AA or BA tickets ?
 

Trying to book AUS-LHR-HYD and return in business. The BA ticket is cheaper than AA. (Some segments are operated by AA and rest by BA). As an AAdvantage member, is there any advantage over booking AA or BA?

As an EXP you would need to decide whether 11x AA tax-less fare is greater than or equal to BA distance*fare class*EXP bonus calculation for LP. Otherwise should not make a difference.

I think buying a BA ticket (irrespective of operating carriers) means you earn Loyalty Points based on distance rather than dollars spent. So that could be beneficial or harmful, depending on how much you're spending. Happy to be corrected. It could be based not on ticket but on flight codes (AA vs. BA.) There are several nuances.

It's based on the marketing carrier, i.e. the flight number. AA flight number earns by spend. BA flight number earns by distance. Regardless of whose aircraft it is.

Cheers.

What about who tickets it? That was the OP's real question.

Yup. doesn't matter, AFAIK. It's all about the marketing carrier (flight number) in all cases I've seen. Usually (but not in all cases), one gets a codeshare flight number from the ticketing carrier. So, buying a BA-operated flight on AA often gets an AA number. In that case it earns like AA ($). In the less-common case where buying on AA still yields a BA flight number, this should earn based on partner (distance) rules. At least that's how it has been in the past. I don't imagine that the change to LP impacts that. However, I've not personally experienced this since the change.

Cheers.

I am not sure what triggers this but I purchased an itinerary through AA. AA sold the BA codeshares on HEL-JFK operated by AY, as well as JFK-LAX & DFW-LAX operated by AA. It seems bizarre that AA would ticket a BA marketed flight on their own equipment but I am not complaining as I credit to AS and BA marketed flights have a better earning in Mileage Plan.

James

I used to think it didn’t matter much beyond the issues identified above. Then I ran into a problem en-route about 6-8 weeks ago. A 10 minute call to AA got me sorted out as I was booked as an AA flight, even though operated by BA. I was traveling with a colleague (also a CK) who was ticketed as BA. AA couldn’t help him since it wasn’t their ticket and he spent hours trying to get it resolved by BA. YMMV

Agreed, even though it doesn't affect FF in AA's case, this is still a very important decision that most people overlook. Another important consideration is which airline you will have credit with when cancelling a nonrefundable ticket.
When booking direct, you'll get a ticket from that carrier.
Other times, there can be the option to choose. If you don't choose, you will get the default: seeATPCO logic for determining the default validating carrier (page 10).
TAs may easily make a manual selection, per IATA Resolution 852. Generally if the fare rules allow a carrier and at least one segment is marketed by that carrier, that carrier can be selected (there are exceptions). Because of the TATL joint venture, choosing between AA and BA is usually easy, even if both TATL segments are marketed by the other carrier. Unfortunately TAs often silently choose based on their own preferences (e.g. commission), not what would work out best for the passenger.

check fare rules on each carrier. I HATE BA with a passion. I believe=and please check= that you cannot cancel a BA ticket and hold a travel credit. You need to rebook right away or the ticket has no value. AA does not have change fees...does BA?? And if you cancel/rebook--does the new ticket need to be the same or higher?
Sometimes a $500 savings is a travel nightmare.

Pretty sure they recently ended that policy (Book with Confidence) for new bookings, which is a significant deterrent for booking through BA IMO, unless I'm very confident that I wouldn't need to make any changes.

This calculator was pretty accurate for my recent BLR-ORD-BLR trip
Check by inputting nos here: https://lpcalculator.com/#/table/UEw...AwMCwxOTA3NCww ?