it's about risk tolerance until all the relevant issues are unified. For me, that means avoiding AA / US codeshares like bad seafood.

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/ameri...solidated.html

Thanks! Looks like for the near future, I'll be taking the extra steps to book one ways in the case of mixed itins, assuming the price isn't different.

I came to this forum with a question about connection times @ DFW, but then saw this thread. Was just about to book a mixed itinerary, but now am thinking twice about it...

However, the codeshare itinerary offers us by far the best flight times for our needs. If one must book codeshare trip, would the experts suggest booking it as AA or US? I'm using credit card points, and it's the same number of points for either.

If you're booking an award ticket, the concept of codeshares doesn't exist - you book whatever the operating carrier is. If you mean one of the credit cards that isn't affiliated with a particular airline (e.g. not an AAdvantage or Dividend Miles CC), that would be just like buying a ticket.

No, it wouldn't be a mileage award ticket or CC affiliated w/ an airline. It's CC reward points, and that system offers me the same flights with either AA or US on the ticket, and based on what I see in the flight details section, it's codeshare as in the 1st leg of the trip is US metal, then a connection to AA, and the return is the reverse.

I'm trying to find out if there is any advantage to have one emblem on the ticket over the other.

Is one airline more likely than the other to screw something up along the way? If so, which airline is better at fixing problems?

Always use tools like expertflyer, ita matrix, and even the AA downloadable schedule (pdf) for checking city pairs for operating carrier.

Always have Admiral's club access as dealing with IRROPs is usually alot easier to handle with the on-site club then via the phone lines

If you are an AA elite (EXP,Plt,Gold) always try to buy on American Paper ('001 ticket) as during IRROPS as when IRROPS happen it is easier for the AA folks to pull and reissue the ticket then through the US Air .... same rule applies in reverse for US Air folks (make sure you buy US Paper ('03 ticket number)

Alcohol ... as you will need it as I have only been able to online check-in once during the December 2013 to current merger mess .... and needed something to clean out my internal filters so I don't scream at the gate agents

Online spreadsheet (google) with AA Locator, US Locator, Ticket Number, Flight numbers and city pairs. I have used this many times with the admirals staff so they could see the itineraries if complex to help find information

The only time I have bought US Paper for US flights as an AA EXP is when I know their is reward/upgrade availability for a flight, and I want to use miles for an upgrade; however, buyer beware as IRROPS can be a pain as getting a hold of the staff can be a PiTA.

Interesting topic. I'm AA Gold and booked a mixed itinerary MCO-LAS on US because I couldn't get it on AA. I'm US going out and AA coming back.

The problem I have now is my LAS-MCO return was booked for noonish on April 1st, and now I have a meeting at 3PM so I'm going to need to grab a later flight. I was hoping to just do a same day standby. There are currently a lot more seats open on AA flights that evening. Can I do that for both US and AA flights? Does anyone have experience with doing that?

Or am I better off ponying up the extra $250 to just change the flight now rather than chance it?

You need to check with your status, and with who you bought the ticket on the rules (https://www.aa.com/i18n/utility/sameDayTravel.jsp). If I intrepert the rules here for elite status benefits (https://www.aa.com/i18n/AAdvantage/e...fits-chart.jsp) for Gold on US Airways you maybe able to do it with a waived fee; however, I have personally found that the US Airways folks are extremely confused on the benefits. I have had several run-ins with them as an EXP on both first class and coach tickets. Patience and a smile usually helps ... but beware of the battlefield fun ... If you want to feel safe you can change now for $200+, or you can call in the day of and attempt it for $75, or wait until you get to the airport to save the moneny ... YMMV.

US metal follows their Move Up policy, not AA SDC. So for the US ticketed, US outbound flight you can move up to a flight 6 hours earlier. Can only be requested day of at the airport, must comply with routing rules (eg cannot go from connecting to direct flight) , and only US flights (eg cannot switch to an earlier AA metal flight).

I had an interesting situation. U.S. Chairmen's status.
Booked flight on U.S. site, outbound flights (2 segments) operated by AA. Return flights operated by U.S.

Check in with AA on the outbound. Everything on time, no problems
Check in with US on the return. Everything on time, no problems.

4 weeks later.............
My mileage account never got credited for the outbound on AA, but my mileage did get credited for the return on US.

Here's the thing. I've done the exact same itinerary before and all miles posted correctly (all to my US account with the 100% bonus kicker).
So I call US, they say I have to call AA. So I call AA, they find it, but they now have to check back with US to ensure I paid for the fly and that it was valid to accrue miles. I finally get my miles posted, but this time to my AA account, not my US account, and because I have no status on my AA account, they will not post the 100% bonus for being a top tier flyer.

I did get upgraded on both AA segments, and the experience was noticeably nicer than on US, but after that mileage posting confusion I'm just gonna stick with all US bookings and planes until the merger is completed.

I had another similar experience on an AA flight booked on US, but that was a cancelled AA flight and got rebooked on US metal, so I can understand the confusion with the missing miles postings on that one, but again, there can be major hassles.

I have had the same thing happen to me in reverse. The only advice I can suggest to you is that you keep your ticket stubs (print a copy at the airport including the receipt and/or itinerary). I have used those as the "hammer the point home proof" when claiming credit.

As for you situation, I would recommend if you have the original itinerary, and show that your return, you can use common sense logic and state ... how did I get back from XYZ to Home if I didn't fly Home to XYZ, while humming the Eurythmics "would I lie to you" ...

I personally can't wait to a single operating license and my command quote for dealing with IRROPS for 2015 this year is ... I will forgive you for everything bad that happens in code share hell, however, come 1/1/2016 I won't be as forgiving. For the AA folks I chuckle and state ... I have gotten burned on the Finnair code share experience ... so I know what to document 110% now


+-ADT

This is/was BH9197 (haven't been on in a long time and my old ID is tied to a now non existent email account)

Yes. everyone should hang on to all Tickets, Boarding Passes, until you see those miles posted. I have done this even before the "merger" started.

On my original US booked, AA metal flight that got cancelled, I had 2 different Record Locators with a US (037..) ticket number. When the AA flight cancelled and got rebooked on US metal, I then had an AA (001..) ticket number, and new Record locator.

Without the hard copies I never would have any miles re-applied.

Another problem I found out from the reps I dealt with is that the Record Locators on U.S. contain digit(s), while AA Record Locators do not (its all characters). I'm an IT guy and I'm guessing this is probably a really big technical hurdle during the merger process.

My heart goes out to the employees that have to move to/from DFW-PHX-CLT-PHL-....... during the transition.