Book through American Air or British Air

It seems British Air charges for seat selection on their flights and that can add significantly to the cost. American Airlines doesn’t charge for seat selection BUT if it’s a British Air flight booked thru AA, you still pay unless you wait the 24 hours before flight which isn’t always the ideal time for seat selection. Phew :-).

I fly from ORD to LHR somewhat frequently.

I generally find the United options are cheapest. I do sometimes fly American if the price is better. I avoid BA - either their metal or codeshares.

Poor experiences with BA in the past - perhaps that has changed, but they lost my business years ago. I am not interested in trying them again.

Edit adding - be sure of what you are looking at. There are flights with both American as the carrier (their metal) and flights with BA metal. The codeshare bit can be confusing.

Which airline is actually flying the plane? If the flight is operated by BA, I’d probably book on the BA Site. If it is operated by AA, I’d probably book on the AA site.

Have you checked AA and BA for their respective change and cancellation policy and fees? In my case I fly Virgin Atlantic but book via Delta. No fee to change my flight. I do have to pay or get a credit for the fare difference. If I cancel then I get a delta credit. Virgin Atlantic has more prohibitive polices.

I also fly frequently from Chicago to London. British Airways have also lost my luggage for an entire European trip. I would most definitely stick with the customer service provided by American Airlines. I trust that BA have good pilots and so forth, but their customer service in my experience is terrible.

I've found British Airways much preferable to American Airlines for my flights to London. I find BA more comfortable/pleasant. However, I think it really doesn't matter what people say until you figure it out for yourself. Attraction or dislike of airlines is often subjective. What bothers one person, doesn't bother the next, etc. Airlines are both hated and liked, it just depends on the events of each day. So, pick the route and time and price that you want and go for it.

I have OneWorld status, so I have a bias towards AA & BA.
I agree with many of the comments above.

If you are between BA & AA, I'd say if all things are "equal", book with the carrier operating the flight.

Experiences differ, as you can see from the earlier comments. The cost to select a seat at the time of ticket purchase, however, is a baked-in feature of British Airways flights--at least in my experience. And the last time I checked, the fee was a bit higher than what other European airlines typically charge. Just be sure you compare the total cost of purchase. The seat-selection fee usually makes BA the more costly option.

Whilst it's true that BA charges for seat selection can be more than others, they are of course optional. If, like me, you are not really bothered where you sit then you can choose seats from what's left when you check in.

Thanks for your insight. I will probably go with BA, because the sale is pretty good and the flights I've chosen have no seat fee. Hopefully all will go well. My hands sweat every time I hit the final buy button. Ha ha ha. I appreciate the time you took to reply.

Just to update. The flights we wanted were both through BA, so we chose to book through them. I was having a terrible time booking, because at the pay screen it would give me an error. My friend was getting the same error. Same thing today. She then used her BA # and it worked. The sale must be a hit because shortly after, the website noted it was temporarily offline because of overwhelming traffic. When I finally got in again I tried with my AA # same error. Redid with no Flyer # and it went through. I got a fully refundable, direct round trip, selected seats with no charge for less than I paid 2 years ago. Score!