Booking qantas - how to input AA EXP number
 

Looking to book a US to AU flight. Qantas is about $400 cheaper than the AA site. I do not know how to get my AA number input or let them know I'm OW Emerald. If I call to book, will there be a reservation fee or is that waived since I'm OW elite?

When you make an online reservation there is a box below the passenger name asking for frequent flyer details; program name and membership number.

that's great. Thank you.

Occasionally I've found the FF# doesn't 'stick' with QF. In those cases I've used the Finnair trick - input PNR/Surname into Finnair Manage Booking page and there's an option to add your FF#.

Thanks for the finnair tip.
I normally had to call qf to change the number

I ended up booking it all on the aa website including my two in country (AU) flights, so the international legs booked as AA coshare flights and not an issue. Was able to get the qantas locators which allowed me to go in an select my seats. i pulled up EF seat map as well. I was surprised the qantas seat selection allowed me to chose seats that were showing blocked on EF. It all seemed to work out okay.

That's because EF doesn't know (has no way of knowing) that you're EXP. Which seats you can access (and when) depends on your status. Seats to which there is no "general" access will appear blocked on EF but will be available via QF if you have sufficient status.

Not sure that this is the case; within Expert Flyer within My Account, on the preferences tab, can put in FF numbers specifically for seat map access and it does allow entry of AA numbers into the FF number for QF seat maps

It definitely works with QF numbers for QF flights , haven't tried with AA ones

I did try selecting QF and entering my Advantage number, but it did not work for me. :(

Against the "Frequent Flyer Number for Qantas Seat Maps:" entry you put your AAdvantage number and then "for frequent flyer program on airline" to the right you select AA.