akelkar

More information here: http://www.marketwatch.com/story/ame...k=MW_news_stmp

And here: http://www.aa.com/i18n/urls/moreeuro...urope#!feature

Article highlights:

• Codeshares being implemented in phases: First phase is to put a code on all trans-atlantic flights for travel beginning May 14th
• You can now buy BA codeshares on the US Airways website (though they are significantly more expensive than the US Air flights)
• Full BA Codeshares should be completed by the end of the summer
• Codeshares agreements between US Air and Iberia/Finn Air "in the coming weeks"
• US Airways is apparently now a member of the "Atlantic Joint Business" (I guess it's a OW group?)
• USDM members and BAEC members can earn/redeem miles in the other program (already thought this was possible)

Glad to see that this is finally happening. I don't remember US selling any other trans-atlantic codeshares before the merger through its website. It's giving more options while being more convenient to the normal flyer. I just hope the prices at the moment don't reflect what they will be in the future. Prices may be higher right now because after running a few searches, it seems that you can mainly buy flexible tickets (non-refundables seem to either mostly be sold out or N/A at the moment) through the site (probably in case they need to change things around)

Centurion

This explains the lack of availability on BA via Avios the past 8 weeks. You could always book last minute Club World and BA F from PHX to LHR.

Phoenixtinct

US being part of the joint venture between AA, AY, BA and IB should mean that revenues are shared across the partners on transatlantic flights.

With that in place, I don't see the need for a code-share except that in OW, the marketing carrier matters, so a US-coded flight technically can earn more mileage (points) than a BA-coded flight or vice versa regardless who the operating carrier is. However, as you point out, those flights are very expensive, so no benefit to purchase through US.

When I've done searches on aa.com and have gotten results with both AA- and BA-coded flights, the prices were reasonable. Maybe you want to look there. AA sells both US and BA flights, so I'm sure you can buy an itinerary including both carriers on aa.com

wahooflyer

This brings back memories of the 1990s when US and BA had a codeshare.

I'm looking forward to the increased number of translantic connections on AA/US/BA from my little spoke city (no more flying RIC-ORD-LHR to get AA miles and avoid the drive to IAD, as I have done a few times in the past!)

yabadoo

Actually, back then BA had a 20% ownership stake (originally they wanted 44% but due to foreign ownership rules they couldn't do it) in USAir which they had valued at the time of purchase of $500m, not an insignificant sum back then. Somehow the dynamics of the intended deal to channel and feed traffic to BA flights didn't quite pan out even, so eventually BA sold their stake in the late 1990's or early 2000's.

Craig6z

Am seeing for late May supposedly bookable US codeshares on BA metal in business, from LAX to PRG, that price $1,100 less than if issued on BA paper. About $4050 (class z) vs $5150 (class i). Is this typical of recent? While not an amazing fare, it is materially cheaper than the norm for BA.