If each member of Oneworld calculates there frequent flier miles differently, then how do they convert the miles from one airline's frequent flier mile program to another???? For example, if you're lucky and can get an American Airline Economy transatlantic flight from N. America to Europe it takes 30,000 miles. But, I thought on British Airways's web-site it says that a transatlantic flight from N. America to Europe costs 50,000 miles. Am I correct in assuming that BA wouldn't take 50,000 of your AA miles to fly with them on a transatlantic flight, but would take 30,000 or some other similar converted amount? Does anyone know the conversion between AA and the other Oneworld Partners?

aa.com has a partner award chart w/ the mi info.....its under aadvantage then partners iirc...good luck...

I think that you are asking a slightly different question, Ro_Laren. You can book the BA flight with BA miles or AA miles. You don't transfer the miles from one program to another. If you book the BA flight with BA miles, you use the BA award chart to determine how many BA miles you need. If you book the BA flight with AA miles, you use the AA award chart to determine how many AA miles you need.

The award levels are different from carrier to carrier; thus if you have miles in multiple programs, you have the opportunity to optimize your mile spend for any given OW flight. Generally, all miles in OW carriers' programs are good for awards on all OW carriers. The cost varies, however, from program to program. And remember that the miles stay in their separate programs. You cannot combine miles from multiple programs to reach an award level.

I have scheduled my boss to fly BA in a couple weeks (LAX-LHR, LHR-DUB with code share, DUB-LHR with code share, and then back LHR-LAX) and can't figure out the difference in miles she would earn by using a newly established BA reward program # or her main frequent flyer program, AA. Does anyone know how many more miles she will earn using BA than AA? (I do understand that she will have to pay money later to transfer the miles over to her AA account, but depending on the mileage difference, it may be worth it)

Also, once a reward program is selected, can you change it? I made the mistake of putting in AA but now may want to have the miles rewarded go into her BA account.

Thank you!

Hi, Cookielb, and Welcome to FT!!! Glad to have you here. Ok, now. Answers to your questions.

The miles your boss will earn in each program will depend on a) the carrier and number of the flight (e.g., AA 137), b) the fare category, and c) the mileage program you have attached to her reservation. Get the answers to (a) and (b), then you can check the AA and BA websites to see what she would earn on those flights in each program.

You can change the reward program to which the miles are being credited, but you really can't change the carrier and flight number. Nearly all BA and AA TATL flights have both BA and AA flight numbers. You will generally do better using the flight number of the carrier which matches the carrier in whose program you want the miles deposited. The problem is that once the rezzy is made, changing the flight number to the codeshare on the other carrier nearly always requires cancelling your first rezzy and making a new one. And if you've got her on an advance purchase fare, there may be a cancellation penalty, in addition to making sure that there is availability on the new one.

Yup, it sounds complicated because it sort of is. Once you get the hang of it, though, it will become easier. Feel free to ask questions here any time. We're pretty much a friendly bunch and happy to share the benefit of our experience.

Good luck!!

You would need to look on ba.com and the partner area of aa.com to find out what you earn for the booking code of the BA flights you booked.

Thank you so much for your speedy response!

First of all, I tried to check the potential miles earned with each program and got the numbers with BA easily but could not find the equivalent with AA.

I apologize for not being very clear in my original post, but I do not have any intention to change the airline carrier, just the reward program the miles will deposit into. To explain further, I was looking at her itinerary online and saw where you can add your frequent flyer number and then learned that it could go directly into her AA account. Unfortunately, I chose AA prematurely, and now (with the help of your advice) would like to change it to the BA account I created for her. I couldn't figure out how to change it online, which is why I'm concerned that I can't change it once it's been decided. I'm actually on hold with BA right now (have been for 17 minutes) to see what I can do. Who knows, you may read this before I even get through!

I hope that clarifies my situation.

Also, she will be traveling with her daughter that is under 18- will they be able to collect her daughter's miles despite the age constraints?

Thank you very much for your help!

UPDATE: I finally got through to BA customer service. They were able to switch the frequent flyer accounts. Main problem solved! Thank you everyone!

Glad to hear that you are getting things worked out. Not sure what you mean about the daughter. Many children can and do have FFP accounts. Would you be more specific?

You cannot transfer miles from a BA account to an AA account or vice-versa.

There are (generally) no age constraints on frequent flyer accounts. The daughter needs her own account (either AA or BA).

Does your boss have status on AA? Most people concentrate their mileage-earning with one airline, so as to achieve status on that airline (which status generally carries over to (i.e., is recognized by) other oneworld airlines (so status on AA is recognized by BA for purposes of lounge admission, advance seating etc.). Very few people fly enough to make it worthwhile to split their miles between two different airlines (particularly as there is no way to combine those miles or transfer them when it comes to using them for awards).

You must be 18 or older to join the BA Executive Club. However your boss should be able to set up a household account and have her daughter's miles post to that.

Details can be found here.

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/briti...l#post13303083

There is a lot of useful information in the BA forum sticky here.

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/briti...ad-sticky.html

I speculate that the difference is due to the different units in use. This is my pure speculation and it seems to be supported by the numbers you listed. I admit that I did not check records to verify it. Folks with more knowledge please correct me if I am wrong.

Here is a bit more detail of my speculation. Mile is a prevailing distance unit in the United States, but pretty much in all of the rest of the world, the prevailing distance unit is Kilometer. The mileage of most FF programs of many Asian or European airlines is actually based on Kilometer. But people tend to use Mile when they really mean Kilometer, probably because the Americans use Mile, and also because "Mile" is shorter and easier to say than "Kilometer". The relation between these two units are: 1 Mile = 1.6 Kilometer. So 30,000 AA Mile ~= 50,000 BA Mile, and hence the AA award and the BA award are roughly at the same level. Remember what I just said, BA Mile probably means Kilometer.

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That's not it at all.

Each FFP sets its own requirements for reward redemptions (even on partner carriers), including number of miles/points/kilometers needed for a particular redemption, stopover rules, zone definitions, change fees, etc.

For a one-way award from North America to London -- on either AA or BA -- BA charges 25,000 miles year round in Coach, plus a fuel surcharge. (The BA award charts list the miles required for a roundtrip award.) For the same one-way Coach award, AA will charge either 20,000 or 30,000 miles, depending on season, but will only assess a fuel surcharge if one flies on BA metal to London.

It's not unusual for two different airlines to charge different amounts of miles for the exact same redemption on the exact same airplane(s).

How much one airline actually pays another when a partner award is issued is something known only to the airlines.

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I should qualify the above by saying that there are some FFPs that use a "currency" that is very different in value than the "miles" used by most programs. LA uses kilometers, and its partner awards are distance based, not zone based. Similarly, IB uses "points," and also uses a distance-based system for partner awards.