lizs

This happened to me, and I had to get it escalated by the CSR to some sort of internal help desk at AA. Took about 30 minutes to get seats assigned to me. I don't think tickets are being treated as BE, just that there's some sort of glitch or tech issue.

amybd

I called again and got someone who agreed it was clearly a website error and submitted it to their IT department. Maybe it will be the first report of the error? Maybe the 1000th? I know doing this for a living, that they aren't going to fix a problem they don't know about and while all of us are here chatting about the problem, the IT department could be completely unaware because nobody told the right people about it. It seems like most people in the thread, including me at my earlier call, got a phone rep who either tried to make up a fake explanation for the website error (you have to call BA to get seats, etc) or just assigned seats by phone without reporting the problem to IT.

She also told me to call back to get MCE seats at 24 hours if the error isn't fixed (I hope that she noted that part in my record).

amybd

Called tonight within 24 hours of my flight. The agent says the MCE seats are greyed out for HER as well (there are dozens available if I start a new booking). She was not able (willing?) to book them for me. Excuses (read from the script book of things to say when you don't know the answer but need to make something up) were that OW Ruby only gave me access to preferred, not MCE, then when I didn't buy that one, that it was because this was a BA ticket that I wasn't eligible (I took this SAME flight in October on a BA ticket and sat in MCE for free). Her only suggestion was to try at the airport (which doesn't seem to have been terribly successful for others).

I'll try once more with customer service before bed, but it's not looking good.

sadiqhassan

Same issue for me - on last 5 trips using BA avios miles I haven't been able to select a seat and am randomly assigned a seat at check in no matter how open flight is.

I have tried calling AA and BA both before and after OLCI and have not had any success at being able to choose or move my seat.

Most flights were on E75s so I just took the assigned seat but on one trip I was assigned a middle on a MD80. When I got to the airport only exit rows aisles were left and I have no status. I went to the desk and was told it would be $25 to change to exit row which I agreed to pay but wasn't charged. Hope this gets resolved soon.

nall

Had this problem too. Called EXP line and they were able to assign me a seat.

miles_navigator

I am experiencing this now: booked using BA Avios on AA metal. I am AA GLD and entire plane shows Unavailable.

AA Agent would NOT assign a seat for free. Transferred to AA.com. I have been on hold over 30mins w/ aa.com and still no luck. After the hold and several checks aa.com agent said their (I assume new) agreement with BA is we can pick our seats 24 hours before departure only, no exceptions. If we want it earlier pay $$ now just to even get a regular seat. I am on a mid-week mid-day flight so I may give it a shot and see how this works out since I am flying solo so if I get stuck in a middle seat it is bearable.

I went through the same process back in Nov 2017 and no problems getting a seat on the AA metal flight. I have done this for years before and know the drill very well. Call AA get the AA record locator and update the FF from BA to AA to get the AA elite benefits. All done and checked. Looks like the changed something back in Dec. Gotta love that 1W experience!

Questions for folks that experienced this earlier:
- Can you pre-select a seat at T-24?
- If yes, is the same seats you get per your AA status or the non-AA status inventory?
- If no, does the computer auto assign at T-24?
- What about checked luggage benefits? Do luggage benefits still work for AA elites or did they manage to cancel that as well since we booked on BA?
- Has anyone written customer service and received a response back?

My opinion only is that this is intended behavior on AA's part for award ticketing via BA. AA agents mentioned booked on BA specifically when I called. I have been using 10K awards for the last 4-5 years instead of 12.5K AA 1 way. This reduces the # of miles I am paying. On top of that AA is not making the $75 close in ticketing fee which BA doesn't charge. I suspect someone did some data analysis at AA and came up with a plan to make the BA booked on AA award experience less desirable.

eefor jfp

All these problems seem really interesting to me since I had absolutely no issues with half a dozen Avios tickets this summer on AA made when I was BA Gold (OWE) and flown when I was Silver (OWS). Always able to reserve seats using MMB to link to AA or directly on AA using my record locator. Always able to get any seat on the plane (MCE, exits, etc.) So if this is a glitch, it's relatively new.

p.s. I have no AA status though I do have an AAdvantage number that I never use. Maybe sticking with one FFP is the solution although if you want your AA benefits, you obviously have to be able to link your flights and your AAdvantage number and status somehow.

NoStressHere

Post #2 may have been the answer. You actually have two record locators if I remember right - at least based on some BA/Avios bookings I have done. It is all rather funky, but it worked just fine.

And, I have no status on AA by the way.

jollyman89

Last month I booked a British Airways award ticket for domestic US travel on American Airlines. I was able to get my American Airlines locator and pull up my reservation on AA.com, however the entire seat map shows no available seats for me to select. I am an AAdvantage Gold member, and I know there is availability due to checking ExpertFlyer.com. I called AA and the agent was just as puzzled as to why I cannot select seats. The agent went ahead and assigned my reservation seats, but I would think that being a Gold member I should be able to see the seat map online.

I reached out to AA on Twitter via a DM, and they were not helpful, they said due to the type of ticket I have, I am not allowed to select my seats until 24 hours prior to departure. However that sounds like a Basic Economy ticket policy. I pushed for them to provide a link to that policy and they stopped responding to me on Twitter.

Is what AA says true that I cannot select seats online until 24 hours prior to departure when flying on a BA award ticket? If no, what I can I say to have them make the seat map available to me in my reservation?

Edit: Also, I've booked BA award ticket for travel on American in the past and have not had this issue, but its probably been over 18 months and not sure if policies have changed as I cannot find any direct policy online for either BA or AA

Thanks.

IflyonAA

That might be a BA thing.

jollyman89

When I go through BA.com to go into my reservation details, I am re-directed to American's site to select seats, but am unable to do so.

On BA's website it directly says that if booking a partner award ticket and flying on American go to 'Manage my Booking' to select seats, however it redirects to AA's site. Nowhere can I find a policy that states 24 hours prior to departure.

From BA's website:

Reserving seats with our partner airlines

If you make a booking on ba.com or by calling a British Airways customer centre for a flight operated by American Airlines, Finnair, Iberia or Qantas, you can reserve your seats in Manage My Booking.

royal757

I had the same problem, this is a new glitch. I always book avios reward flights on AA and no problem.
Now apparently this is causing problems.

I checked what seats are available on AA's website and called the aadvantage line to select my seat .. painful but it did the trick.

hope the fix it soon

jollyman89

Thanks for the info. I don't think American has acknowledged it as an issue as no one I spoke with had come across it before but all said it was strange, and then AA Twitter completely disregarding it and saying it's 'policy' but not ever providing a link to the policy.

Hopefully it is resolved, but they need to acknowledge its an issue first.

JY1024

Merged threads on same topic for more efficient discussion. Thanks. /Moderator

firemandan9

I'm breaking the ability to select seat assignments every time I use the Finnair website to change a BA Award ticket to show my AAdvantage account number. If I select a seat while the reservation is still showing my BA Executive number no problem.

Is there a better way to do this? AA reservations won't help me because the ticket is issued by BA. Once I change to AA I don't seem to be able to go back.

Linking my AA account is important to me so I get checked bag, Precheck, priority boarding, all of which display fine once change the reservation to my AA account number.