xyz123

I'm planning a trip in late May for a couple of weeks going from JFK to AMS and returns from LHR....going to AA.com I come up with the idea that the cheapest way to do it would be an AA code share on BA to LHR, connecting to AMS with a return on an AA code share on BA. If I did the trans-Atlantic flights on AA, it would be $150 more. But now I have some questions which AA web site doesn't seem to answer.

When I read the AA web site concerning its alliance with BA, it has the following 2 sentences. Check in for code share flights on BA at the BA check in except at JFK in NY. Okay seems clear. But the next sentence says check in for flights directly to Manchester UK at BA. Does that mean I check in for the LHR flight at AA? Or at BA? (And of course that means shlepping on the air train between terminal 8 and terminal 7).

Also later on in the same FAQ about the "merger" it goes on to say AA flights to LHR arrive at terminal 3 which of course is true. But then it says connecting flights on BA leaves from terminals 1,2,3,4 but we all know that BA has moved all its operations at LHR to terminal 5 which the AA web site doesn't seem to know exists. I make this point to show how th einformation being provided by AA about this is totally out of whack somehow. I am almost sure the code share flight on BA will arrive in terminal 5 and then the connecting flight to Amsterdam will leave from terminal 5.

Of course, it might be better to take a DL code share on KLM non stop to Amsterdam (but where do I check in for that) and return on DL from LHR (which I know leaves from terminal 4) but I need the AA miles more than the DL miles.

Anybody with anything helpful to say. Thanks

AAFrequentFlyer

Anytime you have a code share flight you check in with the airline you'll be flying.

rkkwan

Like what you read on the responses on Flyertalk, that page on aa.com is horrible out of date.

avalon

I was under te impression that you could not use AA miles to fly internationally on BA as AA flys the same routes. You'd better check.

rkkwan

avalon - That was true for a long time, but no longer.

avalon

Glad to hear that rkkwan. I have lots of AA miles but prefer flying direct on BA!

P_M

Avalon, sorry to bring some bad news but BA's freebies are pretty expensive. They add fuel surcharges to the tax you pay on award tickets whereas AA doesn't seem to do that.

As an example, I just now went to ba.com and priced an award ticket from Houston to London. I then went to aa.com and priced the exact same ticket for the same dates. Here's how they priced out:

BA: $530.16
AA $173.20

BA does have nicer flights than AA but for me it's not worth the differnece in price.

julia1

<i>"we all know that BA has moved all its operations at LHR to terminal 5"</i>.

Not quite. I arrived earlier this week at T3 on a BA flight from Madrid - BA metal, BA number, BA marketed. T3.

BA uses T3 & T5.

Check it out here: http://www.britishairways.com/travel...=searchResults

crosscheck

We recently used AA/BA to fly from LAX to Nairobi. We used vouchers for the first leg (LAX-BOS), AA award tickets for the second leg (BOS-LHR), and purchased BA tickets (which we later paid to upgrade) for the LHR-NBO segment. We did have to do the T3-T5 transfer at LHR, but were able to use both BA and AA lounges. And even though the tickets were on separate records, checked in for all three outbound flights at AA in LA and all three return flights at BA in NBO.