Questions and Answers

Does anyone know if American Airlines has interline agreement with Etihad for segments on ONE AA award reservation? And also do they issue boarding passes for all segments at the first check-in?

Some context:
I have a current AA award reservation that goes SEA-LAX-AUH where SEA-LAX is on Alaska and LAX-AUH is on Etihad. Last year, when I checked in at SEA, they told me that they could not check in my bags to AUH because of no baggage agreement. Also they could not issue my boarding pass for the second segment. So I had to retrieve bags at LAX bag claim, wheel them over to Bradley Terminal, then check-in with Etihad.

If I change my first flight to be SEA-LAX on American Airlines, will this save my any of that hassle? i.e. Will American airlines issue my boarding pass for both segments and check my bags in all the way? I have to pay a $150 fee to change the award type, but may be worth it purely for this convenience (I arrive in LAX with a 6 hour layover, so I could sit in the lounge instead of waiting for the Etihad counter to open).

Are you sure there would be a change fee? The origin and route is the same yet I’m not sure how Alaska works in the situation since it is not a OW partner. So hopefully someone who knows can comment! Nonetheless since it is a single AA award if you change to American they can definitely ticket both legs and check your bags through. So even if you did have to pay for the change it would be worth it in my opinion.

I believe a change fee kicks in because youre going from a non-AA, non-OW award to one that’s mixed AA/Non-OW Partner.

I’m not sure about the bags though – in theory they should be checked thru.

I’ve had AA print out boarding passes for both airlines so I’m assuming the checked bags should be fine as well.