dave_261

I've been flying AA for years, and my company (large, global) has had AA as a preferred carrier for as long as I can remember.

Today, I got an email inviting me to join the American Airlines Leisure for Corporate Travelers Program.
"We are pleased to offer you discounts on your leisure travel for yourself, your family, or extended family members. Enter your company email address to get started. Once verified, go directly to business.aa.com to access your unique leisure savings and discounts only offered to a limited number of our corporate travelers!"

I signed up, and did a quick comparison of this site (American Airlines for Business) and AA.com, and in my small sample size, fares are a few bucks lower than on the public site. Interface on this site is horrible compared to AA.com.

Curious is this is a new enhancement to try to get people back in the skies...

skylane

Knocked $10 off a domestic one-way versus direct booking on AA.com. Also gave way more connections (longer layovers) than I'm used to seeing.

goldenkidx

Got this today too. I wonder if the flights purchased here also qualify for 5x points for Amex platinum? I see small discount applied vs the regular website.

Downside is bad website, separate reservations team and none that I’m aware of that recognize status and I can’t see a way to use the AA Credits, vouchers from changes and cancels.

bchandler02

I know my company has something similar with United, but this is the first I've heard of this for AA. I may have to ask our travel team about this to see if we can qualify.

I actually like this website better.

FoRM

Do you earn miles/EQDs etc for flights through this portal?

safari ari

From my simple sleuthing, I think it is similar to booking through our company portal, but this way we can go directly through AA's and receive similar corporate pricing. If it's anything like how we earn from corporate travel, then EQD/EQM etc should all be the same, albeit lesser EQD from the discount.

donotblink

Yes, you do! This is the same portal used for Veteran's Advantage 5% discounts.

donotblink

You can check this link to see if you're eligible: https://business.aa.com/leisure/uservalidation

LINDEGR

Same for me too! I just used it and it dropped all of my seat selections after I booked! Fixed on regular AA but still worth it!

seawolf

thanks. I didn’t get the email but did qualify from my work address.

metallo

I didn't enter my details, as I hate taking the chance of putting my professional email out there and ending up spammed, but is this promotion perhaps targeted toward large companies with which AA already does business (or where they're hoping to do business)? I get the sense that not all work addresses would qualify, and it seems like a bit of an odd program anyway.

stewlevine

I received it and signed up. Boy is that site bad.
As for fares, this may be an edge case, but on a mixed AA/BA itinerary to Greece that priced at $625 pp on BA.com and $1500 on AA.com; it came back with $625 on the business side.

doctor15

This discount doesn't seem worth the hassle. I booked at business.aa.com to save $5. Assumed I was booking direct though AA...

Now I saw the fare dropped and wanted to change it (fully flexible fare). Can't change through AA because booked through a travel agent. Business.aa.com portal crashes everytime I click "change trip" (tried 2 devices / 3 browsers). Called and they said it's $25 fee to ask for an agent. I mentioned I couldn't online and the agent said "ya, it's a catch 22". Clicked to cancel the trip, but the credit can only be used through "travel agent I booked with" and they don't appear to support using credits online now I'm stuck with this for my next trip and paying $50 in fees.

What a scam

bchandler02

Yeah, I decided to try it once. The discount was decent enough. I am not sure I will use it again because of this - I'd rather be booked with AA direct.
I can't understand why they can't get AA.com to just offer a discount - or give out coupon codes or something simple. Guess they'd rather make less money, pay a middle man, and complicate things for everyone instead.

born sleepy

Is this thing operated by AA or a third party travel agency? I qualified but don't really want to register if that's the case.

Bad enough I have to pay a $50 fee just to buy up to F after booking because all my work travel is through CWT.