Why I Booked a British Airways Ticket to Fly American

Although United had started a nonstop from Athens to Washington D.C. less than a week after my return home, I was left flying at least a one-stop itinerary. While there are a number of options that fly through Europe to the DC area, I knew it would be more challenging to transit and they would likely not accept the at-home Covid test to renter the United States. There was a stronger chance that something could go wrong compared to transiting in the United States.

That left me transiting through New York, either on Delta or American through JFK or United through Newark (the flight I had flown on the outbound). Knowing I had a chance of reaching American AAdvantage status this year and having access to an elite phone line with American, American was my first choice in flights.

After plugging in my itinerary to google flights I quickly found that United through Newark had the cheapest option coming in less than half the price of its competitors (~$350). I purchased those flights but within a couple of weeks I received notification that those flights had been cancelled due to no available flights to any DMV airport after the Athens flight landed without an overnight stay. Annoyed, I took my refund and began a search for new flights.

This time American Airlines was posting a cheaper flight than before. It was just above the price of the United flight, coming in at $399. I was willing to pay the higher fare just to be done with it.

On the final page in google flights before clicking to the airline’s site, I noticed that the flight price of $399 was only appearing when I purchased the flight as a codeshare through British Airways. If I had wanted to buy the flight through American’s website, the same ticket would have cost more than 450% more, at $1,877. I did not believe what I saw so I double checked the flights individually. Sure enough, it was right.

American was charging an extraordinarily high fee for the same flight, likely because it was a one-way flight from Europe. Although I knew that booking codeshares in most cases should be avoided due to possible headaches, I booked the ticket through British Airways because the price on American was not reasonable. While booking I added my American Airlines number to earn miles and help towards elite status. Immediately after booking, the reservation appeared in my American Airlines app.

I was able to treat the flight, entirely flown and operated by American Airlines, just as if I had bought the ticket from American and I had no trouble at all. Booking through a partner as a codeshare saved me more than $1,400, all because I checked out with British Airways instead of American. This situation proves that it is worth plugging your flight into a matrix such as google flights before checking out. Although it was slightly more complicated to buy my tickets this way, the savings made it worth it.