OWE booking basic economy

[Daver6]

Hi all,

What's the latest in terms of a QF OWE booking an AA domestic flight in basic economy.



The following blurb possibly indicates no seat selection and no priority boarding. Surely that can't be correct? I can see that OWE free baggage allowance would apply though.

Anyone able to shed light on this?

 

[SYD]

Hi all,

What's the latest in terms of a QF OWE booking an AA domestic flight in basic economy.

View attachment 311837

The following blurb possibly indicates no seat selection and no priority boarding. Surely that can't be correct? I can see that OWE free baggage allowance would apply though.

Anyone able to shed light on this?

Standby. I was looking at this the other day and convinced myself it’s not that dire although we ended up booking AS F…. I’ll see if I have the link.

 

[SYD]

I know you won’t get Main Cabin extra anymore, they limited that to AA, AS, AY, BA, IB, JL and QR. Strange QF isn’t on that list given the partnership…

Main Cabin Extra − Travel information − American Airlines

www.aa.com

I would still expect priority boarding (and obviously Lounge access).

There was a thread or two pre-Covid discussing the extra bag or not.

 

[SYD]

Here’s the bag story. If I read this correctly, you’d still 3 bags free?

Checked bag policy − Travel information − American Airlines

www.aa.com

There are some exclusions (*) for basic economy but that appears to be on some specific international routes?

 

[Daver6]

I also concluded no issue with 3 free bags and agree re no MCE seating.

However regarding the seating the specifically calling out AA Advantage and a couple of other airlines for exemptions. No exemption call out for boarding except for AA Advantage. Boarding last would be a problem for overhead locker space I suspect. You'd think OW benefits should trump any restrictions though on boarding last.

 

[SYD]

OWE Group 2 here. No exception noted for basic economy.

Boarding process − Travel information − American Airlines

www.aa.com

 

[Daver6]

OWE Group 2 here. No exception noted for basic economy.

Boarding process − Travel information − American Airlines

www.aa.com

That's pretty promising. Thanks for finding that. Makes basic economy an acceptable option in my book.

 

[SYD]

That's pretty promising. Thanks for finding that. Makes basic economy an acceptable option in my book.

Yeah. I was looking at Main Cabin v F. I also had lingering doubts noting the BA equivalent.

 

[voulez]

Flew two domestic AA flights in Nov and was pre-assigned MCE for free via the AA hotline (I think they transferred me to a separate OW team after confirming WP/OWE?). Pretty seamless, did this twice separately for both flights, so may be a fluke.

Separately, Southwest's organised chaos of a boarding process with unassigned seating policy was quite the experience! Nothing like walking onboard (last group of boarding since no status/lowest bucket fare) and doing the quick mental calcs on middle seat upfront vs potentially aisle/window seats further down the aisle.

 

[SYD]

Flew two domestic AA flights in Nov and was pre-assigned MCE for free via the AA hotline (I think they transferred me to a separate OW team after confirming WP/OWE?). Pretty seamless, did this twice separately for both flights, so may not be a fluke.

Are you a QF or AA (or other) OWE?

As per earlier post and link, MCE is a published benefit but no longer for QF WP. I had it on a trip precovid as an QF WP, including comp sandwich and drink.

 

[Daver6]

As per earlier post and link, MCE is a published benefit but no longer for QF WP. I had it on a trip precovid as an QF WP, including comp sandwich and drink.

Those were the days!

 

[voulez]

Are you a QF or AA (or other) OWE?

As per earlier post and link, MCE is a published benefit but no longer for QF WP. I had it on a trip precovid as an QF WP, including comp sandwich and drink.

QF WP here and while I wasn't able to manually select MCE via the AA app, they were able to do it for me on the phone. There's a chance on both separate calls, they incorrectly assumed QF OWE had similar access to MCE as other published OWE

 

[Daver6]

QF WP here and while I wasn't able to manually select MCE via the AA app, they were able to do it for me on the phone. There's a chance on both separate calls, they incorrectly assumed QF OWE had similar access to MCE as other published OWE

Did you just call their AU number?

 

[ksthommo]

You could try the chat function on the AA app

 

[trooper]

Separately, Southwest's organised chaos of a boarding process with unassigned seating policy was quite the experience! Nothing like walking onboard (last group of boarding since no status/lowest bucket fare) and doing the quick mental calcs on middle seat upfront vs potentially aisle/window seats further down the aisle.

IME check in time is the decider for boarding position on any normal Southwest fare... ?????

 

[Daver6]

I tried using the AA app chat. No dice with getting MCE seats allocated. They were on top of it

I actually landed up just booking an award flight rather than economy lite. 12k QFF points for $5USD taxes seemed like much better value than coughing up ~$230 AUD.

 

[SYD]

I tried using the AA app chat. No dice with getting MCE seats allocated. They were on top of it

I actually landed up just booking an award flight rather than economy lite. 12k QFF points for $5USD taxes seemed like much better value than coughing up ~$230 AUD.

How did you go with seat selection on the reward flight?

I just booked one earlier today BZN-ORD on AA F class. Booking appeared in QF MMB but no seat selection. The QF PNR wasn’t recognised by CMT (which I thought was odd), RJ only had the ticket numbers (which is always useful). So I figured I’d start working my way through the rest of OW airlines.

Cut a long story short the next I tried was BA. It recognised it was an AA flight and that seat selection was available. It showed me the AA PNR and a quick click of a link and it went straight to the AA MMB page. Seats selected.

As an aside, BA is good like that for IB also.

The interesting thing is, our revenue flights home from YUL on AA metal, QF codes all allow seat selection on QF MMB.

 

[Daver6]

How did you go with seat selection on the reward flight?

I just booked one earlier today BZN-ORD on AA F class. Booking appeared in QF MMB but no seat selection. The QF PNR wasn’t recognised by CMT (which I thought was odd), RJ only had the ticket numbers (which is always useful). So I figured I’d start working my way through the rest of OW airlines.

Cut a long story short the next I tried was BA. It recognised it was an AA flight and that seat selection was available. It showed me the AA PNR and a quick click of a link and it went straight to the AA MMB page. Seats selected.

As an aside, BA is good like that for IB also.

The interesting thing is, our revenue flights home from YUL on AA metal, QF codes all allow seat selection on QF MMB.

You need to contact AA to get the AA PNR which is different to the QF one. It's actually a painless procedure. I've done this a couple of times by contacting AA on Twitter using direct messages. You can also call AA or message them using the AA app. Once you have the AA PNR, use this on the AA website/app to select seats.

I'd actually recommend using the app and adding your booking there. You'll get bag tracking via the app which is pretty neat. I wish QF has this.

 

[SYD]

You need to contact AA to get the AA PNR which is different to the QF one. It's actually a painless procedure. I've done this a couple of times by contacting AA on Twitter using direct messages. You can also call AA or message them using the AA app. Once you have the AA PNR, use this on the AA website/app to select seats.

I'd actually recommend using the app and adding your booking there. You'll get bag tracking via the app which is pretty neat. I wish QF has this.

As per my post, ba.com had the AA PNR for my reward booking - which is a nice hack!

Yes, I’ve got that booking in the AA app now. I love the baggage tracker function.

 

[Daver6]

The interesting thing is, our revenue flights home from YUL on AA metal, QF codes all allow seat selection on QF MMB.

It's still worth getting the AA PNR and selecting with AA. I had better seats available to me doing it this was as a OWE.

As per my post, ba.com had the AA PNR for my reward booking - which is a nice hack!

Yes, I’ve got that booking in the AA app now. I love the baggage tracker function.

Ooops. I'll admit I only half read your post. Ooops! Good hack to know though.