The Basics

Finally! The American Airlines Website Now Shows Partner Record Locators

a toy airplane on top of a passport and a map
Written by Charlie

In a positive move, you can now easily access partner record locators from American Airlines via the website or the app. This is good for selecting seats and more.

One of the great things about booking awards through United Airlines, for me at least, is the ease with which you can get the record locator for partner airlines. With American Airline awards, this used to require jumping through a few hoops – but not anymore!

American Airlines Shows Partner Record Locators

First, why is it important to know partner record locator? For one thing, you cannot select your airline seat on a partner airline through American Airlines (over the phone, yes, but not online). This means you need to know your reference number to plug in at the partner website to select the seats.

But, that number is different from the American Airlines reference number you received when you booked the flight. It means you need the record locators. It also helps if your first flight is with the partner – having the partner record locator lets you check in for that flight on the partner website.

In the past, you could ask over the phone with AA (which meant actually calling in), via Twitter (which worked pretty well), or by going to a partner website to plug in the AA number and then get the partner record locators – but that would often be a different partner than the partner you are looking for!

Now, as pointed out by One Mile at a Time, you can quickly and easily access the partner record locator numbers easily through AA – on the website or the app. Just look for “Reservation Code” as part of the info on the reservation.

This is definitely a customer friendly move – just ridiculous it took this long to do it when United Airlines has had this a part of their system for many years. Hey, better late than never!

Honestly, every airline (at least US airlines) should have spent the last year really improving their customer component parts of their software/websites. Unfortunately, this was not the case but it is nice to see little positive changes like this one!

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About the author

Charlie

Charlie has been an avid traveler and runner for many years. He has run in marathons around the world for less than it would cost to travel to the next town - all as a result of collecting and using miles and points. Over the years, he has flown hundreds of thousands of miles and collected millions of miles and points.
Now he uses this experience and knowledge to help others through Running with Miles.

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