LRD

~ $3.73

Globaliser

I'd lay a small wager that this is not shown only after transferring points. It was probably exactly the same before you transferred the points. It's probably showing exactly the same thing to those who've never ever contemplated transferring points and whose Avios all come from (say) flying. It really doesn't help to be making wild allegations beyond what actually happened.

Are you actually interested in being helped to solve your problem, now that we know what it is, or do you just want to vent?

alanisrox69

It showed the flight before I transferred points, yes. But now that I transferred them and can't get them back, I can't book the ADVERTISED flight.

Also, I called BA EC and tried to book separate legs and he said it's not possible, the 2nd leg is on "waitlist" and blocked from booking. (again, even tho AA.com reflect plenty of open seats - at least 2 for the sAAver award).

I am interested in being helped, what is your suggestion? Thanks.

LRD

I think I may have found the problem: Today, I cannot find any JL intra-Japan flights - any date, any route. So, perhaps the links to JL are broken - or, they're preparing for the upcoming partner-redemption changes.

Globaliser

Can you go a day before, or a day after? Can you fly from another NYC area airport? The results returned by aa.com suggest that there is availability if you can be a little flexible.

alanisrox69

Globaliser

On the same day (26 September), one approach would be to fly AA1150 EWR-DFW and then have a long break before flying AA1873 DFW-RNO. Because of AA's approach to married sectors, you might need to redeem these on two separate tickets, but then you'd have plenty of margin in case something goes wrong.

aa.com also says that there's a mixed cabin award on AA2340 PHL-DFW and AA1223 DFW-RNO, but you'd have to see whether AA would let BA have that space and ticket it.

alanisrox69

Yea, I saw that 1873, but that's like 12 hour layover. haha. And I arrive the next day to Reno. No bueno.

guv1976

Do you have status with oneworld through any airline FFP? Even a lowly oneworld Ruby like me gets free same-day standby on AA. You could book the later DFW-RNO flight, and then stand by for an earlier one.

alanisrox69

no, sorry, but thanks for the idea. I have no Status. I'm really a faithful United flyer, so only have status there -- I only jumped at this AA flight because Chase UR was offering 30% extra points for transferring to Avios. the same departure and arrival airports for United would've been 100k UR points (only diff was the connection was thru Denver), this AA flight would've only costed 62k (well slightly less, but you need to transfer in 1k increments) 62k x 1.3 = 80,600 Avios. Still a savings of 38k UR or enough for round trip saver coach on United (!!!). Too bad it didn't work out and I got burned. Waiting on my BBB complaint to come back. I doubt they will do anything, but I also blasted them on Twitter. Considering writing to the local news -- they're always looking to expose company's fraudulent tactics. Maybe I'll get some movement that way....

guv1976

Well, if you're stuck with 80,000 Avios, take a look at BA's and IB's redemption charts for award travel on AA. (BA's chart is changing tomorrow, but most of the increases are small.) If you open and fund an Iberia Plus account with even one Avios, then after 90 days you should be able to transfer Avios from BA to IB, and vice versa. You might still get good value from those Avios on a different trip in the future.

At the moment, IB has a systems issue that prevents booking AA award flights, but that should be resolved -- eventually.

alanisrox69

Thanks, I will look into opening that account. What's the best way to transfer Avios from BA to IB?

Globaliser

https://www.britishairways.com/trave...club/_gf/en_gb

alanisrox69

I ended up booking my partners ticket in reverse on the BA Avios site and got confirmations. First booked DFW to RNO. Ticketed and confirmed. Then I went back in and booked EWR to DFW. Had to pay an additional $5.60, but it's fine, I'd rather book something than "lose" my transferred UR points. After getting both conf#s, I loaded them into AA and chose seats for both legs. I couldn't figure out how to save the itineraries (could not edit the frequent flyer number from BA to AA) so I called AA and they added his AA# to both tickets, then they showed up in his account online. I didn't book my ticket due to the 'through luggage' issue. I just signed up for the AA barclays card with 50k miles and was instantly approved. Once I get the card and use it once and pay the $99 fee, I'll have enough miles to book my ticket directly thru AA. since I'm booking Business I'll get 2 checked bags and the plan is to just check my partners bag under my name to avoid any mishaps in DFW. We won't have the time to exit and pick up his bag that would be spinning on the carousel with the Avios ticket. Seems like the best but highly unnecessary (from a customer standpoint) workaround IMO.

Either way, I'm still hoping my BBB complaint gets recognized and perhaps get a call from someone with 'power' to book the tickets on their system correctly. I'm positive it can be done if they *really* want to. But if not, this was my contingency backup plan.

Globaliser

I wouldn't hold your breath. Problems caused by married sector logic and/or phantom availability, or reservation requests that won't confirm for some other reason, are pretty common on airline websites and reservation systems. There's nothing unusual about the situation you encountered.