How to change your seat on an AA flight bought on Qantas.com (Advice)

[RedSMS]

I had some difficulty recently in regards to selecting/purchasing an extra legroom seat on an AA flight bought through Qantas/Codeshare. This is a domestic connection from a QF intl flight from Aus to USA. To save you guys the hassle, I'll explain to you how it's done.

On AA's desktop site, scroll down to the bottom of the page. Underneath "helpful links" there is a section with a darker background that contains 3 columns, "Help", "About American" & "Extras".


Under the Help column, click on the Contact American link.
A new page will appear titled American Customer Service, and underneath that it says "How can we help?

There are 3 columns immediately below that. Under on the last link of the 3rd column ( Bags, clubs and more), click on Special Assistance.

A new page will load titled Contact Special Assistance. Click on the first link (Special assistance.)

The Special Assistance page will load, click on the 4th link (Submit a Special assistance request).

When the "How can we help you?" Page loads, there will be two boxes. Mark Customer Relations in the topic box. After this, a 3rd box will appear called Reason. Mark "Question" in the subject box, then "future travel" in the Reason box.

Fill out all the details as accurately as possible. As QF & AA use different booking systems, your AA ticket number will be different (13 digits, not 15.)

For this process, find the Qantas E-Ticket Itinerary & Receipt, which was sent by email once QF issued your ticket. If you can't find it, go to the QF website or app and find the relevant booking. Click "Manage", and on the next page, click the manage button and hit "email itinerary". When you open the .pdf file it will display your E-Ticket number in this format:
402- 5991222488 - 14.
Your AA E-Ticket number will be the same as your QF one, MINUS the last 3 digits, IE:
402-5991222488

Hope this helps !

 

[jpp42]

The point of this is simply to get your AA booking reference, right? And then use that normally on AA's manage booking page to purchase the seat? How long did it take AA to respond?

Normally I'd say you should contact the marketing airline, Qantas in this case, to get the booking reference on the operating airline, but we know how poor the call centres are and I don't think there's anyway to see this on the Qantas MMB page. I am not sure why this is not regularly done (showing the booking references for operating carriers), as I've had the same issue with QF/JQ or SQ/TR.

As noted this is only an issue if the airlines use separate GDS's (Qantas = Amadeus, AA = Sabre, Jetstar = Navitaire). If they are on the same GDS, it can be the same booking ref (PNR) on multiple operating carriers, for example British Airways also uses Amadeus, so a BA and Qantas booking purchased together will use the same PNR on both Qantas and BA's MMB page.

 

[justinbrett]

Go to checkmytrip.com and enter your Qantas PNR

It will have your ticket numbers and should have the AA record locator (what they call PNR)

 

[RedSMS]

The point of this is simply to get your AA booking reference, right? And then use that normally on AA's manage booking page to purchase the seat? How long did it take AA to respond?

Normally I'd say you should contact the marketing airline, Qantas in this case, to get the booking reference on the operating airline, but we know how poor the call centres are and I don't think there's anyway to see this on the Qantas MMB page. I am not sure why this is not regularly done (showing the booking references for operating carriers), as I've had the same issue with QF/JQ or SQ/TR.

As noted this is only an issue if the airlines use separate GDS's (Qantas = Amadeus, AA = Sabre, Jetstar = Navitaire). If they are on the same GDS, it can be the same booking ref (PNR) on multiple operating carriers, for example British Airways also uses Amadeus, so a BA and Qantas booking purchased together will use the same PNR on both Qantas and BA's MMB page.

Correct my OP could be rephrased as "How to get your AA booking ref for QF codeshare flight"

 

[justinbrett]

Am I imagining that you used to click on a link within MMB and it would open up your booking in the AA website?

I don't have a booking to test at the moment, but I remember there's a different between codeshare flights on your QF ticket and AA numbered flights on your QF ticket. I think one could be selected using the QF interface, the other was via the link to AA.

 

[RedSMS]

Am I imagining that you used to click on a link within MMB and it would open up your booking in the AA website?

I don't have a booking to test at the moment, but I remember there's a different between codeshare flights on your QF ticket and AA numbered flights on your QF ticket. I think one could be selected using the QF interface, the other was via the link to AA.

Well, if you want to test it, log in to your QFF account, book an intl flight, select seats etc, just make sure to go all the way to the pmt page, wait a min or two, then type in another website or go back and look at random flights for a few secs.

QF have created so many e-tickets for me without payment before withdrawing them it's a joke.

If you are Gold (I am) they will not only create the e-ticket for you, but will hold certain bookings for PMT until midnight.

 

[DC3]

The QF Call Centre can provide the AA Booking Reference.

On the AA site, go to Manage trips/Check-in, to select seats, and pay for extra leg room/MCE, if necessary.

https://www.aa.com/homePage.do?locale=en_US&pref=true#aa-viewReservations

 

[jpp42]

The QF Call Centre can provide the AA Booking Reference.

Yes, but who wants to contact the QF call centre? I think the point was a way to find it from AA without having to be on hold for hours.

The better solution seems to be checkmytrip.com, wasn't aware of this service, very neat.

 

[justinbrett]

Ah - I'm not going crazy.

You put your QF PNR into BA - and BA will let you choose AA seats (and thus give you your AA PNR)

I knew it was something like that.

This is only for AA flight numbers - the QF flight numbers (including AA codeshares) can be done through QF.

 

[DC3]

Yes, but who wants to contact the QF call centre? I think the point was a way to find it from AA without having to be on hold for hours.

No waiting on hold. I use the Call Back. Works for me, but hey …

 

[kangarooflyer88]

If you flight is ticketed by one airline but operated by another, the record locator on your ticket may or may not be what you need to make changes to that reservation. It varies a lot from airline to airline. For instance, I once booked an award ticket on Air Canada's Aeroplan frequent flyer program for Toronto to Dubai on Air Canada, Dubai to Cairo on Egypt Air, Cairo to Zurich on Egypt Air & Swiss, and Zurich to Toronto on United. There were three record locators: one for United, one for Air Canada and one for both Swiss & Egypt Air.

-RooFlyer88

 

[jpp42]

No waiting on hold. I use the Call Back. Works for me, but hey …

Lucky you, I've rarely been offered it.

 

[Canterbury]

Thanks for he thread, i finally got the number so i decided to upgrade my seat on my AA flight, it was unable to process tried 3 times, got charged three times. now in Australia trying to get hold of AA, what a bloody pain to deal with

 

[Lynda2475]

BA website (which recognises QF PNR) is easiest way to get Booking Ref for AA flights. You can then just go straight to AA.com use that reference to select seats.

 

[MEL_Traveller]

I have found QF issued tickets for AA don’t like the Aussie AA site… but work ok with the US version (location). Just in case you were trying one or the other

 

[noflyzonenz]

Wondering if anyone has experienced not being able to seat select Codeshare Qantas flights on an American Airlines ticket.
I was able to select seats on AA for 2 flights, but not for my two Qantas flights. If I try to select online at Qantas it goes through the process, thinks about it, and takes me back to the seat select main screen. I called the call centre and she wasn't able to change and said try at the airport haha
Anyone have a fix?
Much appreciated

 

[SYD]

Wondering if anyone has experienced not being able to seat select Codeshare Qantas flights on an American Airlines ticket.
I was able to select seats on AA for 2 flights, but not for my two Qantas flights. If I try to select online at Qantas it goes through the process, thinks about it, and takes me back to the seat select main screen. I called the call centre and she wasn't able to change and said try at the airport haha
Anyone have a fix?
Much appreciated

Hi, welcome to AFF.

Do you have status with QANTAS? Free selection or availability of better seats is a function of status.

Do you have the PNR for the QANTAS flights so you can do seat selection on Qantas.com (manage my booking)? Alternatively, you could try the Royal Jordanian rj.com website (sounds naff, but several other Oneworld airline‘s website provide handy functions that others don’t).

 

[jrfsp]

Wondering if anyone has experienced not being able to seat select Codeshare Qantas flights on an American Airlines ticket.
I was able to select seats on AA for 2 flights, but not for my two Qantas flights. If I try to select online at Qantas it goes through the process, thinks about it, and takes me back to the seat select main screen. I called the call centre and she wasn't able to change and said try at the airport haha
Anyone have a fix?
Much appreciated

Yes i also have the same issue. According to the Hobart call centre can no longer select seats when booked as a codeshare.

 

[SYD]

Yes i also have the same issue. According to the Hobart call centre can no longer select seats when booked as a codeshare.

That sounds a bit odd. Pretty sure there was another thread with a similar issue but I can’t find it under QF or AA threads.

Again, I assume you have the QF PNR and can see that under QF MMB?

 

[jrfsp]

That sounds a bit odd. Pretty sure there was another thread with a similar issue but I can’t find it under QF or AA threads.

Again, I assume you have the QF PNR and can see that under QF MMB?

Yes, and the call centre cannot do it either. I think its been "enhanced" away.