Fed Up and Business Extra BXP3 Award but can't use - expires 12/31
 

I have a BXP3 which I have tried repeatedly to use this year but no luck. It expires 12/31.

Actually I just tried to use it again for a TATL before the end of the year in conjunction with my SWUs but apparently despite the fact that I have just paid $5,631 to fly myself, wife and two small kids in coach to England for Christmas apparently we are booked into an N fare (not that AA.com gives you a choice!) which is ineligible for upgrade using a BXP3. Another $731 to go up to an upgradable fare and then another $172 / person in tax if C class was available.

What now; surely I can return it?

P.S. I can't use my 2 SWUs left over either. What's the point in going through the trouble to earn them?

$1400 to England at Christmas seems reasonable to me.

Why not waitlist the SWUs to see if they clear. BXP3 strikes me as a poor choice redemption anyhow. Return for points, should be free if you are EXP or have a paper cert, $150 otherwise.

I'm not 100% sure I understand.......

Which part? You can return the award for free if you are an EXP, or for $150 if not
I think the other comment relates to the need to pay more for a ticket to use BXP3.
The restrictions are clear before redeeming the points

Call Business Extra and return the BXP3. If you are EXP, there's no fee to return the award and get your points back. If you are not EXP then there may be a fee -- call them. Recently they haven't always been charging the fee for non-EXPs, in part because of the recent switch from paper to electronic certificates. (They haven't been charging anyone, as far as I can tell, to redeposit their paper certificates, but I'm not sure that that's a rule.)

I personally find BXP1s for J-to-F upgrades to be much better redemption value than BXP3s for Y-to-J.

A BXP1 replaces 15000 miles + $175 copay for a J-->F upgrade on LAX-JFK, for instance, and costs only 650 BE points -- it works from any discount business fare, and "A" availability is widespread.

A BXP3, on the other hand, replaces 25000 miles + $350 copay for a Y--> J int'l upgrade. You have to buy a more expensive coach ticket. "C" availability widely known to be very hard to find for international routes. Waitlisting these to the gate works poorly. And these cost 3100 points. I just don't see how the value proposition is there. That's why I said it seems like a poor redemption choice.

Yes, I agree 100%. I used to love my 8 SWUs now we're down to 4. I had this vision that the BusinessExtra BXPs would replace my 4 lost SWUs but I have had a lot of trouble using them.

Thank you for getting back to me.

In general, I've found flying around the holidays to be pretty good for clearing upgrades, since there's less business travel.

Finding C space in advance is pretty rare nowadays, but it tends to open up a couple of days before departure.

Finally, in terms of booking an eligible fare class, you can always place a ticket on hold and call in to upfare; after ticketing, an upfare that isn't to a higher cabin of service might incur a change fee.

What are BXP1 and BXP3's?

They are upgrades from the Business Extra program.

No, the AA agents (but not the Business Extra/Meeting Services agents) will do an upsell/upfare without the change fee. IIRC, JonNYC has a post on one of these threads confirming so. In any event, I've done the upfare thing (typically from N/O/Q/S to G/V/L for <$100) to be able to use a BXP1 on a domestic sector where it looks like I might not clear a comp EXP upgrade and I don't want to risk it. I've never even almost been charged by a regular AA agent.

See Post 236 from the following thread:
https://www.flyertalk.com/forum/amer...ter-thd-6.html

I'm not questioning your experience, but as I think we both can attest to, there are the rules on paper and there are the rules that AAgents apply. And maybe the rules are different when trying to apply a BXP1 (I don't have ex.perience with those). But I am relatively certain that generally, the change fee is not waived when upfaring within the same cabin.

Nope, you are 100% correct. I was thinking of JonNYC's post #220 in that thread. I misremembered the detail of it. But I have upfared same-cabin 6 times this year alone and never a word about a fee. So, at the very least, YMMV ^

It is possible to select only flights that have upgrades available before requesting the upgrade awards.

Yes, but you don't need to request upgrade before finding out the upgrade flights are available