Connection time at Heathrow!

Before you go the TAP route, have you tried all of AA's other partners - i.e. can you catch an Iberia flight from Lisbon to either Madrid or Barcelona and come home from there? Just a thought. Sometimes the agents won't look unless you prompt them for it.

We can, but Amereican requires 60K miles for the Madrid routing instead of 30K. I don't want to use another 60k miles for my wife and I.

If you can route your bag through from Lisbon to Chicago, it would make your life easier. Then all you have to do is transit from one terminal to another. You will have to go through security but not immigration and customs. If you can do this than 2 hours should be enough time. Check with TAP to see it they will do it. If not, two hours will not be enough time.

Since you haven't told us about days or times, our advice is limited. What about the BA flights? Would any of them work? BA will definitely interline your bags all the way through to Chicago. And the BA flight from Lisbon arrives at Terminal 3--same as the AA departure.

Frank, there is a BA flight that leaves at 8:15 and arrives at Heathrow at 10:55 but it is $200 more for both of us. Obviously I would like to save $200 but I do want to make the Chicago flight. Are you sure BA will check out bags through to American?

AA and BA are partner airlines in the One World Alliance. This should not be a problem. But check with TAP first to see if they'll do it.

If not, you'll have to go through immigration, get your bag, go through customs, and re-check in for the AA flight.

So call both BA and TAP and ask if they interline bags with American in London.

Now, I should mention, I haven't checked a bag in Europe for over 18 years. I just do carry on.

I just was able to get American to extend our "hold" until next Tuesday. Hopefully BA will open up some AAdvantage seats out of Lisbon. The agent verified your advice that BA would interline the bags so we can make the connection even if we have to purchase the seats from BA. I will check with TAP and see if it will check our bags through in the meantime. We are spending three weeks in Spain and Portugal. After many trips to Europe I have gotten my wife down to one bag although it is still to big to carry on. Thanks for your help.

One other option which I use often on frequent flyer tickets which may not be ideal for you is to fly LIS-LHR the previous day (assuming that BA has freq flyer seats available). You then continue to check if seats open up for the actual day you want to travel and then switch - I'm pretty sure AA dosen't charge to make these changes so long as the routing stays the same.

Obviously the downside of this is that if nothing opens up you have to be willing to spend a night in London. I love to use this feature of freq flyer tickets that enable me to visit another city but I know that lots of folks like simple travel legs.

Great advice, but I have already tried that. Nothing is available the afternoon before either. I'll just keep trying and see if something opens up before next Tuesday.

We booked our AAdvantage seats from London to Chicago and purchased a British Airways flight from Lisbon to Heathrow. British Airways confirmed that it would check our bags through to Chicago from Lisbon. Even starting 330 days out it is getting more and more difficult to use airline miles for travel anymore.