polar_b

I go LAS-LHR every year and this year I thought I would shake things up a little. I therefore booked LHR-DFW-LAS (AA) and LAS-LHR. All booked on ba.com.

Once I have made my booking I am used to be able to select my seating (since I have status) and also upgrade to the next cabin with cash.

Curiously, I can only change the allocated seat for the BA segment, not for AA. From previous posts it sounds like I have to call AA, get their record locator and then log in to aa.com to change my seat?

MMB usually also displays an upgrade cost, sometimes I upgrade myself to WTP+ but in this case that option is greyed out. If I call them, will they be able to upgrade me for the BA segment, for cash? Will they have access to the same offers as displayed within MMB?

Swiss Tony

If you put the BA locator into checkmytrip.com, that gives the AA locator. You can then plug that into the aa.com website to change the seat, but the change doesn't seem to pick up on BA.com.

Which allocation sticks I honestly don't know as I'm still to make the flight but time will tell...

polar_b

Sorry, no AA record locator displayed. I can see my Amadeus e-ticket number, the unique booking reservation number...but nothing for AA. In which field does it normally show?

kexbox

BAEC sent me the RL on request via email.

Swiss Tony

Third field down in CMT says "your flight selection"

immediately below that it says Airline confirmation number(s): American Airlines XXXXXX

Then I have the itin information.

(I booked this over the phone with BA and it's a redemption FWIW)

polar_b

Sorry, no dice. No AA reference shown. Perhaps I need to wait longer? I booked it 2 days ago.

moral_low_ground

I have just booked a multi sector BA trip with an AA JFK-SFO in the middle of it.

Seperate RL for AA showed on my TA confirmation.

BA.com shows no seats for AA and no changeable. Had to go to AA website and change using their engine but even when allocated the seat selection did not show up on BA.com

FYI, even though I am Emerald I cannot select prefered seating and you have to call AA to get access to the "purple" seating on the seating chart which is a PITA.

Swiss Tony

I'm sure my AA RLOC came up pretty much immediately. Obviously you might have to wait for the e-ticket to be generated...

Is strange however - both CMT and BA.com still have me in the seat I was automatically assigned to, but AA.com shows the one I moved myself into (with the previous seat now showing as free).

Somewhat academic though - a 2.5hr flight in an MD80 so not much to shout about between the seats. I'm more concerned about my first venture on BA with no access to pre-seating (without paying) since they brought in the new policy.

Re: OLCI - will it open for me 24hrs before the AA flight leaves, or 24hrs before the BA one does?

expatboy

The seat allocation you make on AA.com should stick (seatshifters notwithstanding) - I have done this kind of itinerary before and used the AA locator to assign seats on the AA sectors with no issues. Looking at it in MMB you'd think I have no seat assignment since it shows the usual "Seat choice available at check-in".

kexbox

Seat allocation on AA failed on 3 recent trips, so I would not bet on that.

Swiss Tony

MMB shows me sitting in row 6 (which I was assigned automatically) but AA.com has me in row 3.

As I said, no big deal - it's a 2hr flight and the worst I'm going to get is a window seat but i'll report back next week.

FenLandK

I did this recently and the seat assignments I selected on aa.com stuck. Just ignore the ones on ba.com.

The only way I could find the hidden AA locator was to become an AAdvantage member. Once you have done this you can use the expanded search criteria on aa.com to find the flights via first name, last name, carrier, date and flight number. These don't appear to be available to you unless you have an AAdvantage number. The AA locator will NOT show up on checkmytrip. I believe that this is because it is embedded within the BA record.

On the MD80 you want to be as far forward as possible. Having had to venture to the back to go to the loo, the noise from those old engines is deafening. OLCI will be available on aa.com at T-24.

Edit: I see you must be in Business/First, so the far forward thing isn't an issue

polar_b

Hah! I cracked it. Thanks to FenLandK for the tip.

I did it like this:
1) Logged in with my AAdvantage account number
2) Clicked Travel Information -> Flight Schedules
3) Found the AA flight number for my sectors
4) Went back to Travel Information -> Flight Information -> Manage my trip
5) Typed in AA flight number, departing airport and departure date
6) Your reservation should now be found, and it will display the AA record locator
7) You can now select seats - but not all seats since some are reserved for status px
8) I called the AAdvantage customer care line, gave them the AA record locator and my last name and they found my reservation. Changing the seats from the pre-allocated to what I actually wanted was easy and just took a few minutes. I wanted the "purple" seats reserved for status pax, that was no problem as the agent saw I was BA Gold and changed it without quibbles.

polar_b

Thanks for the tip! I was further back originally, but you are right on that model the engines are way at the back so I changed from 15D to 9B, which should help a bit.

FenLandK

Just hope you don't get the check in weirdness that I had.