jegolden2

Longtime lurker, first time registered poster. Appreciate all the help in advance.

Booked a last minute award flight via AA on BA metal in First. Leg 1 (EWR- LHR) has a First cabin, but Leg 2 (LHR-NAP) does not. As a result, despite the fact that the tickets were confirmed, we're unable to reserve seats on Leg 2 (again, because the first cabin does not exist on that flight).

BA says it's an AA issue because they booked an impossible cabin. It's within 48 hours (so under airport control per BA), and thus cabins etc can't be switched by phone with BA

I'm on hold with AA but I'm sure they'll say that they book the award space they're given.

Big concern is obviously not having seats on Leg 2. I can't be the first person with a similar booking (how many Americans go to Europe in the summer?), so I'd be shocked if this hasn't happened to others?

TL/DR - AA redemption award booked a two leg BA flight in first. Leg 2 does not have first so BA is confused.

ryanbriar

Welcome!

What’s the fare code on the second flight? Provided it’s one of the Club Europe (business) codes (E.g., J) I wouldn’t be concerned. Also, so long as you have a ticket number you should be set and likely need to wait until check in at T-24. To the extent you don’t have a ticket number on BA, I’d get that aspect sorted out ASAP (AA will need to work with BA to ticket the record via their OW liaison desk).

I ran into this situation in June. Despite months of AA and BA both saying no problem in not having a ticket number for a specific leg (I was convinced it would be a problem), ended up needing to be on the phone with AA for 90 minutes while at the DUB check-in counter to fix it.

Edit: I’d also leverage the You First phone number when working with BA — much shorter wait times and the staff usually cross over with the GGL team.

guv1976

AA prices its awards based on the highest cabin flown on any segment. I expect that your confirmation from AA will indicate that you're booked in the Business cabin on your second segment.

AA has some of its own flights -- operated by 50-passenger E145 regional jets -- that have only Economy Class. But if you're connecting to or from a flight in a higher cabin, you'd be charged for a higher-cabin award.

The problem here lies with BA, not AA: BA does not offer free seat selection in Business Class, except for those with oneworld status.

jegolden2

First (no pun intended), thanks for the quick response. I appreciate it.

The fare code on the AA side is "First (Z)" for both legs. Per BA, the fare code they're seeing is Z85 TUO (whatever that means).
We do have ticket numbers (same ticket # for both legs).

Just called BA again, and a different person indicated that Z isn't necessarily First, it's the highest class. In the case of leg 2, it's in business. Classic case of hanging up and calling again and getting a completely different answer.

Still very skeptical, but guess I'll try and check-in to the trip tonight and see what happens.

ryanbriar

Totally forgot about guv1976’s point on seat selection. That could definitely be it.

It sounds like you should be good to go at check-in. And like I noted, just make sure you have a ticket number on the BA side and you’re set.

seawolf

What is your seat assignment for LHR-NAP? If it is first couple of rows of the aircraft you are booked into the correct cabin. On short haul European flights the seats are typically identical to economy except maybe the middle seat is essentially blocked and you get a snack.

guv1976

From the OP:

"despite the fact that the tickets were confirmed, we're unable to reserve seats on Leg 2."

seawolf

Assuming reservation shows confirmed then sounds like seat map could be blocked because BA haven't decided where to put the J/Y curtain divider.

guv1976

BA does not offer free, advance seat selection to Business or Economy Class passengers who lack oneworld status. If you don't want to pay extra, you have to wait until check-in.

RichieMc

OP is saying he is unable to reserve seats. At all. Not that he is being charged for seats.

guv1976

If that is, in fact, the situation, then let's see what happens when online check-in opens.

PTahCha

So.. what's the concern? The inability to assign seats, or being booked in economy on the second leg? As long as your second leg is showing in business class, you'll be seated in the right section.

SeattleDavid

I have a reservation that is a bit like this - its a paid ticket DUB-SFO-DUB with the DUB-LHR and JFK-LHR on BA metal, but AA codeshares but LHR-DUB is on a BA prime flight number. I have an AA PNR which shows every flight and a BA PNR which shows every flight, but which only lets me choose seats on the AA codeshares. Then, it turns out I have another BA PNR which shows only JFK-LHR-DUB and only lets me choose seats on LHR-DUB.

It seems that BA prime flights (might sometimes) generate different PNRs than do AA codeshares on BA metal (and both different than the AA PNR of course) – if the OP has an AA codeshare and a BA prime flight, then he might need to know both BA PNRs in order to get all his seats straight.

Or this could all be something quite unrelated

UncleDude

Travelling Long Haul First Class ticket does not mean you get a seat allocation on your LHR-NAP flight. For this you Require BA/AA or One World Satus.

Smiley90

Is that true? I have a J ticket and while the website asks me to pay for the transatlantic flight, I was able to pick seats on the club europe flight for free. No OW status.