Starship73

Hi,

I book my work travel through a corporate travel agent. We are able to call BA and upgrade using Avios (subject to availability of course) and this normally works fine (BA reissue the ticket after deducting Avios and securing payment of additional taxes).

However, I have just booked a multi-city itinerary comprising BA transatlantic flights and some domestic AA sectors.

Day 1: LHR-JFK (BA ticket)
Day 3: LGA-MIA (AA ticket)
Day 5: MIA-PDX connecting via DFW (AA ticket)
Day 7: PDX-LHR connecting via SEA (BA ticket)

The three BA flights (PDX-SEA is an Alaskan/Horizon BA codeshare) are all on a single 125-XXXX ticket number, and the AA flights are on a separate AA ticket number.

However MMB on BA.com is showing:
LHR-JFK
DFW-PDX (one of the flights on the AA ticket, not 125-ticket number)
PDX-SEA
SEA-LHR

The LGA-MIA and MIA-DFW AA flights are not shown in MMB at all.

The problem arises here: There is W to J Avios upgrade availability for the LHR-JFK sector, but when I called BA to upgrade, they said this would not be possible because of the single AA flight that is showing in MMB (all flights have to be on a 125- ticket).

My travel agent doesn't open until Monday morning, so my question is why would just one of my three AA flights 'randomly' show up in MMB on BA.com? Should my travel agent be able to somehow de-attach the offending DFW-PDX flight from the BA portion of the booking so that I am able to upgrade with Avios?

Thanks!

lcylocal

KARFA

I have seen this before from my corporate TA. I often go across to AMS and use BA out and LS back. Two entirely separate tickets of course. However, on BA MMB I often see the BA LBA-LHR-AMS flights listed and another entry below for XX206 AMS-LBA on LS. It just seems to be there as a placeholder tbh, obviously none of the MMB functionality would work with it.

It seems a similar thing has happened with your booking and the AA flight is listed although it is on an entirely separate booking and ticket. If this is the case I would suggest calling BA again and pointing out the DFW-PDX flight is not actually on this booking you are trying to UuA. I think the agent has just seen it and thought it was.

Starship73

Thanks for the advice.

I called BA again and the agent said the reason that the AA DFW-PDX flight is appearing in MMB is because it is the only AA flight in the trip that is codeshared with BA.

He then put me on hold to consult with his manager, and came back to say very apologetically that for this reason it would simply not be possible to apply the Avios upgrade.

My only option, he said, was to ask my travel agent to completely split the BA and AA bookings but this a) may impact on the overall price b) would leave me exposed in the event of iropps as I am connecting between flights at DFW.

So it seems the learning here is that if you have a travel agent itinerary that includes any codeshared flights - even when booked under separate ticket numbers - it will not be possible to secure an Avios upgrade. A shame but there you go, unless anyone has any other ideas?

KARFA

I don't understand, are some of your AA operated domestic flights booked under a BA codeshare? I thought your LGA-MIA and MIA-DFW-PDX flights were on separate bookings & tickets? If they are they must be on the same booking as your BA flights as the BA codeshare is only available if connecting to/from a BA flight.

Starship73

Does this help KARFA? My TA booking and then what I see in MMB:

JAXBA

If the AA flight is not on the BA ticket (even if it's in the itinerary), then the BA ticket is UuAT okay (UuA Trade).

If the AA flight is on the BA ticket, and in the BA PNR as a live segment, then the BA ticket is UuAT okay.

If the AA flight is on the BA ticket, but only in the BA PNR as an informational segment *I* then no UuAT.

Starship73

I really appreciate the insight JAXBA, but could you kindly elaborate a little further to help me understand what action I can actually take to resolve this? I'm not sure what further information I can provide to answer your questions, in addition to the screen-grabs I have posted above?

Many thanks

MSPeconomist

Starship73

I added the red circle to indicate to you all the flight that is causing the problem in MMB. This is the flight that is on a separate PNR and separate ticket number together with the other two AA flights, but BA says the fact that this has showed up in MMB means the LHR-JFK sector cannot be UuA'd.

The only thing I can think of - as mentioned previously - is that this AA flight has showed up in MMB because coincidentally it is the only one of the AA flights that happens to also carry a BA code. So BA's IT system maybe picks it up for 'informational purposes'?

mjh0

So, I normally UuA tickets bought through our Corp TA where possible when travelling for work and I couldn't get J approved for the trip, but could get W and then UuA.

As you are already aware, when you UuA a TA ticket, BA take control of servicing the ticket from the TA.

I got caught out by something similar when trying to UuA a LHR-BOS-PHX-DFW-LHR itinerary. BOS-PHX and PHX-DFW were on AA. The whole thing was on 125- stock, but BA said they could not take control of the ticket from the TA "due to an AA operated sector on the ticket" - but were vague about which AA sector was the problem. (As it was, I got an op-up LHR-BOS and a fairly cheap AUP DFW-LHR on that trip.)

In particular on this trip, the BOS-PHX sector did not have a BA code-share flight number (as it didn't have a logical connecting flight from London), so was flown on the AA code, and had it's own AA record locator, while the PHX-DFW flight used the BA record locator. I suspect this is an example of the "Informational" sector situation that JAXBA refers to, which blocks BA from taking control of the ticket.

If my ticket had been purchased directly from BA in the first place, they said they could have processed the UuA, and that seems to be the general experience of the brains trust here for this sort of thing.

It seems like the DFW-PDX appearing in your BA PNR might be causing this behaviour, despite it being on the 001 ticket, and seemingly unrelated, as effectively what you've seem to have is two open-jaw itineraries, one on BA, LHR-JFK/PDX-SEA-LHR, and one on AA, LGA-MIA-DFW-PDX.

Starship73

Deep breath... rang up the Gold Line a fourth time in light of the advice kindly provided by contributors to this thread, and tried to explain the whole thing once again as clearly as possible. Extremely friendly and polite agent said she could see the notes from the previous three times I had called up about this issue, and (as has happened on all previous occasions) said she would put me on hold to consult a senior manager. She apologised in advance though, as I think she fully expected to be coming back with the same "no can do" answer.

So there I was bracing myself for disappointment once again BUT she finally came back on the line and said: "I'm very sorry about what you've been told on your previous calls - it is of course possible to process this upgrade and I will do so for you now."

I'm now safely installed in 62K on the upper deck for my transatlantic flight.

I'm grateful to the contributors above for encouraging me to persevere, and although the outcome has been positive for me it's a shame in a way that it comes down to 'keep calling until you get an agent (and manager) that can interpret the rules correctly'.

The agent who processed my upgrade said that "unfortunately it is easy to misinterpret the rules sometimes".

Onwards and upwards!

mjh0

That's good outcome you've had there - as you say, it's required someone to look at the detail carefully, rather than just see the AA Informational sector and say "no dice".

It could also be that the presence of the AA sector is also confounding the usual front-ends and tools the agent uses, in the same way as such sectors confound some functions in MMB, so it could be something needed to be done natively in Amadeus to make it work.

Starship73

Yes, I think you're right. The agents usually say 'the system' won't allow the upgrade to be processed due to presence of a non-BA flight in MMB, even though it's only appeared for 'informational purposes' and is entirely separate to the ticket you're trying to upgrade.

SeattleDavid

I'm puzzled by that Alaska flight, since my understanding is that any non-BA-metal (regardless of flight number) on a TA-issued ticket would prevent Avios upgrades.

One of my regular trips is Alaska / Horizon to SEA and then BA to LHR and I have never managed to get an upgrade with AVIOS on such a trip.