Last edit by: PHL
American Airlines Business Extra® Program (master thread)
Historical Notes
- October 5th, 2021: New award types introduced: BXL1 for Platinum status and BXP0 to convert Business Extra points to AA miles at a 1:6 rate. New requirement introduced to redeem: Starting January 1, 2023, current members will be required to have three unique travelers and maintain $5,000 in qualifying Business Extra flight activity during the previous 12-month period to redeem points.This policy will go into effect immediately for new members who join the program on October 4, 2021 or later.
- Feb 2018 - BXP1, BXP2, BXP3 Upgrade Certificates can be redeemed electronically, without the need to redeem or submit paper certificates. [[URL="https://www.flyertalk.com/forum/29470237-post1150.html"]POST]
- Dec 2015 - Unannounced more-restrictive changes to BXP upgrade certificates implemented. [[URL="http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/american-airlines-aadvantage/898180-business-extra-program-master-thread-consolidated.html#post25942133"]POST]
- Nov 2015 - Europe AA Business Extra closed and migrated to AA-BA-IB On Business [[URL="http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/american-airlines-aadvantage-combined-airline-program/1715008-aa-ba-ib-europe-business-programme-nov-30-2015-ex-business-extra-europe.html"]POST]
- Oct 2014 - Business Extra Awards may be redeemed for flights on US Airways
- Sep 2013 - Business ExtrAA brand changed to simply Business Extra
- Sep 2012 - Upgrade Awards are no longer restricted to use within 30 days of travel [[url=http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/19345217-post394.html]POST]
Key Information
- Promotion Codes - For a current list of Business ExtrAA promotions, see: Business ExtrAA Bonus Offers (consolidated)
- Point Expiration - Business Extra points expire on a rolling basis, two years after the year in which they are earned, on December 31 at midnight U.S. Central Time. Their validity can not be extended.
- Award Redemption - All awards must be redeemed via the Business Extra website. Flight Awards are delivered electronically via email with an Electronic Authorization Number. Upgrade Awards and Admirals Club Day Passes are delivered in paper certificate form via regular mail. Redemption sweeps occur twice per week and expedited delivery is available if you provide your FedEx/UPS account number via email. Gold Status and Admirals Club Membership awards are processed and active in the member's account after approximately one week, with other membership materials delivered in the mail within 4 weeks.
Note: BE awards must be booked on nonstop flights if they are available between your origin and destination.
- Award Inventory Codes - Per Meeting Services, Business Extra Awards book into the following inventory (although there are conflicting reports from mvoight and InsipidMonkey on whether or not this information is accurate for PlanAAhead Awards, for which availability may be significantly less than MileSAAver Award and/or T inventory availability):Award Type Books Into
PlanAAhead - Economy T
PlanAAhead - Business* U
PlanAAhead - First† Z
AAnytime - Economy Y
AAnytime - Business* J
AAnytime - First† F
Upgrade to Business* C
Upgrade to First† A
* = First class cabin on 2-class flights
† = First class cabin on 3-class flights
- Flight Award Reservations - Award Tickets must be booked through AA Meeting Services at 1-800-433-1790 (U.S. and Canada; others contact your local reservations office), and you will need to provide the Reservations Agent with the Electronic Authorization Number from your award certificate. As of Oct 2012, flight awards can be booked without a telephone booking service charge.
- Flight Award Expiration - As published on the Business Extra website, Award Tickets must be booked within one year of redeeming the certificate, and are then valid for one year from booking:
Award ticket must be issued by midnight one year from the original award redemption date. Tickets issued against Business Extra flight awards are then valid for one year from the ticket issue date. - Upgrade Award Reservations - Upgrade Awards may be applied once a reservation is Ticketed by calling AA Meeting Services or using the Business Extra website. Once requested online you will receive an email with a confirmation number and serial numbers for each upgrade certificate requested.
Upgrade Awards carry fare restrictions (excludes B, N, O, Q or S fares). Take careful note of your fare when making a reservation. It is possible to "Upfare" a reservation from the lowest available fare to an BXP-upgrade-eligible fare by placing it on Hold at AA.com, calling AA to request the desired higher fare basis code, then completing the purchase online.
You can specify ITA searches that exclude the ineligible fares as follows:jfk:: aa /f ~bc = b & ~bc = n & ~bc = o & ~bc = q & ~bc = s
(Or you can place everything after the slash directly in the second advanced control box.)
These filters can also be concatenated with other commands, such as maximum duration, separated with a semicolon:jfk:: aa /maxdur 800 ; f ~bc = b & ~bc = n & ~bc = o & ~bc = q & ~bc = s
- Upgrade Award Expiration - Electronic BXP Upgrade Awards are valid for 1 year from redemption. Previously, paper Upgrade Awards were valid thru Jun 30 or Dec 31 of the following year, with the exact date depending on the batch of certificates available at the time of redemption.
- Returning Unused Awards - Points redeemed for awards but not yet applied to a ticket can be returned for no charge by using the 'returns' option in your account options. Points will be reinstated with an expiration date 2 calendar years from reinstatement (i.e., expiring on December 31 two calendar years from reinstatement). For awards already applied to a ticket, you must call Business ExtrAA customer services at 800-457-7072, or email [email protected] Customers outside the US should use the email.
- Business Extra Account Credit - A Business Extra number can be added to an existing reservation (for example, booked by a third-party travel agent) by calling AA Meeting Services.
A Business Extra number can be added to an existing BA reservation as follows:- Go to www.britishairways.com
- Select 'Manage My Booking' tab
- Follow the instructions to pull up your reservation
- Select the link towards bottom listed under 'Quick Links' 'Add On Business or Business Extra number'
- Add your Business Extra number and check the box to give your consent.
Retroactive credit for completed travel can be requested via the Business Extra website.
- Contact Business Extra
Web home page: https://www.businessextra.com
Booking and Ticketing (Meeting Services desk)
www.aa.com
1-800-433-1790 5:00 a.m. - 12:00 midnight (CT) 7 days a week
Business Extra Customer Service
1-800-457-7072 8:00 a.m. - 5:00 p.m. (CT) Monday - Friday
Fax: 1-817-931-9029
E-mail: [email protected]
Link to aa.com BE contact web form
http://www.aa.com/contactAA/viewEmai...businessExtrAA
Link to BE web contact form
Note: older posts have been archived to ARCHIVE: Business Extra Program master thread (consolidated)
Business Extra ("ExtrAA") Program (master thread)
#241
Join Date: May 2013
Location: LHR
Programs: AA EXP, DL DM, Marriott Titanium
Posts: 1,000
#243
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: May 2002
Location: NC
Programs: AAConciergeKey/1MM, DL DM/2 MM, UA Gold,Hilton Diamond, IHG Plat, Hyatt Globalist, Marriott Titanium
Posts: 11,440
I redeemed points for a business class award to Europe that expires this December. Does it have to be redeemed by December or flown by December? I am stressed about finding award inventory since it seems these tickets are tied to biz class award buckets. Does anyone know?
#244
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: Sep 1999
Location: Toronto, Ontario, Canada
Programs: OWEmerald; STARGold; BonvoyPlat; IHGPlat/Amb; HiltonGold; A|ClubPat; AirMilesPlat
Posts: 38,180
I generally use my points for lounge passes since I get NAmerican upgrades as an ExecPlat. AA even sends them by next day FedEx!
#245
Join Date: Jan 2008
Location: JFK, DCA, BUR, YVR
Programs: AC, AS, BA, DL, HH (D), MR (T/LTP), UA (*S), UScAAre (EXP/1,83MM), WN
Posts: 5,111
I wouldn't say double credits, but if you have both UPGRADE and BX20UPG2, then expect to get a bonus for the summer and a bonus for the fall assuming you have flights in both. I added UPGRADE after my flights in August, but before the statement was generated, and I received the bonus for that. Only UPGRADE was redeemed under promotions, so that's what leads me to think you will get two 650 credits.
#246
If I have a BE ticket flying for example: JFK-LHR, CDG-JFK, can I pay the $150 fee and change the CDG-JFK return to LHR-JFK if space is available? All previous BE ticket changes I have made were to dates with the exact same routing and those have always been allowed at $150 as long as space is available, but wasn't sure if origin/destination changes are allowed.
Last edited by koje581; Sep 16, 17 at 8:04 pm
#247
Join Date: Jan 2016
Location: Washington, DC
Programs: Delta Platinum, Marriott Platinum, Hilton Gold
Posts: 204
Thanks for any advice!
#248
Join Date: May 2011
Location: DFW
Programs: AA EXP, LT Gold
Posts: 3,081
Still kind of confused by this BXPUPG2 and UPGRADE promo.
Do you have to FLY by 30 Sept to get the 650 points, or just REGISTER by then?
Their own T&C page confuses these points.
https://www.businessextra.com/i18n/c...F98AD7308E5911
Do you have to FLY by 30 Sept to get the 650 points, or just REGISTER by then?
Their own T&C page confuses these points.
https://www.businessextra.com/i18n/c...F98AD7308E5911
#249
Join Date: Sep 2015
Programs: AA EXP
Posts: 158
I also registered for both- flew one round trip (two segments) and received credit for the promotion I registered for first ( I believe it was UPGRADE). Flying this weekend so hoping the second promo will post.
In other news- BE hit an all time low in competence for me- they posted all my flights for July but in every single case (for all participants) only the outbound segment (s) posted.
Edit: looking back it seems this happened to other people as well in July. I'm just a little behind
In other news- BE hit an all time low in competence for me- they posted all my flights for July but in every single case (for all participants) only the outbound segment (s) posted.
Edit: looking back it seems this happened to other people as well in July. I'm just a little behind

#250
Join Date: May 2011
Location: DFW
Programs: AA EXP, LT Gold
Posts: 3,081
LOL, man this is so messed up. I just logged in and saw they posted 650 points for "20 year Summer Promo" in my account.
I haven't even taken a flight.
Got 650 back in the spring, and 650 a couple of days ago.
No complaints, but what a confused process this has been.
I haven't even taken a flight.
Got 650 back in the spring, and 650 a couple of days ago.
No complaints, but what a confused process this has been.
#252
Join Date: May 2011
Location: DFW
Programs: AA EXP, LT Gold
Posts: 3,081
#253
Join Date: May 2011
Location: DFW
Programs: AA EXP, LT Gold
Posts: 3,081
#254
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: May 2004
Location: DFW/DAL
Programs: AA Lifetime PLT, AS MVPG, HH Diamond, NCL Platinum Plus, MSC Diamond
Posts: 21,411
I had also sent an email to BE support and got a response a day or two later saying the issue with BX20UPG was resolved. Then, magically, sometime this week, I received 650 for UPGRADE and 650 for BX20UPG dated September 15.
I have not had an AA flight since early summer. I guess I missed the original registration and maybe you could actually count flights before the registrations. Either way, a nice 1300 points
I have not had an AA flight since early summer. I guess I missed the original registration and maybe you could actually count flights before the registrations. Either way, a nice 1300 points
#255
Join Date: Jul 2005
Location: Chicago, IL
Programs: AA EP; WN CP;UA SILVER; MARRIOTT TITANIUM; HH DIAMOND; IHG PLAT; RADISSON PLAT; HYATT GLOBAL
Posts: 1,931
I had also sent an email to BE support and got a response a day or two later saying the issue with BX20UPG was resolved. Then, magically, sometime this week, I received 650 for UPGRADE and 650 for BX20UPG dated September 15.
I have not had an AA flight since early summer. I guess I missed the original registration and maybe you could actually count flights before the registrations. Either way, a nice 1300 points
I have not had an AA flight since early summer. I guess I missed the original registration and maybe you could actually count flights before the registrations. Either way, a nice 1300 points
On 9/15 I received 650 for UPGRADE
Now waiting to see if BX20UPG2 post.