Reader Email: American Airlines Stiffing Me For EQD And EQM’s For A British Airways Flight?

A LoyaltyLobby reader sent us a question about trouble getting upgraded British Airways flights credited to American Airlines AAdvantage.

Readers are encouraged to send us questions, comments, or opinions by email, Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram. We’ll try to cover them here several times a week.

Here’s the email from the reader:

I flew to London on a British Airways flight.  Plugged in all my numbers for AA and they were on my reservation and on my tickets printed off.

BA had canceled a Rome flight during pandemic and I had a $200 credit when I paid for the flight.

I paid for premium economy seats and the flight was $900.  Then I used the upgrade to business class for $500 on the way there so I could sleep.

I just got the points for the flight back home but they gave me no points for the flight there and it states ineligible award ticket. So they are treating my voucher as an award?  I don’t understand how they can pull the whole flight for a $200 voucher I was forced to take at the time of the Rome flight cancellation.

Am I missing something and did something wrong?  I was really close to getting platinum and this will not get me there now.

On a side note, my AA account hasn’t rolled over to 0 from last year.  Are they giving us a grace period or letting us keep that for this year?  If so then I need to take advantage of it and get platinum with a few more flights!

British Airways updated its underlying loyalty system last year (read more here, here, here, and here) that has caused issues crediting their flights to partner programs that we have also covered (read more here).

However, the reader’s issue doesn’t have anything to do with this or the credit voucher used.

When the return was upgraded from Premium Economy, BA calls it World Traveler Plus, it booked into award inventory, and AA could not see the original booking class.

The reader needs to send the original e-ticket receipt to AAdvantage customer service with a note that it was later upgraded. American should give credit to World Traveler Plus.

The 2021 status qualification runs until February 28, 2022, due to AA’s moving to March 1 – February 28 qualification period and, very confusing, Loyalty Points.

Conclusion

There are often issues with upgraded flights correctly crediting to partner programs because they often, although not always, book into a booking class assigned to award inventory.

I have had this very same issue when trying to get Aegean upgraded flights credited to other mileage programs than their own Miles+Bonus.

The reader can get this resolved with the help of AAdvantage customer service if they have competent agents available, which could be a challenge in the current environment.