Those who have followed AA's BusinessExtrAA program know it used to give 1000 points per $10000 of flown revenue in a calendar quarter, then 1000 per $5000. Both were flawed, in that a company with $9,999 (or later $4,999) per quarter gets nothing, etc. The system's new approach therefore seems considerably better to me: One BusinessExtrAA point per $10 of flown revenue.
My understanding is that BusinessExtrAA credit can be earned only for flights on AA metal with AA ticket numbers -- no codeshares. I'm not clear on what credit (if any) is earned on flights with interline connections.
Awards (flights, ugprades) are on the order of 10000 miles per 1000 points. (Some awards are a slightly better value; others, slightly worse.) There's also an award of 10000 miles for 1000 points, and these miles surely count toward 1MM, 2MM thresholds. So this comes out to one AAdvantage mile per dollar flown.
Other improvements to BusinessExtrAA since its inception: Its web site (
http://www.businessextraa.com/ ) -- which reports flights flown and points earned, and also allows award redemptions. Periodic bonuses offering lots of points/miles for front-cabin fares (last summer offered transatlantic bonuses). For a time (per above), a doubling of earning rates. Via the BusinessExtrAA field on aa.com, online booking of tickets to earn BusinessExtrAA credit.
Obvious downside of BusinessExtrAA: The PLT/EXP desks tend to refer travellers with BusinessExtrAA tickets to the Meetings desk, causing delays, reduction in service quality (no one is as good as EXP desk), limited hours of availability.
All in all: I still use the program, sometimes, esp for bookings made online for which few changes are anticipated.