Mrtrash757

Hi all,

I have some family of my fiance coming to visit us out here in ORD soon.

Because it was a last minute ticket, the cheapest I found was UA BOS-ORD and AA ORD-BOS. Not a uncommon itinerary- I've done it twice during peak periods.

However, what is odd that this whole routing was booked 100% through United.com . in my search for airfare before, I have noticed that AA isn't the only carrier you can do this with, AS and WestJet are a few of the others.

Anyway my question is this. First, will we have to go check in at the airport for the AA flight? If so, do I go to United (T1) or AA (T3)? It's a 6am AA flight and that dictates when we leave from the airport.

Also just for future reference- what sorts of mileage accrual to you get for an itinerary like this?

I can post a screenshot of the ticket confirmation in a bit.

IADFlyer123

If it has a different airline booked on the itinerary, in your resevation, there should be a link for Additional information, which should contain the confirmation number for AA. Once you have that (if you dont, call UA), take the number and plug it in the AA website and pull up the reservation there. Beyond that its normal protocol. You might be able to add your AA FF number in the AA portal or claim credit post flight. You can check in on the AA.com site - if you have their confirmation number.

UA1K_no_more

1. For the AA flight, you check in with AA. It could be online (assuming that you have the AA PNR) or at the AA checkin desk at the airport.
2. You won't any UA award miles for the AA flight. You may earn PQD since it's a UA ticket, but I'm not sure. You can earn AA award miles for that flight.

findark

No PQD or other earnings on UA. If you put your AA account on the AA PNR, it will earn normally on AA.

NH_Clark

Am I the only one mildly surprised that an AA flight can show up on .bomb and be booked?

findark

It's a little weird but I've seen it before. The systems are set up to handle it well because travel agents book single tickets like this all the time.

Mrtrash757

alright team- an update.

Just got the AA PNR. Pop it in and see this lovely section on the "choose a seat" page.



Nothing available in regular economy, which they are booked into.

So I call into United (wanted to go to them first since they were the ones who issued the ticket) and get this:

"You can secure a seat by buying a Main Cabin Extra or Preferred, but if they don't, they will be assigned at the gate. The seats are confirmed though."

Speaks to me like you could be bumped for this in the worst case scenerio, and since this is a spring break flight (3/20) to be exact, it could fill up quickly.

So, is $32 for both of them to secure a seat in 16 A/B worth avoiding a few hours or a day of frustration? I'm thinking yes, but since this is new to me I would love to hear your thoughts.

wrp96

You'd be better off asking this question in the AA forum.

But to answer the question, AA holds back a certain percentage of seats for assignment at check in - for those without status. If they have to sit next to each other then yes, you should go ahead and pay. Otherwise they will get seats at checkin or at the airport. AA will do everything they can to avoid IDB.

findark

I'm a little confused here. I assume this app is for an AA flight? Not flying AA, I'm not sure what the stars mean, or why you can't select a seat (SeatGuru would suggest that those are not all MCE rows). Either way you are likely to be fine, but if a bump would ruin your day (despite being very lucrative), then $32 is cheap to avoid it.

sbm12

This is the AA seat map. The *** indicators are what AA puts on the screen to try to convince customers that some seats are better than others, justifying the increased price.

Not having a seat assignment does slightly increase the odds of IDB. But that is a very uncommon scenario overall and almost certain that there will be an opportunity to get seats in OLCI for free. Maybe not with everyone together, but seats will almost certainly be available.

findark

Oh, I see, AA has jumped on the "preferred seat" train. Seconding that IDB is very unlikely, but that $32 isn't that much to guarantee seats together.

mduell

Earning RDM is a prerequisite for earning PQD. No award miles => no PQD.

Depends entirely on the trip. Depends on how much the travelers need to be on that flight. Depends on how they'd respond to "here's a couple hundred dollar voucher (or check), you're on the next flight". Depends how capable the travelers are of taking care of themselves in a delay, possibly overnight.

krazykanuck

This is what happened to me when I flew AA in November. I left all my seats unselected and AA auto assigned me into Preferred seats for free. Not that there was any noticeable difference, IMO.

Mrtrash757

Exactly my thoughts. Because these are basically first time travelers (I had to book for them too), I ended up convincing them to bite the bullet and get the seats.

It's the AA website btw. Looks like the app because they made it pretty- and I cropped on my chromebook

Good to know for next time. I've just had too many experiences under my belt with bumps and cancellations to risk it with someone as inexperienced ( I manage well because I know what to do- I don't think they would if the situation came up)

nologic98

Via Google Flights. Google offered me a mixed-airline itinerary (route was an open jaw: LAX-JFK;JFK-SFO) and said "Book on United.com". Sure enough, clicking brought me to a United.com check-out screen with one direction's flight operated by Delta.

I was fascinated by this, since AFAIK United and Delta are not partners.

No amount of Edit Search once on United allowed me to reproduce this mixed carrier itinerary. (which was a shame, since I had no way to enter my promo code).

Does anyone know how to get it to show itineraries like this without going thru Google Flights?