Questions and Answers

I’m booking business seats through American Airlines Lis to LAX. It shows BA availability almost every day of the week using AA miles, however, when I go to BA website to use Avios it shows NO availability for months and when there is availability it 25K more points? How can this be?

Can you give us an idea of what time frame, routing and service class you’re looking at?

Remember that when you book with Avios the award is calculated with mileage for each segment. So if your award was LAX-LHR-LIS, you’d pay 25K Avios in economy for the LAX-LHR leg and another 7500 Avios for the LHR-LIS leg.

If you’re connecting in the US first, that can alter the pricing as well.

Thanks for the quick response. I am well traveled with rewards just never use BA avios. So, I’m looking at booking bus from LIS to LAX around Oct 18th I’m very flexible. It shows business ticket through AA on BA for 57500 miles. It shows availability on several flights and days. When I go to BA it shows nothing! How can this be?

[QUOTE=”MidSouth Skier, post: 33802, member: 184″]Can you give us an idea of what time frame, routing and service class you’re looking at?

Remember that when you book with Avios the award is calculated with mileage for each segment. So if your award was LAX-LHR-LIS, you’d pay 25K Avios in economy for the LAX-LHR leg and another 7500 Avios for the LHR-LIS leg.

If you’re connecting in the US first, that can alter the pricing as well.[/QUOTE]

On Oct 18th, the AA website shows the routing as LAX-MIA-MAD-LIS. The first two segments are on AA metal and the last one is on Iberia.

The LAX-MIA leg is in economy on both AA.com and BA.com.

The MIA-MAD leg – on AA metal – is apparently not available for partners to book. Considering how few international award seats AA makes available at all, it’s not surprising they’re only allowing their own members to book it.

That being said, there is award space MIA-LHR and LHR-LIS on BA in business class though of course that means paying BA fuel surcharges and having to transit Heathrow.

Another option is to check for space on the trans-Atlantic leg on Iberia from places like Chicago, Boston and even San Jose, Costa Rica to Madrid. You might have to buy a cash ticket to get to an Iberia gateway but that might be cheaper than paying BA fuel surcharges and the London passenger fees.

[QUOTE=”MidSouth Skier, post: 33810, member: 184″]On Oct 18th, the AA website shows the routing as LAX-MIA-MAD-LIS. The first two segments are on AA metal and the last one is on Iberia.

The LAX-MIA leg is in economy on both AA.com and BA.com.

The MIA-MAD leg – on AA metal – is apparently not available for partners to book. Considering how few international award seats AA makes available at all, it’s not surprising they’re only allowing their own members to book it.

That being said, there is award space MIA-LHR and LHR-LIS on BA in business class though of course that means paying BA fuel surcharges and having to transit Heathrow.

Another option is to check for space on the trans-Atlantic leg on Iberia from places like Chicago, Boston and even San Jose, Costa Rica to Madrid. You might have to buy a cash ticket to get to an Iberia gateway but that might be cheaper than paying BA fuel surcharges and the London passenger fees.[/QUOTE]

Thanks so much for your answer however it had nothing to do with my question?
This is the flight I can book right now on AA . It’s 57500 miles plus $390.
My question is why can’t I book this flight or any other flight directly on BA using my useless Avios? AA has lots of availability but none shows up on BA.
thanks

British Airways
Seat information not available Meal: Meal
Aircraft: 320 Booking Code: U
Class: Business

[B]BA 219[/B]

[B]2:40 PM[/B]
LHR

[B]5:30 PM[/B]
DEN

British Airways
Seat information not available Meal: Meal
Aircraft: 744 Booking Code: U
Class: Business

[URL=’https://www.aa.com/seats/view?flightNumber=1596&departureMonth=10&departureDay=19&originAirport=DEN&destinationAirport=LAX&aircraft=738′]View Available Seats[/URL] Meal: Dinner
Aircraft: [URL=’https://www.aa.com/award/submitDates.do#ourPlanes’]738 Opens in a new window[/URL] Booking Code: U
Total travel time: 22hr 19min Class: First
Flight Details

[LIST]
[*]Please note connection time
[/LIST]

My mistake, I read that as LAX-LIS, not the other way around.

I’m thinking it’s phantom space showing on AA.com. I looked on the Qantas site and don’t see it available there. Expert Flyer is not showing any business class award space either.

Remember, you don’t have to use your Avios on BA flights. They’re great for short hops on AA where you can get an award seat for as little as 7500 Avios.

[QUOTE=”MidSouth Skier, post: 33841, member: 184″]My mistake, I read that as LAX-LIS, not the other way around.

I’m thinking it’s phantom space showing on AA.com. I looked on the Qantas site and don’t see it available there. Expert Flyer is not showing any business class award space either.

Remember, you don’t have to use your Avios on BA flights. They’re great for short hops on AA where you can get an award seat for as little as 7500 Avios.[/QUOTE]

It’s real space as I booked that flight for 2 people! I really would like to know how BA can not give the space when it’s available on both AA and Alaska! Shall I repost the question? Thanks for your time.

[QUOTE=”rpmbaja, post: 33846, member: 3351″]It’s real space as I booked that flight for 2 people! I really would like to know how BA can not give the space when it’s available on both AA and Alaska! Shall I repost the question? Thanks for your time.[/QUOTE]

Hi, I’m confused. If you booked the flight already, what’s the issue? You’d rather use your Avios instead of AA or Alaska miles?

Unless you went all the way through the booking process and actually ticketed the flight, there’s still the possibility that it’s phantom space and if you did ticket it then naturally we’re not going to be able to see that award space now. If BA’s own site does not show it, Qantas doesn’t show it and Expert Flyer doesn’t show it, the space is not available, regardless of what AA’s website says.

And if you book with Avios, you’ll use their award chart prices, not AA’s so on a day during peak season you’ll pay 75K Avios + $486.90 per person, according to [URL=’https://www.britishairways.com/travel/avios-calculator/public/en_gb?eId=199006′]BA’s Avios Calculator page[/URL]. (Off-peak it’s 62.5K Avios plus the same cash)