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Home  >  American Airlines • Award Bookings • British Airways  >  British Airways Officially Acknowledges AA Award Booking Issue
American AirlinesAward BookingsBritish Airways

British Airways Officially Acknowledges AA Award Booking Issue

Matthew Klint Posted onMay 29, 2018November 14, 2023 12 Comments

a white airplane in the sky

For several weeks, it has been difficult (though not impossible) to book award flights on American Airlines using the British Airways Executive Club website. While the problem is not fixed, at least British Airways has acknowledged it.

Lately, AA award space has simply not shown up. Nothing. Whether domestic or international, business or economy, the space does not appear. The only way around it was to toggle between dates, sometimes 20-30 times (with the annoying catachpas, since the website assumes you are a bot), and somehow the space would randomly pop in. In other words, if I am looking for an AA flight from JFK to London on May 17th and I verified it on aa.com, I would need to search for the 17th, 16th, 18th, over and over again until the space popped up on the 17th. Sometimes that took just a few clicks, often it took far more.

I used this “trick” to successfully book several Award Expert clients on American Airlines with BA miles. Even so, this was an annoying and time-consuming workaround.

a screenshot of a flight schedule

I have no idea what causes the problem. I don’t think British Airways does either. But at least BA is acknowledging it now. This banner now appears above the online award search tool:

a white text on a blue background

And while I appreciate the acknowledgment, I’ve found that reservation agents are also having trouble finding the space. Some can, some cannot. Thus, I’ll stick to the date toggling “fix” I outlined above.

CONCLUSION

Acceptance is the first step to recovery. I’m pleased to see British Airways officially acknowledge the issue. Now comes the question of how long it will take BA to correct it. Let’s hope not long…

image: Mark Harkin / Wikimedia Commons

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About Author

Matthew Klint

Matthew is an avid traveler who calls Los Angeles home. Each year he travels more than 200,000 miles by air and has visited more than 135 countries. Working both in the aviation industry and as a travel consultant, Matthew has been featured in major media outlets around the world and uses his Live and Let's Fly blog to share the latest news in the airline industry, commentary on frequent flyer programs, and detailed reports of his worldwide travel.

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12 Comments

  1. iv Reply
    May 29, 2018 at 10:54 am

    Well, let’s hope BA does a better job than Aeroplan because you still can’t book Avianca and LOT. Speaking of Aeroplan what happened with SWISS F ticket?

    • A Reply
      May 29, 2018 at 3:30 pm

      +1 on the Swiss F ticket.

  2. Justin Reply
    May 29, 2018 at 10:55 am

    I just did the same for a ZRH-PHL flight. Took about 17 clicks of the calendar but it finally popped up. It appears they’re putting the blame on AA for this.

  3. Curt Lader Reply
    May 29, 2018 at 11:02 am

    Once you make an American Airlines award on British Airways, you are unable to manage that booking including choosing your seat and checking in. The website does not load.

  4. John D. Reply
    May 29, 2018 at 12:05 pm

    Called BA yesterday and even the agent wasn’t able to see any AA availability, so it’s not just restricted to their website. Couldn’t book a ticket that was showing had award availability on AA’s site.

  5. Mick Reply
    May 29, 2018 at 12:48 pm

    I am not seeing a lot of Cathay on baec either. Not sure why. Usually they seem to correspond pretty well if I’m not mistaken. For example I’m looking at Ord to hkg and qantas shows 3x first class on 4 June and 3x business on 30 May. Both direct on Cathay. Neither shows on ba.

  6. Mick Reply
    May 29, 2018 at 12:54 pm

    Actually scratch that. I had my search wrong 🙁

    • Matthew Reply
      May 29, 2018 at 2:55 pm

      That would have surprised me if you had not since Cathay never releases more than one seat at a time in advance.

  7. Mick Reply
    May 29, 2018 at 4:11 pm

    Actually my mistake was not seeing them Matthew! I was erroneously searching for economy and the ba search only shows three classes so it wasn’t showing first.

    Both Cathay and qantas were showing three first class seats (Cathay stated three and my Qantas search was for three adults and showed availability).

    It’s a week too soon for me unfortunately!

    I have seen 2 seats available a few times noting that I have only been searching in the last two weeks.

  8. Mick Reply
    May 29, 2018 at 4:14 pm

    Just checked and can still it on the BA app. 3x seats in first.

  9. Jason Reply
    May 29, 2018 at 7:59 pm

    Seems like these issues tend to come and go. For the longest time with United, finding space on Singapore and Ethiopian was impossible…then SQ came online briefly, then gone. Makes you wonder if these are true systems compatibility issues, or manipulation of what they show.

  10. Linda Olsen Reply
    May 30, 2018 at 1:38 am

    BA use Avios, not miles as you incorrectly stated.

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