[Workaround No Longer Needed!] How To Get American Elite And Card Benefits When Redeeming Mileage Awards Via Partner Airlines

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Update, 5/4: Alaska recently started allowing you to enter your OneWorld mileage number directly on their site during booking, no need for any workarounds!

This will allow you to take advantage of OneWorld elite benefits or American Airlines cardholder benefits.

Originally posted on 1/21/25:

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Is this now part 3 of a series?

Early last week I wrote about my experience flying from NYC to Cleveland and watching a pair of gate agents argue with a pair of flight attendants and a mother flying with her infant, over her Doona.

Later in the week I walked through my mileage booking process for the trip, which may have seemed daunting, but only takes a couple minutes once you get the hang of it.

Commenter Vlad wrote there,

“This is a master class in the art of travel hacking and understanding the importance of partnerships. The only part I didn’t understand is why your AA status helped you get upgraded to first class when you booked with Alaska miles? I thought that if you book with miles there is no way to swap out the frequent flyer number on the reservation like you can with revenue fares?”

While officially you are supposed to keep the mileage number that you redeem miles with, no airline actually enforces this.

When you use Alaska miles, the workaround is quite simple.

When booking a ticket, select “New Passenger” or create a profile for yourself other than “Myself.”

If you select “Myself” it will populate your mileage number and you’ll have to call Alaska to change it to your AA mileage number.

Instead, just leave the mileage number blank:

After I redeemed a mere 4,500 miles for the $500 flight, I was given my Alaska and my AA record locators:

Just enter the AA record locator on AA.com under manage trips when you’re not logged in:

And then add your AA mileage number under passenger details:

If you have an AA credit card, that will unlock benefits like a free bag.

If you have Platinum or higher status, that will unlock the ability to select MCE seats at no charge:

After about 15 minutes, you will see a complimentary upgrade request in the reservation as well.

That upgrade cleared 2 days after I booked, and just over 25 hours before the flight. Best of all, I even had an empty seat next to me:

If you book your ticket with BA Avios, the ability to book for someone other than yourself may be blocked. In that case, I just use the Finnair site to modify the mileage number. (When Finnair isn’t working, I have also used the Royal Jordanian website to accomplish this).

Just take the BA record locator and plug it in here:

Then click on passenger details, and change:

You can then modify the mileage details and change them from BA to AA. You also have the option to have 2 mileage numbers, but I do not recommend doing that, as it can make the systems act pretty wonky.

Once you save your mileage number, you can login to AA.com and you should see your BA Avios booked ticket saved under your trips, so you can get your AA card and elite benefits.

Sadly, I haven’t had luck with the same method when using Qatar Avios. In that case, I’ve simply direct messaged AA on X/Twitter to get the mileage number changed from Qatar to AA. You can also call Qatar or American to change it.

I haven’t yet experimented with booking AA flights via Finnair, Cathay Pacific, Etihad, Qantas, or JAL but those can be worthwhile at times. Post your experience with booking for a guest with no mileage number or using the Finnair/RJ sites to edit the mileage number for those bookings!