Apologies as I haven't read through this whole thread but I'm thinking about redeeming for a BXP2 certificate for a relative flying from US to Europe. The outbound leg was booked in Y, so it should be eligible, but I called the Business Extra customer service number and they told me there was no availability and they could put her on wait list.
The flight departs in 16 days, so I'm trying to decide a few things if I should redeem for the certificate:
How soon will it physically get to me?
When will I know if cleared for upgrade to Business?
Can I return the certificate and have points redeposited into my account if it doesn't get used?

Going from memory here, so don't quote me too exactly:

1) Certs ship twice a week and you should get it in the regular mail within two weeks (last record I have was a redemption on 4/13/16 and receipt on 4/22/16). You can pay for FedEx to be sure you receive it in time, but will probably be ok if you redeem today. You do not need to have the cert in hand in order to request the upgrade, but do obviously need it in hand to check in.

2) I would check J cabin availability (and fare buckets if you have ExpertFlyer) to guess at the odds of the upgrade clearing. You may clear a day or two before, or at the gate, or not at all.

3) Yes, you can return the cert for a $150 fee. This will NOT extend the expiration date of the points.

https://www.businessextra.com/faq.htm

Apologies if this was posted and answered already but didn't see it and wasn't able to find it in searching.

Can an I get credit for past flights flown prior to opening up the account. Say I opened the account today but flew 50 times this year on AA prior to today. Can I request credit for these flights?

Thanks

no, you cant unfortunately.

I need more clarification on this. I redeemed 3000 points at the end of the year. Some 2000+ were set to expire at the end of 2016. If I needed to return the award, and I pay the $150,- fee. Does this mean that I will only get the net back? Or is there a way of changing the award, paying the fee, and not forfeit anything?

Why not call BusinessExtra on the phone? (800) 457-7072

The reps are very helpful, and there's not much of a wait to speak with someone.

I actually have a similar question... please do report back what you learn.

I think it was discussed earlier but when you return an award it resets the clock on the expiration date so should be ok.

Unfortunately, you would not be able to. Which is a little bit of a bummer, but that's just how it is. It is quite easy to earn and rack up points though!

No harm at all! You actually accumulate more points than you would think. I am an AA Platinum member, so generally I go for the BXP certificates for upgrades instead of using my upgrades, when I don't buy a first-class ticket. I have been given the upgrades as far out as 4-5 days, and sometimes when I am about to board. For 650 points, they are a bargain. If you do $15K in annual spend you could get around 3000 points per year. That's enough for a club membership, many upgrades, and a one-way free flight.

So hopefully you sign up and start getting some awards. They also do promotions throughout the year which also helps get tons of miles!

I'd understood it differently.

It's clear that refunding an award doesn't extend the validity of points that otherwise would have expired; the question, then, was whether one could still use of the value of already expired/redeemed points, by changing the award (either for a different zone at identical cost, or a more expensive one, topping up with additional points).

In my case, for example: in December 2016, I had a bunch of points that were set to expire, but was just short of an international award I wanted. So, to not lose the points, I cashed in my expiring balance for a domestic business class award, which I'm not even when I will use. So: If it turns out one can change the award certificate (even exchange, or a higher award) without forfeiting points from the original issue that otherwise would have expired, that would be fantastic, and well worth the $150 fee.

Just not sure if it's possible...

UXB - apologies if I misunderstood your question.

I think I understand what you and possibly UXB are trying to accomplish but my point is the same. If you use soon to be expiring points for an award and then decide you do not want to use that particular aware and have the reward returned to your account which adds the points back to your account with a new expiration date....cant you accomplish the same thing without doing an actual exchange of the aware? The net is the same..right?

I'd love for you to be right here- but Wiki post at the start of this thread gives exactly the opposite advice:

Is the Wiki wrong? Presuming it's correct - only possible workaround I could think of was exchanging the award for another type. Will try to call about this next week and see what's possible.

I dont know if the Wiki is wrong, just telling folks how it worked for me. Maybe I got lucky. I find it hard to believe that the system is smart enough to figure out the original points expiration and work any other way than what I have personally experienced. See post 682.

As a data point, it worked for me also. I returned expired BXP1 certificates, and the points were redeposited to my account with a new expiration date. The business extra phone rep was very courteous and helpful.