s274

I am writing you for advice and appreciate your insight and experience. I recently booked a *flight leaving for May/June from LAX-London-VCE via British Airways operated by British Airways, and *a flight returning MIL-JFK-LAX via "British Airways operated by American Airlines." The four round-trip tickets were bought 50% via Chase Reward Points and 50% via credit card payment w/my Chase Visa Card.

(1) I was able to reserve seats for myself, wife, and two young children on the British Airways flight leaving LAX to London and then Venice by going on the British Airways site - paying $228 more to do so in total. Of note, the Chase Rewards website did not allow me to book seats on their site for the flight leaving LAX-London-Venice.

(2) I was unable to reserve seats for the return flight: MIL-JFK-LAX via "British Airways operated by American Airlines." (a) The Chase Rewards site did not save the seats. (b) I called British Airways, and they told me to call American Airlines - as it is 'booked by BA but operated by AA.' (c) I used the 6 digit flight code and went on the American Airlines site, and it has already reserved seats in scattered locations/not together and the seat chart showed that all other seats were blocked out. No option to pay for a seat for given. (d) I called American Airlines, and they stated that they could not give me a specific seat. The AA operator then called British Airways in our conversation, and the AA operator responded back to me that British Airways stated that I could not book a seat through them as I 'bought the flight from Chase Rewards,' (e) I called back Chase Rewards, and I have been told then they could not do anything for me. They stated that I could (e1) arrive early to the airport on the flight of leaving Milan to try and gets seats together as '10% seats are blocked for families and couples that wish to be together on arrival at airport,' (e2) call back American Airlines and more or less beg for mercy. This 'supervisor/Chelsea' on Chase Rewards stated that she understands my situation but cannot do anything to help me reserve seats.

I briefly searched forums and did not see that others have had this issue. Would you have advice on anything that I can do reserve seats on the flight returning from Milan-JFK-LAX? I sincerely appreciate your help in advance.

s274

I called back American Airlines this afternoon. The AA operator was clear and helpful. For the flight back on AA from Milan-JFK and the next flight from JFK-LAX, I could purchase upgrades for all four seats on both flights for (at cheapest for seats together) $1200-1300. She stated that there was nothing else that she could do. I told her that we have a 2- and 4-year-old flying (with a seat configuration of 17E-18E-19E-20E), and she stated that I should try to arrive to the airport early to see if I can get seats together. How much earlier would you suggest that I should arrive at the airport for a 10:20 AM flight? Would going to the airport the night before help?

Of note, I called Chase Rewards back one more time. The Chase Rewards operator put in her system seats that would have our family together, but this is "not guaranteed" and she told me to make sure that I arrive at the airport early, as well.

Happy

Connexions, the operator of the travel service provider for Chase Ultimate Reward, would NOT do what you need. But they would at least give you the Record Locator of American Airlines (the operator of your return flight) THEY should be able to select seats for you, BUT the problem is, AA charges a fee for many seats. What remaining to select free of charge, (as done thru Connexions) are very limited, and mostly are middle seats of each row - therefore it is near impossible for your family to have the specific seats you want, UNLESS you can do it on AA website and pay a fee just as what you have done with BA. The part of telling you to go to airport early is true, the rest is complete BS.

You need to go to American Airlines website, pull up your reservation then try to select your seats there (with a fee). It might work it might not as after all this is a BA coded flight number (marketed by BA but operated by AA). It is called a codeshare fllight.

The AA PNR it is NOT the same as the one used by BA because they use different reservation system. Use the AA PNR or use your flight details with passenger name etc to pull up the reservation on AA website. You should see the AA PNR on the reservation too. Write it down because you may very well need it down the road should you need to access your AA operated flights again.

Booking thru a travel agency for a flight does entail MANY perils including the one you now encounter - because the reservation is "owned" by the travel agency, unless the airline agent is willing to "take control of it: the airlines agent would NOT touch your reservation and kick you back to the Travel Agency - in this case, Connexions.

People NEED to understand this is NOT Chase even though Chase wants you to think that way. The travel bookings are provided by 3rd party company. Connexions handles many companies reward program bookings, including Chase and Citi.

You want to enjoy the 33% discount on your fares, these are the perils you must endure. Yes, it is 33% discount because 100 is 2x 50 and 150 is 3x 50. it is not 50% discount. Or 150 x 66.67% = 100. Though the math concept is not easy to most people. In any case, you save money but you also need to deal with what you encounter now. Just wait till you have flight changes / flight cancellations, then you would think what currently you encounter is trivial. It is a lot easier to deal with airlines when problems arise, when one books direct.

Just a reminder, at your return flight check in, you need to go to AA check in counter for check in. Not BA counter. Also I suspect what you mean MIL is actually MXP, the airport code for Milan Malpensa.

s274

Thank you for your reply. I did use the AA specific record locator, but the AA site gave me no options to change/reserve/pay for other seats on either AA operated flights back from MCP-JFK and JFK-LAX.

Happy

In this case your only option is to keep pressing Connexions rep at provider desk to pick the seats for you. Have you escalated the case to supervisor / manager level?

It is MXP.

Critterlynn

Who said anything about a 50% discount?

The OP mentioned nothing about a 50% discount.

I disagree with the "math concept is not easy for most people." Points are worth 50% more equates to a 33% discount. It's not rocket science.

s274

Okay - I have resolved the situation. I appreciate the explanation above. It truly helps to know whom I am dealing with.

First of all, I want to thank you both for your advice. It was quite insightful, and I appreciate you taking the time to help me.

(1) I called back AA and the agent (who seemed helpful stated that she could book 4 seats together on MXP-JFK for about $600 and 4 seats together on JFK-LAX together for $650. The AA agent stated that she would recommend going early to the airport on the day of the flight, as there would be no way that they would have a 2- and 4-year-old not sit near a parent.

(2) I call back Connexions/“Chase Rewards” who gave suggestions of seats to AA together but restated that these seats are ‘not guaranteed’ and she strongly recommended for me to go to the airport early

(3) I decided to check the AA site again, and - somehow - it now allowed me to change seats/pay for seats. This configuration was not an option to me hours prior to this, and I wonder if the AA agent adventantly or inadvertently ‘opened up’ the seat map for me. I was able to get 4 seats together/middle 4 for MXP-JFK, and I paid about $250 to get 3 seats together adjacent to another aisle seat for JFK-LAX. How exactly did the seat map open up when there were no options to even pay more for seats prior to this? This I don’t truly have an answer for ...

Happy

Glad to hear that the 2nd AAgent was able to help - what she most likely had done was "to take control of the reservation" by moving the reservation from under Travel Agency control to under AA control. She must have felt sorry for your predicament. Agent has the power to do that. Whether an agent would do it for a customer is an entirely different matter. This then enable you to be able to select seats on AA website. It is an awful lot of money to pay to select those seats though. All told it seems you have spent almost $500 just for seat selection alone. wow.

SeattleDavid

There has been a problem since December of not being able to see seats on AA flights when you have a BA ticket, but it got fixed a week ago - I suspect you fitted the profile of the problem and just happened to try again after the fix was implemented. Many many people (myself included) went through the weirdness you experienced.