jchacko2

Hi,

I currently have the following reservation on hold with AA advantage..My friend is a BEAC member and called to match the same itinerary..they managed to match the majority of it.. the result...90K BA points and 600 dollars.... wt*

Is the customer service rep doing something wrong or is this for real ?

My booking with AA cost $140 and 50k points.... being they are same partners and that fact that we are on the same flights basically..what is going on here???

21 April
AA4539, YYZ-BOS, 12:05-13:05, Economy T
IB6616, BOS-MAD, 18:20-07:10, Economy X

22 April
MV0583, MAD-BUD, 08:30-11:40, Economy X

05 May
MV0201, IST-BUD, 15:35-16:30, Economy X
MV0582, BUD-MAD, 19:05-22:20, Economy X

08 May
AA0069, MAD-MIA, 11:00-14:50, Economy T
AA1562, MIA-YYZ, 16:25-19:40, Economy T

cornishsimon

Quite a route to fly in economy !!!

I can't really read very easily the full flight schedule that you posted, could be something to do with the iPod app I'm viewing it through

However the difference in charges could be down to BA's fuel surcharge

cs

thebobmc

There are significant difference between the AA and BA programs.

A couple of the differences that your are bumping into are;

- Using AA miles you can fly more than one partner airline without any increase in miles. Using the BA program if you use more than one partner it becomes a OneWorld award, and the number of miles required is based on the distance flown. In this case the mileage requirement is substantially higher.

- AA does not charge a fuel surcharge ( YQ ) on award tickets when flying on its own planes. BA charges a YQ on award tickets regardless of what partner the flights are on. With the possible exception of LAN, but that obviously doesn't apply in your example.

Best bet if your friend really wants to use BA miles for this itinerary would be to try and do it all on BA metal, or all on one partner. I believe AA is starting flights to BUD at some point in the future, but I am not sure when. The mileage requirement will drop substantially, but there will still be a significant YQ charge.

thebobmc

Having read through your itinerary a bit more closely, I would be very surprised if you can ticket this award using AA miles. The AA program only allows stopovers at the North American gateway ( Boston or Miami in your example ). I see you have planned a 3 day stopover in Madrid on your way back, and this should not be allowed using AA miles.

It would however be allowed if booking the award trip using BA miles ( another difference between the programs ).

guv1976

Wirelessly posted (BlackBerry8530/5.0.0.601 Profile/MIDP-2.1 Configuration/CLDC-1.1 VendorID/417)

Since the OP is traveling each way during AA's off-peak season to Europe, YYZ-IST and MAD-YYZ are only 20,000 miles each in coach. IST-MAD is only 10,000 miles in coach. So that explains why the OP is paying 50,000 AA miles, rather than 40,000 AA miles for his itinerary.

thebobmc

Sharp eye. I was having difficulty following the OP's itinerary and assumed that it was being done with one award.

By the way, the AA flight JFK - BUD appears to start on April 5th. But there aren't many MileSaver seats available this Spring. At least not yet, I suspect availability will open up once AA has a better sense of the loads on this flight.

jchacko2

Agree with the above poster..the extra 10K miles for my AA booking came from the IST-MAD flight.

I do appreciate everyone help though!

heartybob

... although accuracy is sadly lacking

jchacko2

Appreciate the reformat!