choosing seats on American Airlines and British Airlines combined multi city flight

When you buy the tickets there will be two separate record locaters. If you buy via AA, you will be able to get your AA seats at time of purchase. After purchase call AA with your AA record locator and they will give you the BA record locater. Once you have the BA locater, go to the BA website and log into your flight via "manage your flight". Once logged in you can buy your seats.

You can't do it all at one website.

Frank II has given you the exact instructions. This is similar to what I will have to do when I buy a roundtrip itinerary for late March between JFK & LHR on the Delta app in which I will be flying to LHR on a day flight on Virgin Atlantic and returning home on Delta.

One thing you can do is moments before you buy on AA's website, set up a dummy reservation for 2 on the BA website for the flight you want on BA so you can see which seats are available at that time. Then buy from the AA website and follow Frank's advice. You hopefully should see most if not all of the seats on the BA flight that you saw in your dummy reservation.

I do not have any trouble getting the British Airways website to show Itineraries with flights on American Airlines as well as BA, even using the multi-city search. There is a combo,with a flight to Heathrow on British Airways, then a return from Glasgow to Heathrow on BA and the leg from Heathrow to Florida ( I used Miami, not FL) on American. The prices appear to be the same or close whether on BA or AA.

Just remember that for the flights on BA you are required to pay at least $36 per seat for advance selection, no matter which site you booked on.

Also, for your flight from Glasgow to London, make sure you arrive at Heathrow. Many of the BA flights gomto London City Airport or Gatwick. Youndo not want to change airports to connect to your overseas flight.

Thanks for the information. I would not have thought to call AA.
But all the seats on British air have to be purchased? That isn’t the case with AA.
And you can buy a return on British airlines but it leaves Edinburgh before 7 am and connects in Heathrow. The American flight leaves at 10:45 am and connects in Philadelphia and goes to Ft Lauderdale for less money. We do fly out of Miami sometimes but it is less convenient so only want to do it for better connection and/or significant savings.

Beth

"But all the seats on British air have to be purchased? That isn’t the case with AA. "

Yes to both. The US carriers haven't started charging for seat selection before check-in, but the European carriers have.

Just something to factor into the total cost, when comparing flight options.

Purchasing seats on British Airlines is only required if you need advanced seat assignment. Otherwise, "you can reserve your seat for free when check-in opens (24 hours before departure)".
https://www.britishairways.com/en-us/information/seating/reserving-your-seat

It is true that one can wait until online checking and choose seats for free on the BA flight. But Beth and her husband are flying on separate tickets,so the free seat assignment will not place them together. She is concerned ( rightly so, I believe) that there may not be any unassigned seat pairs left at that point. Or maybe they would be undesirable middle seats on a 3-4-3 aircraft.

We have discount airlines here that do the same and I do not pay to reserve ahead of time. But my flights are shorter and don’t have the issue with my husband and I. So it seems I need to factor the $36 into the price if I want to fly British airlines.

Thanks so much for clarifying.

Beth

so the free seat assignment will not place them together

I don't think that's a foregone conclusion, but it's a risk one takes when opting out of an advanced seating reservation.

Having two people traveling together on separate tickets who want to sit together changes the equation, I think. I opted not to pay for early seat-selection on a Virgin Atlantic return from London to Washington DC last year, and I had no problem getting an aisle seat. But I only needed the one seat.

I have forgotten all I used to know about calculating odds, but I would say the chances of two given individuals being seated next to each other in the random assignment at 24-hour checkin is pretty slim. While they can move to different seats if they don’t like the ones assigned, there may be no pairs left, because so many passengers get a crack at them first. Also my understanding is the BA check-in assignment process tends to save the paired seats for passengers traveling together on one ticket.

https://www.britishairways.com/en-us/information/seating/reserving-your-seat

Well before on-line check-in, Executive Club members with Silver status or higher can choose seats for free. Then “a few days” before the 24-hour mark, BA will assign paired seats to families traveling together with children under 12. (That is, each young child is supposed to be guaranteed a seat next to one parent, but the whole family is not necessarily kept together). These two classes of pre-assignment, together with the purchased seats, may well use up most of the paired seats on the plane. And singles falling in any of the early assignment categories will likely take most or all of the aisle seats. So if there are any paired seats left for them to choose at check-in, they may well be the two middle seats in the middle section. No aisle and no window.

Their best hope, if they decide to wait, would be to have an empty seat adjacent to one of them, and the other person could move into that.

I will admit that we always pay for our early seat selection on BA, so I have never seen the seating chart as it appears at the moment of online check-in. Maybe someone who has gone that route can describe what is usual at that time.

My experience:

For SkyTeam airlines (Delta, KLM, Air France) the same PNR is used for all airlines, simple.

For Star Alliance airlines (United, Lufthansa, Air Canada) your online United reservation record will list the different PNRs.

For Oneworld: (American, British Airways, Finnair) you have to call.

Just wondering, what is the big deal about whether or not you can sit together on a given flight?

I do understand that if there are kids involved, but for a grownup couple...?

Honestly, I don’t care if we sit together. I have traveled overseas a fair amount by myself and have my routines down. My husband has not traveled as much. But I am working on my husband as I really would rather spend money on something else. He would much rather have me next to him. I told him I planned to sleep. He said maybe it won’t matter then!

Regarding the comment about not understanding why a grownup couple would want to sit together -

My husband is 6-5. His legs are long. We sit together so he can stretch his legs into my space or even sit with his legs impinging on my space. I don’t mind if he does this but some stranger might. We don’t need to sit together but if we do it gives him a bit more space.

Just wanted to share why we, as a couple, would absolutely want to sit together on a long flight. 😃 Plus, we really do like each other and might even talk a bit.

For SkyTeam airlines (Delta, KLM, Air France) the same PNR is used for all airlines, simple.

Tom - On every flight but one, I've had the same experience. On our last Delta/AF flight, the AF flight had a different PNR which caused several in-flight issues. But it was just that once. Every other time I've done that split with Delta, KLM and Air France, the PNR has been the same.