Here's a weird one: ticketed in paid business on a 3-class plane and did an SDC change to a later flight. Looked up the reservation on business.aa.com to try and waitlist a BXP1, but the site says my "reservation is already in highest operating cabin services". Don't care about the upgrade enough to bother with calling meeting services, but anyone else seen this happen?

I looked through posts over the last few months but still not sure of my question:
Can I redeposit BXP1s (well, yes, the site gives me the option) that were used with points set to expire on 12/31/21? I didn't get the targeted email that 2021 expiring points were extended to 12/31/22. I got as far as being able to select them and stopped short of confirming the redeposit because I don't want to lose them to retroactive expiration.

update: question answered in the FAQ on business Extra site. I used the return option in my account and redeposited 4 out of 6 BXP1 awards for no fee. They immediately updated my balance, and their value is now included in my expiring miles for 12/31/24

If you waitlist a business extra upgrade, does it not show up when you look at your reservation on AA.com/the app?

No it does not. I am not sure if it does show on the upgrade list the day of the flight

Just had the most amazingly positive experience from the team at JFK in respect to a JFK-SFO BXP1 award/
For some reason, despite checking, this had not been applied properly. I would say that the agent who had the bad luck to help me, spend an hour on the line to the helpdesk to resolve. It was a success in the end and I enjoyed 4A and got some sleep.
I supplied the little recognition certificates to the various agents involved but safe to say, they went well beyond what I expect these days and made me a very content passenger.

It does highlight the lack of transparency on the certs - it's hard to know whether you have been waitlisted properly for example. The lack of knowledge of AA agents is understandable.

Even better the phone agent cleared my waitlisted JFK-LHR to F, but am still waitlisted for the SFO-JFK!

I have a couple BXP1 I want to use on an upcoming work trip out west. Does it matter at all if I book my flights through a travel portal vs. directly on AA website? Should I still be able to call once ticketed to apply these rewards?

Shouldn't be a problem, but just make sure it is an upgradeable fare. Not all fares (B/N/O/Q/S I think) are upgradeable using a BXP1.

I've used a couple of BXP1 upgrades over the years and it works pretty well, no big issues (as long as the underlying fare class is appropriate). I had miles expiring in January so picked a PlanAAhead award (the Caribbean one, I think) so miles wouldn't expire, and now I'm trying to book a flight. It's ridiculous- there is scant availability, and the rare flights that qualify take over 16 hours and involve multiple legs and overnight layovers (when a one stop taking 5-6 hours is easily available paying cash). Am I doing something wrong, or is this truly a worthless award? Anyone have better luck with a different award type?

The issue is that any BE planAAhead award requires sAAver award space. AA is releasing less and less sAAver space (across all routes) in favor of the dynamically priced "web special" awards.

You would naturally have better luck with an AAnytime award, but of course that will cost twice the BE points.

Some might think it's a gamble but I've booked some horrible flights with multiple legs knowing that AA will change their schedule 8 times between when I booked it and the actual flight. Once they make a flight change you have a pretty good shot of coercing yourself onto a much better routing. Not fool proof but it is a decent strategy.

Does anyone know if redeeming Business Extra points for miles (100 BE Points for 600 miles) will be credited as Loyalty Points or bonus miles?

I have never used any of my Business Extra points on AA. I have some questions on them...

I have an itinerary next month that I just booked. When I go to the AA Business Extra website to try and book upgrades I get "only available for waitlist request". If I even both to book this, am I likely to get the upgrades? Do they get pulled before regular free domestic or 500-mile domestic upgrades are available? There are 9 FC seats available on each of the two flights. The first flight has the waitlist option and the second flight says "not eligible for upgrade".

Or is it just a waste of my time and I have no chance of them going through? And I should only bother if they are able to be booked instantly after I book the itinerary? Can you find out before booking an itinerary if instant Business Extra upgrades are available on the flights you want?

Thanks for any help.

Business Extra upgrades pull from the exact same inventory as miles/copay or SWU upgrades (C for business, A for first). They can clear at anytime from booking right up until the flight time. Your chances of clearing are going to depend entirely on the route, time, day, etc.

If you subscribe to ExpertFlyer you can search flights with C & A upgrade availability.

Business Extra ("ExtrAA") Program (master thread)

Do I need to first "purchase" a 650 point upgrade cert from AA before I waitlist the Business Extra upgrade? The form is asking for an "Auth Number" which I assume is the number from the certificate?

As long as they clear after SWUs (and who's going to be using an SWU for an 1100 mile domestic flight) I'll go ahead and get one of the upgrade certs and apply it. We'll see if it clears.