I apologize if this is the wrong forum to post this in, but it concerns both AA and BA so I wasn't sure where to place it. If I have 25000 miles on BA that I would like to redeem for a domestic ticket on AA, and another 25000 miles on AA, is there a way to claim both awards at once? If I have to go through a seperate process for each, I'm afraid I might not end up with two tickets for the same flights.

I don't think they've coordinated to that extent.

Your best bet might be to book the flights with the airline you have least status on first, and then try to book the same flights with the other airline.

Alternatively, book with the airline you're going to travel on, using the other airline's points, and then try to get the same flights with the operating airline's points.

With some airlines you can reserve an award seat but not actually claim it for a while. You might try asking those two if either will let you hold an award seat for as long as it takes you to contact the other airline and see if they have availability.

Thank you for responding so quickly. I don't have any special status on either airline. I only fly about twice a year. But your suggestion about first redeeming the award through the airline I won't be flying on (British Airways) makes a lot of sense.

Thak you Efrem. That is another good suggestion (and from a fellow Mass-ite!)

With AA, you can put award reservation on hold for 30 days without ticketing (at least Hawaiian award tickets are).

You could put AA reservation on hold, then call BA for the seat on same flights...

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I've had AA hold domestic and international awards for 90 days. They might start with 30 but if you call with a good reason they should extend the ticketing time frame.

Good luck

Thank you! I had never heard of an airline allowing you to "hold" a frequent flyer seat. Sounds like a perfect solution.

American did it for me when we flew to San Juan for a cruise. I needed to confirm air before claiming the seriously discounted cruise but was afraid to commit in case the ship was suddenly full. Worked out great. Got a 7 day last minute Carnival Caribbean cruise for $350 each!

Hi...Call the airline you ..don't..intend to fly first and see what flights they have available for award seating as they will have fewer seats than the "home" airline. That way if you can get AA seats through BA and AA is not showing any or not enough a reservations supervisor can help you out. We can't pull extra seats out of BA's inventory of our seats but do have the ability (within certain guideines) to get one or two extra flights out of our own inventory. Also, on AA you can hold award reservations in 30day increments. You can renew every thirty days. It used to be that we would hold seats indefinitely but there were a lot of seats being held and never being used. Seats that another ff would have like to have had. So the thirty day rule was instituted. The feeling being that if you are really interested in using those seats you will make the effort to call back and renew. If not they will drop back into inventory to the first come first served status. Hopes this helps.
Also, if you can find a good AA agent they can call BA while you're on the line and try to work out the reservations for you.

[This message has been edited by RDURES1 (edited 08-25-2000).]