irishbcn

I've just booked a flight on AA from Europe to the US and then onwards to Latin America, it booked into class "O". Class "O" doesn't appear as an eligible class for Avios or tier points, yet in my booking on ba.com it shows that the total I will receive seems to be for the transatlantic legs only. Can anyone shed some light?

Thank you.

samangh

According to http://cwsi.net/aa.htm, "O" class is not eligible for tier points. But you should receive 100% Avios mileage.

irishbcn

Thank You. I see that "Tickets between North America and Latin America booked in O are not eligible for elite status points" but "O" doesn't appear on the ba.com list at all. I'll find out in a few weeks.

loosehead

I'm not sure what AA's "Elite Status Points" are, but I don't think they are the same as BA's Tier Points.

I would tend to trust the Tier Points Calculator (http://www.britishairways.com/travel...r/public/en_us) on BA website if I were you. Whether you've booked on AA or BA, if your flights are carrying your BAEC number, then that would tell you what you should expect to receive. Insert each leg separately, and under class of travel, use "Economy (lowest)".

irishbcn

Doing that it gives me tier points and avios for each leg but under passenger information in MMB it shows a total for just the TA legs. What is throwing me is that "O" is not listed as in the collecting Avios table.

Airprox

The reason it is not listed is because it is not eligible



The calculator on the website will not help here. Even if you select "Economy Lowest", that will still show you the TPs and Avios you will get for the rest of the discount economy fares, but not O, because if you have an O fare for domestic or Latin America flights you will unfortunately still get nothing/zero/nada/squat/zip.

So, avoid O fares for domestic wherever possible. The next fare up, which does earn TPs and Avios, is usually a Q fare, and in my experience is often only a few dollars more.

I'm posting this from an AA MD83 currently en-route PIT-DFW, and when I booked this flight (PIT-DFW-PHX) the O fare was the cheapest, but the Q fare was only $11 more, which seems reasonable for 20 TPs and a handful of Avios.

irishbcn

The incoherence on the website is it is indicating that I will get credit for the TA flights but not the LatAm flights.

Airprox

It certainly seems that way from the info you have posted so far, but unfortunately I have no experience of O fares TATL, only domestic and Latin America.

Which carrier is operating the TATL flights, BA or AA? Which carrier's code are you booked on for the TATL flights, BA or AA?

irishbcn

It's AA all the way.

Gardyloo

Looks like BA is just replicating AA's own earning rules regarding "O" between N. America and Latin America: http://www.aa.com/i18n/AAdvantage/el...quirements.jsp (scroll down to the asterisk in the table.)

"O" is fully EQM/EQP (and I assume therefore TP) earning on non-Latin America segments.

Usually up-faring (requiring a phone call to AA) is not terribly expensive, and might be worth investigating.

loosehead

Agreed - but there is still a bit of a gray area.

Confusion here is because whilst AA site states clearly that "O" fares from NA to SA do not get miles to AA users, BA TP calculator does not declare that those AA "O" fares are excluded from the Economy (Lowest) bracket, and therefore does not exclude them from BA miles/Avios or Tier Points. You have to look at the list of Fare Classes which are eligble for Avios on BA's Flying with Oneworld partners page (AA), to see that "O" fares don't appear on that list at all, not even for TATL sectors.

Slight (albeit pedantic) case exists for arguing the case with EC on the basis of the TP Calculator results. Logic would be "How can an AA "O" Fare not fall into 'Economy (Lowest)' category?" You'd argue that if it's the cheapest then by defintion it must be in Economy (Lowest), as they couldn't be lower than the lowest. Depends how badly OP needs the few TP's they'd stand to get.

irishbcn

I can't call AA as there is a 3x on the ticket. I feel stupid that I didn't investigate this better!

Palmer

Call AA but don't reveal any details of your ticket/booking etc. Just ask on the basis that you're considering booking a transatlantic fare (or whatever) but it's showing as 'O class' and you want to establish the miles/TPs for this fare type before going ahead with your booking.

Palmer

irishbcn

Thanks for all the feedback, I'll give you an update of what happens.

stifle

[stupid] What's a 3X?[/stupid]