Global Entry on Avios Reward Travel on AA
 

Hi there,

I know that when I fly BA, I cannot get Global Entry/TSA Pre-Check on my BA ticket. What about when I fly from US city to US city in America, booking on AA via BA Avios reward travel? I cannot seem to figure out where I would do this?

Go to aa.com and use the AA record locator to find your booking. You can edit your details and add your Known Traveller Number - this will get you TSA Pre on the AA flights.

And note of course that Global Entry works on BA and AA flights regardless.

I think you are talking about TSA Pre, which you can enter your known traveler ID on the aa.com trip page after getting your AA PNR.

Global Entry is expedited entry to the US avoiding the need to queue up for inspection by CBP - i.e. you use the kiosks. It is carrier neutral so it doesn't matter whether you fly with AA or BA to the USA.

TSA PreCheck is expedited security screening at TSA checkpoints in the USA. Currently BA does not offer this. If it did, then it would only be for flights departing from the USA where you are required to be screened by TSA. As has been said above you need to enter your Known Traveller ID as part of your booking details. When you check in you should get the TSA PreCheck symbol on your BP. It is not guaranteed, however. You may be randomly selected for normal security screening.

The two schemes are totally separate from one another. You may apply for TSA PreCheck on its own. If you apply for Global Entry and are successful in being admitted to the program then you will also get TSA PreCheck as a result.

It's definitely worthwhile adding your Known Traveler number to get PreCheck when travelling domestically in the US. For some airports even the priority queues can be much longer. It also saves messing around with taking off shoes and electronics out of your bag.

I'm actually not sure if this is still an issue, but it used to be that if you were on aa.com with the UK selected as home country and you went into a reservation there would be no box for Known Traveler (it's close to frequent flyer number). If you do come across that, just go to the main page and select the US as country and go into your reservation again.

Flying DUB to PHL to MCO and back via ORD, on BA ticket but AA metal, all three if us got TSA Pre ✔️ On all our sequments, no known traveller number as we are all British, so if the planets align yiu can get it

KTNs are nothing to do with your nationality - MrsNWI and I are British and we have one each because they’re included with our Global Entry.

Discretionary granting of TSA Pre has now almost been eliminated, so the chances of it happening are exceptionally low.

The advice given to the OP about how to add the KTN number is sound and works reliably. I’ve only known it fail twice - the first time the AA agent could have corrected it at check-in but we were short of time after being delayed going to the airport and it was therefore quicker just to use the priority line rather than wait, and the second time we had ample time so got it done. I haven’t known a failure for well over a year.

ARG! I wasn't subscribed to this thread appropriately and missed ALL of this info, so, now that my flights are done, I cannot verify one way or the other.
@Physci - I was unable to find where to do this. I was shocked! I don't know why that wouldn't have been easier to do.
@Gshumway - Yes, you're right TSA Pre is what I was meaning to discuss here.

I wish I still had flights ahead so I can troubleshoot this. ARG!!!

When you go on your booking on ba.com and click to select seats it will normally show you the AA PNR which you can use on aa.com to view the booking - adding your KTN is fairly simple and obvious at the bottom of the page.

If all else fails you can add your KTN at AA check in and they will print your bp showing TSA-Pre.

BAAAAAHAHAHAHAHA

So.....get this. I've finally come across this situation again (i.e. I have my mobile boarding pass....but no TSA Pre, huh?). So I searched on Google to see if I could find info. Lo and behold! I found a thread that addressed it! I read through it, top to bottom. I see that the OP didn't get a chance to verify the steps. I call BA and say, "You know? This has happened to me before, but it was so long ago, I've forgotten what I did." On the phone, the AA agent manually added my KTN to my two upcoming tickets. Success (through a workaround).

I just now came back to this thread and......OMG.....I just now realized that I was the OP!!! THIS IS MY THREAD! 🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣

OKAY FLYERTALK, I'm back. It's the same issue. I've semi-solved this problem, so I want to record this below for posterity (in case I forget again and google to find myself in another 5 years! lol!!)

I booked two US city to US city flights on AA via Avios.

Ticket #1 is within 24 hours. I'm checked in.

Ticket #2 is 3 months away.

I spent quite some time searching for a KTN spot on ticket #1. The logical place was in the "Add/Edit Passenger Information" section on aa.com, but no field is available there:

https://cimg3.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.fly...dc38079b78.jpg

I called AA. He was easily able to do it. I asked him how I could have this to be automatic. He thinks it is not possible. BA's system can't talk to AA that way, he believes. I asked if I can do it myself. He told me to go to the "Add/Edit passenger information". I explained what I saw above (no KTN). He said that it must not be available. VERDICT: I have to call each time. Ugh.

While I had him on the phone, I had him update ticket #2 with my KTN. Done.

I decided to post this to FlyerTalk to see if anyone had any ideas.....and in the process while typing this, I discovered that ticket #2 does have the KTN field available to me!!!

https://cimg0.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.fly...396c9663e3.jpg

So, my current theory is that either (a) within 24 hours of your flight or (b) after you check-in, that KTN field disappears. VERDICT: add in your KTN prior to checking in and before the 24 hours. Otherwise, you'll have to call in or do it at the ticket desk.

(Does anyone have other thoughts or ideas?)

I have successfully added my KTN to a booking by sending a Twitter DM to AA.

FWIW, I was unable to use Global Entry at PHL on an AA flight from Venice last month. This was a BA ticket, with the return flights as codeshare on AA. My Trusted Traveler number came through fine, and I was able to use PreCheck on the first BA flight out of SFO and on my final AA flight back to SFO.

The GE kiosks in PHL kept rejecting me, saying I'd need to use the regular line. That took over 45 minutes. I might have made my connection with GE. I have no idea if the problem here had anything to do with BA/AA codeshare, but this was the first time I've ever had my GE rejected at immigration.

You are supposed to ensure the Known Traveler Number is in the booking at least 24 hours to departure. Some of the AA in the UK screens don't provide the Known Traveler field, but that's easily fixed by switching to the USA version.

Thanks, CWS - that explains why I've never had this problem with AA bookings using my BAEC number, as I'm using the US site. I do wish that AA would stop dropping bookings from their app that use the BAEC number, though. :(