Have the rules gotten more strict with the change to the minimum number of employees/amount spent on travel? If so, then why would AA automatically still put in a BE number in a reservation and automatically credit points for all travelers on the same reservation?

Before accepting a BE number on a reservation, shouldn't AA instead require a certification that the reservation is for business travel and only includes w-2 employees or statutory employees? Or require all employees to be registered first, and then limit credit to only those employees? Or require a BE number for each passenger?

Thanks for the warning, but there seems to be a lot better ways to enforce this than auditing accounts and clawing back points that AA automatically credited in the first place. As it stands now, if I take a non-employee on a business trip with me, then I would have to book separate reservations and then re-link them for status benefits (which necessitates a call and a phone agent's time). Are the BE points that costly for them?