We inquired with American Airlines’ spokesperson Tim Smith about new opportunities for Bay Area travelers to earn AAdvantage miles on British Airways flights to London as a result of the new British Airways+American Airlines+Iberia alliance. Here’s what he said:
Previous to the joint business with AA-BA-IB being launched, our AAdvantage members would not have earned miles on a British Airways flight between SFO and London. We did not codeshare on those flights so there was no provision to earn miles.
Now, under our joint business relationship, all three airlines’ flights between North America and Europe are now linked by that agreement, so our AAdvantage members will earn miles regardless of which airline – American, British Airways or Iberia — is actually flying their flight.
So, since it is 5,368 miles from SFO to London-Heathrow, a round trip in the coach cabin would earn the AAdvantage member 10,736 miles. Round trip in the business cabin would earn 13,420 miles (Business cabin earns 125 percent of the base miles).
POSTED ON OCT 11>> MORE DETAILS!
REDEMPTION:
· AAdvantage members may redeem miles for travel on all BA flights, including trans-Atlantic flights between the U.S. and the U.K.
· AAdvantage members may redeem their miles for an upgrade on AA, BA or IB, including on Codeshare flights both marketed and operated by AA, BA or IB
EARNING:
- All BA flights, including trans-Atlantic flights between the U.S. and the U.K., are eligible for AAdvantage mileage accrual
- British Airways flights flown in discount economy class will earn 100% of base miles flown
- These miles count as Elite Qualifying miles
- AAdvantage Executive Platinum members and AAdvantage Platinum members will earn elite status bonus miles for BA flights (Note – AAdvantage Gold members will not earn elite status bonus miles on BA.)
This isn’t that great a deal for AA members for many, many reasons, of which I’ll list two.
1. Only full-fare BA tickets are upgradable; even so, full-fare economy only upgrades to World Traveler+ (not business).
2. AA members now have to pay all fuel surcharges when redeeming miles to travel into or out of the the UK (transits excepted). These are pretty massive, and make BA quite uncompetitive relative to AA.
Overall, the transatlantic cooperation looks great on the surface, but the general consensus among AA members is disappointment. The Iberia options are still reasonable.
Thanks for your good question! Here’s the answer from AA:
AAdvantage members may redeem miles for travel on all BA flights, including trans-Atlantic flights between the U.S. and the U.K.
AAdvantage members may redeem their miles for an upgrade on AA, BA or IB, including on Codeshare flights both marketed and operated by AA, BA or IB
Sounds great since I am a Gold Advantage Member but do those miles count as qualifying miles and can you use AA miles to upgrade on BA flights? I wasn’t too sure.