Mulder00

I was due to fly out of Las Vegas to London Heathrow on 25 October via LAX on the 13:38 departure (to LAX and then onto LHR at 17:30). This was booked via BA, but are AA flights.

I logged into my Executive Club account over the weekend and I had a notice saying that the 13:38 flight was cancelled and that I have been put onto the 10:50 departure for that leg. This was not acceptable as I have things to do that morning. I managed to change the flight to the direct LAX-LHR service much later that evening, but I didn't book this originally since it was about £1800 more expensive than the connecting flights (premium economy).

When I check the flights, the 13:38 is still a valid flight, but I can see that it is no longer possible to book this as a connection.

My questions:

1. Why do they do this? Clearly the 13:38 is not really cancelled and is still flying - I am now booked on a seat which presumably they can sell for a whole lot more.
2. This change puts me 20 tier points short to make the next tier and my year ends on 6 November. I guess there is no way to ask for them to make up the 20 points given that this change is not of my doing? (I tried for other connecting flights, but there was no premium economy available on any of them).

Mostly interested to see what the reasoning is behind question 1 though!

bisonrav

You can apply for original routing credit, and you'll get the TPs. Search for ORC and you'll find the info you need.

The Geek

I believe you can get the tier points. Search this forum for "Original Routing Credit"

Often1

Don't overcomplicate this.

Chances are that this was either an error or due to a momentary aircraft substitution.

Just call and ask to be rebooked as originally selected. BA can confirm with AA that the flight is operating, but should not need to.

Mulder00

Super - I wasn't even sure about asking, so glad I did. Really useful, thank you!

corporate-wage-slave

Were you booked on this service as a BA codeshare rather than AA prime? If so, when AA cancel a flight it cancels the codeshare bookings. AA then sometimes restores the service but the BA codeshare needs a further manual effort to restore it in the system. It's sometimes best to leave it a while, you may have what is known as a "sync" issue on the AA side, but they are used to sorting that out with a quick call to AA at OLCI time.

Geordie405

Interestingly the 1338 departures (AA454) does not show as having a BA codeshare. The 1050 departure is AA1336 and shows as BA4792. I would assume the lack of codeshare is the reason for the change, associated with a change to the AA prime flight number.

If you're on the BA274 (you mention the direct LAX - LHR flight but I assume you mean LAS - LHR) then I think there's probably a good chance of an upgrade as the flight looks very busy: F2 A1 J9 C7 D4 R2 I0 W0 E0 T0 Y0 B0 H0 K0 M0 L0 V0 S0 N0 Q0 O0 G0

Mulder00

I asked and was just told that the flight is definitely no longer available for getting to London and they can't see why. I went through all of the other routing options to try and avoid the direct flight which ended up being the only one available (for departures after 13:30 which is what I need).

Mulder00

Interesting. The 1338 departure was booked as BA4839. I keep wondering if it is due to excessive demand due to a convention I'm attending which finishes at noon on this day, but I'm sure that this happens all the time (other colleagues were at a different convention in Las Vegas last week).

I can only hope for an upgrade - if there was ever a good flight to get an upgrade on, this would be it....

Often1

Your BA phone contact was lazy.

BA has OW liaison agents who interface with other carriers and can get this fixed fairly quickly. It is a manual process and can take several working days, but so long as the physical flight exists, AA can open the space and authorize BA to (re)issue the ticket.

SK AAR

If you were already rebooked to much more expensive direct service on BA274 LAS-LHR + you will be able to request ORC, why on earth do you want to get rebooked to the indirect and much longer flights via LAX? I'm confused…

Mulder00

I don't really, but to be fair, the direct flight arrives much later than most of the connecting flights (the direct arrives 15:45 as it only leaves LAS very late with most connecting flights arriving around noon). I would rather kill my time having to change planes in LAX than sitting around in LAS for an extra 7 hours.

Mulder00

So, I've taken the flight now and earned the reduced tier points. I sent in a request for the ORC, but the response I received wasn't too useful

"Thank you for contacting us at the Club - it's good to hear from you.
We'll reply to your email as soon as we can, however we currently have a large number of customers seeking assistance and it's taking us longer than usual to respond. We appreciate your patience. "

This is not really useful and I just want to know that this will be processed as part of this year's points (which ends on 6 November). I've asked on Twitter and they told me I need to call them.

I've now tried to call them and they just have an automated voice which says that they are busy and I should visit the website - and then it hangs up. I mean, how does anyone get through if you just get cut off.

How on earth would I get hold of them?

EDIT: Eventually got hold of them after I started playing around with the options and it seems like my account should be credited shortly.

Mulder00

I contacted BAEC last week to claim original routing credit for 20 missing tier points which will push me into the next status (only into bronze...). My year ends on Friday!!

The agent on the call kept me on hold for 13 minutes and he led me to believe that he had to actually check the system for the flights I was supposed to be on and confirm which flights I had flown on and that he successfully confirmed all of that.

Today I got an email from them saying that they need more information from me: I don't understand how this is possible - the flight is definitely in my BAEC account with the booking reference and I took no other flights in October! (And I definitely gave the person in the call centre the booking reference).

I've sent the details now, but I am concerned that if they could not find the booking now, they are going to ask for other details. I was rerouted from AA to BA, so they definitely should have the details in the system? I'm fairly sure my boarding pass is long gone in the bin.

Is this just a case of the left hand not knowing what the right hand is doing and the call centre agent not passing the information or is this usually a frustrating process?

KARFA

When you are saying you are missing the points did you take the flight and it just hasn't credited? In which case that isn't an ORC it's just a claim for missing points which can be done either online or on the phone.

ORC is when you get rerouted on the day and lose out based on what you originally booked.