Questions and Answers

I am planning to book tickets from Europe to USA and back for my family using my AA points. Will they have an issue boarding in Austria if they don’t have the credit card used to pay for the ticket? If yes, any suggestions to get around it? Thank you

Welcome [USER=2358]@Sean.Z[/USER] – which airline will they be flying? If it’s BA then I doubt it. Maybe someone else can chime in about other airlines.

I do not think there will be problems at all. I have many times used AA miles from different accounts in our family, often let’s say using miles from my account to pay for a ticket for my son or my wife (well, you use the credit card only to pay for the taxes and fees). The family member for whom I bought these tickets never knew what card I used and certainly did not carry those with them. I almost always buy one way tickets, just because I tend to secure these tickets when the award availability first shows up. I have secured many of the one-way AA saver award tickets THROUGH AA, on Airberlin, Finnair, BA, 50% of the time originating from Europe, and we never ever had a problem.

Thank you both. Parents are old and I worry about them when they travel. It will likely be BA or may be small chance Finair. I hate sending them through London, just because that can be a tough airport to get through but living in San Diego, BA has the most options and the only one stop option. Everything else is 2 stops. Thanks again.

I think London is an okay airport to get through if you warn them, and give them enough time. That’s likely going to be easier on them than connecting in the U.S., honestly, as they won’t have to reclaim luggage.

Their outbound flight from LHR will be from T5 — check whether they’ll arrive at T3 or T5 and make sure to explain in advance if they’ll need to take the bus, that they’ll have to reclear security and that LHR is strict about liquids, etc., and they’ll be fine!

[QUOTE=”Sean.Z, post: 21353, member: 2358″]Thank you both. Parents are old and I worry about them when they travel. It will likely be BA or may be small chance Finair. I hate sending them through London, just because that can be a tough airport to get through but living in San Diego, BA has the most options and the only one stop option. Everything else is 2 stops. Thanks again.[/QUOTE]
One more thing: The taxes are MUCH higher if you get the award tickets for BA flights. They are far cheaper if you get it for other airlines, particularly Finnair. What I found over the past year, that if you try to get the ticket in a way that the transatlantic segment is on AA (and NOT BA) metal, even if the VIE-LHR segment is on BA, the taxes will be much cheaper. Finally: for anyone, but particularly for elderly people, flight cancellations/delays due to strikes could be disastrous. BA tends to strike, whilst Finnair never. Their Helsinki airport is also much better to navigate.

Thank you Daniel, I agree, I have been to HEL. Unfortunately when I went to book the Helsinki flight even though it shows on the AA web page it comes back as flight is not available. With a lot of trial and error I found out the leg to HE is available but the flight to VIE is not. I am still looking to see if I can find a decent option to get them back to VIE towards end of May but it may have to be BA. .

[QUOTE=”Tiffany, post: 21354, member: 7″]I think London is an okay airport to get through if you warn them, and give them enough time. That’s likely going to be easier on them than connecting in the U.S., honestly, as they won’t have to reclaim luggage.

Their outbound flight from LHR will be from T5 — check whether they’ll arrive at T3 or T5 and make sure to explain in advance if they’ll need to take the bus, that they’ll have to reclear security and that LHR is strict about liquids, etc., and they’ll be fine![/QUOTE]
Thank you, I may have no choice but to go BA. I was there earlier this year and it took for ever to go through security in T5, lines sneaking back an forth through the terminal, trying to find a way to spear them that.

Sean, another potential option would be to fly to Budapest (there is always a ton of saver award availability between Budapest and LHR on BA both ways), and take a train from Budapest to Vienna. I also saw in the past regular availabilities between Helsinki and Budapest. It used to be very easy to drive between the two cities (around 2.5 hours), but now because of the migrant crises, the Austrians instituted random but regular checking of trucks, so often the wait time is 2 hour at the “border”. I know that it is not really a border, because both countries belong to the Schengen treaty, but you know the situation……If Budapest would be an acceptable alternative, taking the train would be the best since it actually stops at Schwechat [VIE].
Oh, and just one more thing: I think you meant “spare” and not “spear” your parents :))

Hear hear! There is no place for impaling parents in this forum!

Well I ended up booking the tickets on BA and through London. After they get to experience T5, twice, I may be the one getting impaled. I did not write down the BA and AS record locator numbers, Yes I know.
I have the AA record locator, Is there a way to find BA/AS through AA web page or do I need to call them and get it over the phone.

You’ll have to call them, sadly.

Yes, just as Tiffany said, you will need to call them. What I always do when I call AA and you are prompted to state what you want (it is a machine you are talking to), I just keep saying “representative”. After the 4th time I say it, the machine then gives up and transfers me to a live agent (but asks a last question which I do answer: “is your entire trip within the US”?).