frankiwa

I was under the impression that if you called in to make a booking their was an extra fee vs. a very minimal booking fee doing it yourself online.

I wasn't referring to AA booking a BA award. I was referring to using BA miles on the BA.com website to book AA metal routes. That can be done online can't it?

frugaltravel

Thanks for your response! I couldn't get DFW-NRT-SIN with AA/JAL to work on BA website even though the partner airlines have been included. It kept on showing me this route: DFW-LHR-SIN or DFW-LHR-HK-SIN.

Happy

When I casually looked at them in November, JL flights were available readily on many dates scattering the first few months of the year.

Guess the inventory has been pulled.

Happy

I was trying to tell you, All FF programs charge Phone booking fee when the award is booked via phone - because you incur the work of a human being.

The comment on AA is because you think since BA does not make it easy to book on BA site, the phone booking fee is a phony charge that BA should not make...

Here are your options:

Yes, it can be done on BA site to book partner award, and you dont have to pay for the phone booking fee if an award seat is found and you book it.

Yet, calling an agent may unearth a lot more availabilities because the agent then goes to work and search in the system. For that, you would need to pay a phone booking fee if the agent finds you an award seat and you book it.

The choice is yours - whether you want to save the phone booking fee, and get super-frustrated in the process. At the end, you dont find anything, but you also dont need to pay the phone booking fee.

Or you call and get an agent to help you out? Of course there is NO Guarantee that the BAEC agent would hand you an award seat, but if the agent can find you an award seat at the end, is the phone booking fee not worth it?

FYI, the taxes and fees (other than the phone booking) are the same whether you book online or via the agent.

jbalmuth

It's important to recall that among the current benefits of partner awards are that they permit stopovers (in each direction), and that they typically cost fewer miles and much less YQ than for BA metal.

However, if you are looking for an enroute stopover you are forced to call the BAEC, pay their telephone booking charge, and accept the somewhat onerous change/cancellation fees (much higher than booking and changing online). I've found the trade-off to be annoying but still advantageous. [I would hate, however, to pay telephone booking and change fees for a BA metal award flight....]

frankiwa

Frugaltravel,

I was just informed on another thread that although some partner routes are not displayed on the BA website, it may still be bookable if you call in by phone. The fellow was even nice enough to call customer service and test it out on a ORD-NRT route on AA only metal, that was not bookable at ba.com, but was bookable buy calling a BA rep. This may open up more routes for you. Cheers.

moondog

I don't have reason to believe that any inventory has been pulled (ala starnet blocking), but I have had more difficulty locating 25k redemptions on ba.com. In any event, if you can find seats on JL001/JL061 by selecting an origin other than SFO/LAX, they are yours for the taking, I'm sure. I would even try to get the phone fee waived during cases in which ba.com masked them.

Happy

That is fine. Unlike some folks here getting all worked up trying to find their award seats, I am in no hurry to use the BA miles.

We have done the AA OW130C between May and July this year for a Circle Pacific type routing, making a big loop starting from North America to Southwest Pacific and Asia on QF CX and JL with AA being the bookend flights. The itinerary had 7 countries and 11 cities. In fact I totally forgot we still had the throw-away segment of SFO-LAX that I changed it to just after Thanksgiving. I meant to call AA to cancel it before then but forgot. (Sorry to AA for taking up 2 F seats and being no-shows.)

I have no plan to return to Pacific region until the Fall of 2010 the earliest. That is if we dont do another OW award (to Europe this time) in May-June. Who knows how things might turn out by then.

moondog

I'm not all that worked up about finding award seats either. It's a foregone conclusion that my miles will fetch a kick-butt redemption or two.

What bothers me is the combination of the marketing spin that was promoted in the offer (e.g. "2 tickets to Europe") and the tendency of ba.com to push silly redemptions.

abcx

So my first purchase 50k bonus has not posted yet even though my statement has closed a week ago. Sent Chase a message through the Secure Message Center about 12 hours ago but no response yet.

I have a Plat but I was told that there is a bonus for this card as well (Mr. Bean's experience confirms this as well)...they better not be jerking me around.

Mr. Bean

oh yeah, good point.

Unfortunately not possible. The closest JL gateway would be MEX (until min-Jan only, though). But that entails paying the additional JL YQ ($72 each way) and positioning flights.

What do you mean by PDX-LAX works?

moondog

I meant to say that PDX-LAX-NRT worked for me last month even though the former segment was an AA code share (on AS metal).

mrpickles

My BA statement today:

Transaction date Posted date Description Points Miles
22-Dec-09 22-Dec-09 BA Miles - AmEx Membership Rewards 0 1,000
18-Dec-09 20-Dec-09 Finance Card - BA VISA NON BA SPEND 0 11,436
18-Dec-09 20-Dec-09 Finance Card - BA VISA BONUS MILES 0 50,000
18-Dec-09 20-Dec-09 Finance Card - BA VISA BONUS MILES 0 50,000

Your Household miles
358,770 miles

Working on completing the $30k spend (6k more) before Dec 31 and changing statement date to Dec 25 to force posting of miles before year end to preserve the 2 for 1 voucher offer. Guess I am buying something big tommorow, maybe a Viking stove???

largeeyes

Same situation. Waiting to hear back from my message almost 24 hours ago.

abcx

Just got back a canned response asking me to wait 6-8 weeks. ..., Chase? So I sent back a message saying that I have friends whose bonuses have already posted and if they can post mine ASAP too. I get the feeling it will not help...