Hmmm, this could be a real problem in the next year as flights transition. I've gotten several ominous "Your flight has been cancelled" emails from BA, but when I go to look, it's always just been a new US flight number and I've already been rebooked to that flight.

US Not Ticketing When Booking With BA Avios
 

Hello! Last Thursday, I redeemed BA Avios for a DCA - MCO award ticket, traveling outbound in Economy Class and returning in First Class. As is standard practice when booking with Avios, the points were deducted from my account almost immediately.

Yesterday (Monday) I called BA to obtain my US confirmation number so that I could select seats online, and after obtaining the necessary information I went on the US website only to learn that my flights had not yet been ticketed. I then called US and spoke to a very pleasant, and helpful, agent who confirmed that my reservation had not yet been ticketed and it was likely "working its way through the queue". She was, however, able to assign me seats.

Fast forward to Monday night, when I go to check on my reservation on the US website and learn that it is has been cancelled. Overnight, I received an e-mail from BA asking them to call me regarding my reservation. I did so, and was told it was because I did not enter my date of birth when making the reservation online (which is true: I was having problems with this). The agent enters this info, and cheerily informed me that the reservation had been re-activated and that it would receive an e-mail once it had been ticketed.

Well, it is almost 24 hours later and this still has not yet occurred. I am just concerned because in my experience, using Avios to travel on both AA and US has resulted in the operating carrier ticketing almost immediately. I was wondering if any of you have some advice/experience to share.

Thanks so much for reading; I tried to keep it as condensed as possible :D

I believe that in general, if you book online and no human interaction is necessary, ticketing usually takes place immediately. However if some form of manual intervention is required, BA can take a while to get round to the ticketing as they prioritise flights in the near future. This is a source of frustration on the BA board as you cannot pay to prebook seats until ticketing. I wouldn't be worried unless your flight is imminent.

Can I ask if that is because that field was not showing up? I use to have that problem:

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/briti...g-dob-box.html

Same here. If I manage to get my US # on the account it seems to stop. The flight drops off Britishairways.com but still remains on usairways.com. I'm just rebooked on the flight that replaced the original. Same seat and all, but without the BA panic red font nonsense.

UPDATE 5 more award seats became available on BA.com, so we are currently holding 2 seats to SNA.

My concern now is linking BA award tickets on US to a paid AA itinerary, assuring bags are checked through. Is it worth trying to call EXP, ask of they can link the records?

can I check the flight and hold the ticket first, cause there are not enough balance on my account. After I buy the point and ticket it? thanks

You can check availability, but you can't hold the ticket; you need enough Avios in your account to make the booking.

I just booked my first 2015 Avios ticket to fly US Airways. I've got a bad feeling that I'll eventually run into this "US to AA" code problem. Does anyone have any wisdom on how to handle this? Is there an expected timeline for the switch over in codes? Is there anyone we can alert to try to preemptively solve this problem?

I'm just not likely to watch my future date reservations like a hawk, so I can see the potential for woe -- "so sorry, your flight has been cancelled, and we have no way of getting AA to provide us with new award inventory."

Anyone have luck using Avios to book Y and having it prompt you at some point when you find the res on the US site to do a buy-up to F?

I actually did have the option to select a seat in F for something like $50 on a BA award flight from SDF-CLT in July. I didn't take it because I had an exit row seat, but it was an option.

I just noticed the RJ website does not include the option to select USDM (e.g., for changing my BAEC FF# to USDM); are multiple steps required?

Edit: the Sri Lankan airlines booking management engine has similar limitations.

Data point: changed my FF# using the RJ site, and noticed that there is now a Known Traveler Number field, but despite entering the information into the BA PNR, the US phone rep I spoke to did not see it on the US PNR.

Try the Finnair website.

Well dang, never got the AY site to work before, until now...! Looks like they updated their booking management since last I checked to include US.