Possible to book OneWorld RTW Award using two separate OW programs?
 

I want to book OW RTW Award tickets for two passengers.

I have 208,000 AA miles and my wife and I each have 100,000 BA miles.

Is it possible for us to pool together the BA miles to buy one explorer ticket and buy the other using my AA miles and fly together on the same itinerary? By pooling in BA, we would have two separate programs, each with 200,000 miles which should be enough for the award.

Thanks for any help you can provide.

You can set up a household account with BA. Some details here:
http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/13303083-post12.html
You might want to ask a moderator to move this post to the BA forum for more advanced discussion about household accounts or do a search on that forum for others experience.

Theoretically what you propose is possible, one redemption with BA and one redemption with AA. Each program has different advance periods for booking award tickets so you might find some availability gone by the time you try to book with AA. Be aware when flying in premium classes on 2 or more oneworld airlines that BA requires more miles than AA.
See:
http://www.britishairways.com/travel...r/public/en_us
http://www.aa.com/i18n/AAdvantage/re...servations.jsp

Thanks, I will definitely post to the BA forum for any questions about household accounts.

My main question was just whether I could book the trip for both of us, using mileage from two separate accounts to cover each ticket, which you say is theoretically possible. I just need to figure out that it is possible, and we can be on the same itinerary and fly together. Especially since the RTW ticket, has an online booking through the trip planner. I am guessing if I call AA they may be able to tell me?

Planning to leave in 9 months and trying to figure this out so I know whether or not I need to go another route for mileage. Thanks!

You can't combine AA and BA mileage to issue an award if that is what you are asking. Otherwise it is just like redeeming for a JFK-LHR award with AA miles and a separate JFK-LHR award with BA miles. If successful you will end up with two separate unlinked tickets.

Right, let me give an example. I know that I can't do this:But I should be fine doing this:I do have enough in my BA household account and in my individual AA account to cover each ticket separately. And it sounds like you are saying that is no problem.

When I book them, can I link them together afterwards, or include them on the same itinerary/trip locator? We want to travel together, and not have to deal with worrying if one of us gets a flight and the other doesn't. Does that make sense, or am I worrying about something that I don't need to be concerned with?

No, not that I know of. You will have one ticket issued on AA ticket stock and one ticket issued on BA ticket stock. It will be just like you purchased one ticket on AA and one ticket on BA. Maybe someone else knows how to link pnr's for tickets from two different sources but I don't.

I called AA and they indicated that they didn't believe it was possible. Looks like I will have to put it on hold, book the other and then book the first one. Will just hope for the best with seating. Thanks for your help.

Wirelessly posted (BlackBerry8530/5.0.0.601 Profile/MIDP-2.1 Configuration/CLDC-1.1 VendorID/417)

Bear in mind that there are no RTW oneworld awards. All oneworld awards are distance-based, and have different rules than a paid RTW oneworld ticket. There is an excellent sticky in the AA forum about using AAdvantage miles for oneworld awards; BA's oneworld award rules may differ -- their redemption rates in premium classes certainly do. And there are likely to be substantial fuel surcharges on the BA redemption. But since BA permits en-route stopovers on its regular one-way redemptions, a oneworld award might or might not be cheaper than stringing together a few one-way awards when using BA miles.

If you have a particular itinerary in mind, why not post it for comment and suggestions as to the most efficient use of miles?

Possible but important to fully understand the rules of each award under each program - eg number of stopovers, restrictions etc. You are also unlikely to get much help from the airlines - they will rightly treat it as two separate tickets on separate airlines.

I have successfully booked and paired a AA-issued Circle Explorer (for my father who is QF Plat) with a Qantas oneworld award (for my mother using fathers points), both starting in HKG, but it is not easy to coordinate with flight availability etc... Once you have two PNRs seating is generally easier - although best to call each airline you are travelling on individually with their respective booking refs.

Thank you, seems like I got too excited and assumed they were all the same. I think I am just going to try and transfer 40, SPG points into AA, share 15k miles from my wife's AA account ($150) and book the AA OW award together (140k each?), then use the BA miles for other tickets.

I would love to post our attempt at an itinerary, but should I start a new thread for that?

Since you are planning a oneworld award using AA miles the place to post your itinerary for comments by the experts would be this thread:
http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/ameri...er-awards.html