British Airways/American Airlines

Is your routing on AA from SFO to LHR, then BA from there to Madrid? Did you book it on AA?

I've been flying either BA or AA across the pond a few times a year for many years. Never any real problems.

Anytime there is a change with the flight, I get notified. Even if the fight times change by a couple of minutes.

What's the problem?

HI Lola,
Thanks for responding. We booked BA SFO-MAD and AA from MAD-SFO. Departure "operated by B.A." and Return "operated by AA".
I will need to check on BA record at SFO and AA's record from MAD.
All intell appreciated!

Hi Frank,
Good to hear your experience has been good with BA/AA. I don't know what their record is from "Freedonia" but as I said the web/app accuracy has been terrible.
That's my concern as everything today is done by AI, whatever they are paying the robots will determine the flight experience or even getting a boarding pass, making it on the plane, especially whether online/app data has errors on passports, trip notifications, etc.

If you booked on AA, you are probably traveling an AA flight number to MAD and an AA flight number home. You were given a record locator for AA. If you need the BA record locater, you have to call AA to get it. Once you have that, you can log onto your flight information on either the BA webpage or app.

Or vice versa if you booked on BA and need the AA record locater.

I don't know what kind of AI problems are you having? Tell us exactly so we can help. Because honestly, it makes no sense to me.

I can’t see how chatbots and AI are getting involved at all, unless you are trying to chat. Why not just use the BA website? We have been flying with them nearly every year for 20 years and have never had a problem such as you describe, unless the website was actually “down”. There was a time in the past when filling out one’s API was hit-or-miss, but I haven’t seen that issue for several years.

Do as Frank II suggests and call AA to get the BA record locator number. Then use that in “Manage My Booking” on BA to access your travel document area.

I honestly wouldn't place any of the carriers who regularly serve USA-Europe much higher than AA and BA. Delta is a little nicer, but it's unfailingly way more expensive from west coast USA to Europe. (I fly out of LAX, typically.)

EC, no, if you want to choose your seats more than a certain number of days ahead of time, you have to pay extra. Even in business class. It's annoying, at best.

TO: Red

Thank you for your wisdom about BA and AA's codeshare with them. Absolutely, positively we aren't on Iberia! They couldn't pay me to fly with them. This AA flight SFO (LHR connection) MAD is definitely operated by BA. Return MAD (through PHL)-SFO is AA. There are zero non-stops to Spain from SFO, (UA, AA, Turkish, Delta)-that's what makes Spain such a pain (NPI) from SFO hub.
We had some good luck when finally getting through to AA customer service/advantage after multiple attempts. Husband was concerned that his profile name did not match the pp but the rep showed him how to check exactly what the ticket says online & everything looks right. The rep he spoke to, told him profile doesn't matter, it's all what the ticket says (UA boarding passes wouldn't function before a long haul trip due to confusion on his multiple names -don't ask me why he chose to have all his special names on his airline/passport data.)
I also spoke to an AA rep, who told me that using a desktop/laptop always best...she said the 'app is an app' - so that was a relief, bc all looks consistent on the BA/AA website. Also learned that BA/AA doesn't require one to provide a photo scan for the boarding pass; that is done at the airport the day of; UA requires a photo scan, which fails repeatedly-have a real pain, but one then just skates through to security at the airport.
We are 'married' to UA (all the useless points reside there) but their layovers, connections and all were terrible. It's a bit concerning flying a new airline and learning all their rules.
Question: have you flown long-haul on BA out of SFO? UA dominates at SFO, wondering if BA can get their planes out there!
Thank you so very much for your help! And I may be re-connecting with you...before September.
Patricia

To EC & Lola and all the other wonderful folks who reached out:

No third party: always book direct through the airlines.

Re. the record locator, the first thing I did during the search was to check the BA website, then got the record locator for both the BA and AA flights. And got my acct at BA. BAEC still has my phone registered in both Canada and Martinique.

Re. AI/bots: Well I have to disagree with you, we are in the early domination by AI, but bots have been inside the airline bookings process for at least a decade. The root of much evil. I did learn tho that apps can be a big mess bc besides using bots there are software mismatches between phone OS (apps & bots) and a computer platform.

Cheers! Feeling alot better now since I had the privilege of all your good help!
JP

British airways operates 2 daily flights from San Francisco to Heathrow. Early flight is on an Airbus A 380 and evening flight on B 777. They also flew a flight out of San Jose but discontinued it last year.

https://www.flightaware.com/live/findflight?origin=KSFO&destination=EGLL

UA dominates at SFO, wondering if BA can get their planes out there!

Airlines don't decide what other airlines operate out of an airport. The airport does along with the FAA. And the airline pays for the privilege.

BA has been flying to SFO for years.

Yes, some airline apps are a waste of time. (Are you listening BA?) The websites are usually fine. But BA's can be horrible. That's not AI, that's poor IT.

It seems that any problem you had was fixed by talking to an airline representative.

We sometimes choose the BA flight to SFO instead of Seattle when coming home, because we have family to visit there, and we like the A380 business class. The plane that we come in on turns around and returns to London that evening, so yes, BA can get their planes off the ground at SFO.