I would for sure call Meeting Services to have your BXP1 request removed. Other than claiming an award I never trust the BE website to do anything right.

Does anyone have the matrix code for using BXP1s from Business Extra? I asked in AA newbie but crickets so far.
Are these the valid economy letters to be able to potentially use one?
H

K

L

M

P

V

Y

So I think the line would be F bc=h|bc=k|bc=l|bc=m|bc=p|bc=v|bc=y| though some of these I don't even think are fares you can just randomly book

It's really more a question of which buckets are not valid: S N O Q B.

For using matrix, you've got the right idea but that doesn't always yield results because the other fare buckets may not be valid on a particular routing/date. I usually start by searching for "V" in matrix, which is typically the lowest fare that's valid for the BXP redemptions. Last year I did a mixed V one way, S the other way so I could use a BXP3 on one leg and an AA point redemption in the other direction once I found "C" available in both directions to/from Spain.

Just a heads up that online upgrade redemption is working again. Awards may also be - though I haven't tried. I know it had not been working for quite a while. But today I found "C" inventory on a future Europe trip. Booked my coach ticket in V bucket, then redeemed the BXP3 and applied the authorization code to the upgrade request. It confirmed within seconds and I was able to go assign a seat. Very seamless overall. Saved me a phone call.

Any way to force buying a "V" on aa.com or you need to call or get lucky that V happens to be the lowest fare that AA.com is selling at the moment?

Place on hold. If it's not an eligible fare bucket, call AA to upfare.

The easy way to remember is the other way -- the fares with which you cannot use BXP1s -- QSON (rhymes with Tucson) plus B

-- G is the lowest fare allowed. It used to be QSONG, but they changed the rules at some point, allowing G.

Im so glad to hear this as I haven't been able to find a Plan Ahead award after checking 100 dates on different routes in the past few months. So the search engine has been broken? How do they expect us to book awards since agents are not going to sit there and check dozens of dates and routes? Anyone else able to pull up an award search? I still can't as of just now.

Remember there aren't any PlanAAhead rewards any more. I know the BE shows that redemption option on their page, which is a hold out from the former AA redemption fixed point charts. I'm guessing the way to get those BE PlanAhead rewards is to find "U" inventory with the EF Award search for business, or T for coach. That's what I did for AMS-PHL on a March trip. When I found "U" on a date, I looked at aa.com and saw it at 67000 points, which is basically what the 57500 point sAAver business redemption used to be. I would suspect a flight with "U" inventory would also be eligible for the BE PlanAhead reward category. To do a more flexible search on aa.com, just enter your trip in the award search for any day of the month you want to travel. Then when the rates come up, click the calendar option at the top of the search results to see the full month. Be sure to click the nonstop an American Airlines to avoid clutter of connection options and other airlines codesharing.

That way you can see if any dates have the lower redemptions on AA metal. It's effectively the same as searching a full month at a time. When you find dates with the lower redemptions (25K coach to Europe, 67K business to Europe), that will likely qualify for a BE PlanAhead award. At least that's the logic I'm thinking. Those are the same seats that are probably available to partners for redemption.

Example: AMS-PHL in March shows a ton of 25K one way coach redemptions. When I cross reference those dates with EF award search, there is "T" available on the same dates that the calendar shows 25K.

Is G-class a government fare? (Or is it just a normal fare class now, and CWSI has an antiquated notion of what G-Class is?)

normal fare class

Were you able to preserve your BXP1 after a schedule change?

I had a major schedule change and the (EXP desk) agent was unable to preserve my J-->F upgrade. I had booked BOS-LAX-BOS for February, and AA just torpedoed its schedule (only one 7am flight each way). I was automatically rebooked via ORD which is dumb, so I called to get rerouted BOS-JFK-LAX/LAX-JFK-BOS. But the agent could only put me in J because there was no upgrade-A availability. She called Meeting Services and her help desk and tried for 30 minutes before eventually saying she'd been referred to a reference/file/something that said that BXP1s don't get preserved in the event of a schedule change. At first she was uncertain because, although she saw upgrade had been confirmed, it had not yet been reissued (in my experience there is no reissue with these anymore, unlike w/ SWUs)... but then she agreed with me that a SWU gets preserved even if the schedule change happens between confirmation and reissue. But evidently not for BXP1s. Except evidently in IRROPS they can still preserve.

Sounds nuts to me but at least I still have lie-flats I guess, and I'll set EF alerts to see what pops up. No way I'm taking the 7am flights just for a nonstop.

Sounds like the agent is confused and thinks this was a voluntary change. Even complimentary upgrades get preserved in an involuntary change subject to availability. The alternative itinerary through JFK is well justified given it is the only one that offers the cabin you were confirmed in.

Key is to never bring up the fact that it was an upgrade. Just say my flight was changed/cancelled by AA, I'd like to be rebooked on XYZ flight in J.

So, I called up and said "hi, there was a schedule change, but I'd rather be routed through JFK, can I give you the record" ("sure") "okay here are the flights I'd like" ("okay hold please").

Agent comes back, repeats the flights, I say great can you put me in seat 1A on all 4 flights. She says "well on JFK-LAX and back you're in business" and I say "no I was confirmed in first" and that's when the whole nonsense started. I'm inclined to think I'll end up clearing the upgrades again anyhow (it's a Wednesday outbound, Tuesday return in February) but who knows. I suppose I could call Meeting Services myself tomorrow?