What To Do When American Award Flights Don't Display On British Airways Site

This is a fantastic tip - thank you! (My usual reason to have to call is to book Avios tickets on Alaska - I assume these agents in Singapore can do that as well.)

Do they waive the phone booking fee since their website doesn't show the space?

Called BAEC 2x today to try and get around the "glitch" which I am thinking is more reality now (BA has limited access to US/AA award space). Example: DCA-MSY RT on US is wide open in Y for the weekend I am trying to travel (four flights per day Friday and Sunday) but the BAEC call center availability was the same as the website.

Thanks for posting this! I literally asked my friend this question 5 minutes before you posted this. I am also going to ORD from NY tomorrow and had the same issue. Called the Singapore office (thanks!) and was ticketed in 6 minutes.

I'm having the opposite problems which happened twice this week, saw US Airways availability for a flight from ORD - PHL (and was bookable, confirmed with BA) but AA.com or USAirways.com wasn't showing it and wasn't bookable by AA agents.

Frustrating because I planned out everything on BA and this last flight not being available screwed up everything.

What I usually do is book the space that is available on BA's site, even on an earlier flight. Then, I'll call up and ask to change within 24 hours. Saves the time of having to set up the whole booking over the phone. Instead, they just make the change and re-issue the ticket without a fee.

I've had phone agents unable to see the space until you clearly describe the problem like you do here. Then a light bulb goes off in their heads and they figure out a workaround in their system. DO NOT book a different flight and then think the change flight screen will bail you out. It won't.

What impeccable timing! Tried calling the US number today....got hold times of 45+, 65+, and then busy signals. Called the Singapore number and the agent picked up right after I pressed 1 to book a flight!!

On another note....I tried booking an Alaska Airlines flight from LAX-SEA....operated by AS, not AA.....and there is availability on AA at the saver level, but BA is saying that it is completely booked. What gives? Any tips? Thanks!

Does BA charge the award flights via segments? I just booked AUS-DRO (~900 air miles) and was charged 12,000 avios one-way - I assume his was 4,500 avios for AUS-DFW and 7,500 avios DFW-DRO, which is where the 12,000 avios comes from, I guess? Or should it be just the total mileage air mileage of the city pairs and only 7,500 avios total for each one-way?

Do they charge extra to book over the phone?

What other partners don't they display correctly?

Wow, i literally am having this issue right now and i tried calling ba us line like 20 hours today. Not even going through!
Thanks!

I was having a similar issue with qatar space from dxb-doh (connecting to 787 business class 😀 ) except it was showing up just wouldn't book online. I am a night owl myself and ended up calling the hong kong call center. Not only were wait times not an issue their english was flawless (as you would expect from an ex-british holding). I wasn't aware of the singapore call center so I will add that to my list.

Hi Ben,

I think this may be more common on routes with many daily flights. I commonly it on BOS-LGA where US Airways has a bazillion daily flights. It is usually the flights towards the end of the day that get cropped off. It's almost like the BA algorithm amasses a certain number of results and then call it quits. "Meh, good enough."

That said, I haven't had any issue getting the BA phone agents to waive the fee it's the phone call itself that I dread more than anything else.

Good to know about the Singapore number...the last time I was in a jam with BA I think I called Tajikistan or something equally absurd!

Cheers,
Ryan

Do you know what is going on with the BA website? I am attempting to book SFO to LAX on an AA/US air flight and it is pricing out at 15k each way per person.

@4Health, you might want to try booking as separate one-ways rather than a round trip. I've run into problems where flights are AA non-stop one way and US non-stop the other, but the combination of different carriers seems to trigger higher cost. Have found that splitting into separate one-ways tends to solve the problem.

Worked like a charm. It's singapore accent English and they had difficulties hearing me but they waived the booking fee since I am just booking a simple route...

@ Daniel -- You can request they do and they often will.

@ Nick M -- They should have access to identical space. I'd suggest hanging up and calling again.

@ Erik -- With BA Avios you pay on a per segment basis.

@ byron -- There is a phone booking fee, but they'll usually waive it if you explain it can't be booked online.

@ Nick -- American and US Airways? In my experience Qantas and JAL show them correctly, so not sure there are any others that have issues.

@ Ryan K -- Indeed, this issue happens when there are lots of frequencies, but also otherwise as well, unfortunately.

@ 4Health -- Hmmm, haven't had that issue, and just tried making a booking and got the correct fare quote. When were you looking at?

Lucky, slight correction, with Avios we pay on a distance basis for most, but not all routes. For example, BOS-DCA and BOS-PHL-DCA are both under 650 miles, but BA charges 4,500 miles for the former one-way in Y and 9,000 for the latter one-way in Y. Do you know if this is the result of additional routing rules on awards, a glitch, or otherwise?

@ Ben -- They charge you on a per segment basis. So since each segment is under 650 miles, they charge you 4,500 Avios per segment.

@lucky - right. thanks for the correction. there are many Avios sweet spots but this definitely not one of them.

Great post! Quick question to make sure I understand the tip about the Singapore call center. Is it permissible for US based BA members ( without status at BA) to use the Singapore call center to book flights on Alaska or Aer Lingus using avios for flights originating in US? I've been hesitant to use the us/uk call center because of the bad press and it would be nice to have a more pleasant alternative. Many thanks and have a nice trip in ICELAND.

@ penny -- Yep, sure can!

Any tips for getting the BAEC reps to see saver award space available on USAirways.com or AA.com? HUCA did not work unfortunately: I got the same answer from BAEC of "no award availability" and "just because it is on AA.com or US.com, does not mean it is available for us to book."

@ Stephen -- That's odd. What route are you looking at?

@lucky DCA-MSY 3/12/15-3/15/15 and DCA-BTV 12/24/14-12/28/14.

@ Stephen -- Very odd that they can't see it. Maybe wait a day or two and call back? Otherwise might just be some weird glitch.

Thanks for the advice. But how does one call Singapore without a large phone cost? I don't normally call overseas so I'm not sure how to do that in the least expensive way.

@ Pat -- If you call through Skype or Google Voice it should only be a few cents per minute.

there actually is a trick to display all of the space and I think you know it... lets not spill all the secrets : )

@Iva...really. We can't share this here? Its not clearly on FT.

@ Stephen @ lucky -- Think this is an issue with AA.com showing "phantom award space." If you actually try to book the DCA-MSY award ticket on AA.com you'll get the following error:

"The flight you selected is no longer available. Please modify your request."

So BA.com and Qantas aren't displaying the award space because it isn't actually available. I'm having the same issue searching for DCA-ALB. Maybe just an issue with USAirways flights from DCA?

(lucky pardon me while I mention another blog). I've had good luck setting alerts using Wandering Aramean's OneWorld Alerts tool. Yearly membership is well worth it to snag those seats without checking every day!!!

@ Steve -- Just saw milevalue's post on this issue and your subsequent comment. Looks like not just phantom space going on here.

... the plot thickens

@lucky
cost of international phone call?

@ purcitron -- A couple of cents if you're using Google Voice or Skype.

I am taking my son to Fenway Park for our first time on Sept 6 (BNA-BOS) and returning September 8th (BOS-BNA). When I checked AA.com I saw SEVERAL low level flights available that I SHOULD be able to use Avios points on, so I went ahead and bought Red Sox tickets. I had already seen that BA.com was not showing availability for any of these low level AA flights but thought it was just a glitch and that I would (regretfully) have to call BA's phone center to book it. Well, I just called and they told me that not all low level AA flights are bookable through Avios points and that I was essentially out of luck 🙁 I already have game tickets and hotel reservations and any help, thoughts, ideas, etc would be GREATLY appreciated, thanks!

@ Bob -- If the space is actually available with American it should also be available through British Airways. I'd recommend either waiting a day or so as there might be a system lag, or calling again.

@Bob I'd try calling BA again. Some of the flights are operated by US so you might specifically ask the BA agent to check US and US / AA combined itineraries.

As someone who doesn't live in a AA/US hub, this issue is hugely annoying as it can mess up 1+ stop(s) routings. First reported it here when BA changed their system to include US Airways flights -- all Houston (IAH or HOU)DFW flights disappeared completely (not just missing SOME -- missing ALL flights) and only flights on US Airways would appears (e.g. IAH-CLT-DFW).

Sent them a message and a month or two later it got fixed; was able to see space to DFW (and, at least for the dates I had been looking, BA.com availability matched AA.com).

However, was searching for IAH-MIA flights on AA and nothing appears again even though AA.com shows a ton of availability for this nonstop route. Disappointing 🙁 Perhaps too much space causes BA computers to fail 😛

Same problem here with Houston.. NOTHING on AA appears on the BA sight out of houston and only a fraction of the US space.... primarily F which is very expensive. VERY frustrating.

2.5 years later and no surprise that BA hasn't fixed the "glitch"

Just pulled up flights on AA that show plenty of availability in booking class T (Economy SAAver) for DFW to SAN round trip Mar 3 to Mar 5. However, no space shows available on the BA site. When I called the service line, the rep could only see space bookable on BA for Mar 3, but not Mar 5. I thought if AA showed available space for Economy SAAver awards, it should be bookable on BA. The rep would not elaborate on any availability differences.

I know this was from a while ago but does anyone know if this works for the delay in BA recognising award space. For example AA releases its seats c.10.5 months in advance but BA's system is about a few weeks behind that (showing no availability for this furthest out period)

Still having the problem today. Called BA, no help.