Welcome to 2015, American! Lol

Now if we could request upgrades online with SWU or BXP3... maybe by 2025 we will be able to.

Just applied two BXP1 to a roundtrip transcon Y -> J upgrade both ways. No C inventory, so I expected to be on the waitlist. Might be my lucky day. The agent confirmed 3A on both flights, but ran into trouble. I knew 3A was F on the transcon bird but stayed quiet. Few minutes later, she "figured" it out and issued the upgrade. I check my reservation and my seats are indeed First-3A on both legs.

Is that a glitch or my lucky day?

sounds like both... hope it sticks!

I'd guess odds are in your favor... with BXP1s, they never seem to have to be reissued in the same way as SWUs... no separate email, etc. So if you have a seat & can choose a meal, you might just be set...

Unfortunately if they catch it and undo the upgrade you will certainly go back to Y and might then be stuck if J is full

BE inventory on the new tool is a small subset of flights that will actually work for a BE redemption.
As part of a round trip, I used the regular mileage redemption search tool looking for a business saver itinerary. The one I wanted had a short segment that had no business availability, was in coach, the rest was all in business. The itinerary was one of 20 or so choices on the regular award booking engine at aa.com, while the new businessextra.com booking engine did NOT offer that itinerary. It showed only about 3 choices (vs 20 regular mileage redemption itineraries for business saver).

So I put it on hold and called to see if business extra/meetings services would allow me to book it with a business saver BX1B for a free round trip business class domestic flight. The agent I spoke with said you couldn't mix itineraries and it would require TWO certificates. I pointed out it was a voluntary downgrade for 1 segment, so she "checked with reference" and came back and said oops you're right, and she booked it for me. So while the new site offers to book flights using BE points, there are a lot of other itineraries that you could be overlooking. I have yet to see any double connecting flights when itineraries are available for single connecting flights. (But they will be shows on the regular mileage booking site).

One thing I DO like about the new BE award flight search tool s the ability to filter in or out specific connecting cities. IE avoid Charlotte, or whatever.

BusinessExtra points now posting daily: https://www.businessextra.com/i18n/c.../postDaily.jsp

All of my April flights have posted. Nothing yet for 5/1, 5/2 & 5/3. That will be a good grouping of flights (along with today's flight) to get an idea of the new posting lag.

I spoke to B/E customer service today. Even though Advantage miles posted to my account with Iberia ticket numbers (4 flights in April) B/E shows flight segments with notation that flights were not flown. This also happened to a colleague on Iberia flights. B/E customer service said that We have to send an email to customer service and not use the flight credit link. 2 AA segments flown in May not posted as well. Buggy!

I love the change to daily posting.

Most of my April flights posted on 5.2.19.
The remainder of April posted on 5.3.19.
My flight of 5.3.19 posted on 5.6.19.
On 5.7.19 I submitted a flight credit request for the flights that did not post (5.1 & 5.2). Those flights were credited this morning.

I am impressed!

My May hasn't posted yet, but I noticed that my AA account's postings have been much quicker. It's a shame you bearly earn for these flights anymore.

Upgrade Questions
 

A couple questions. Searched high and low with no luck. So, here goes:

Can you use a BXP1 on an award ticket?
Can you use a BXP1 to go from Y --> J (if available) and then use a 2nd one J--> F (assuming 3 class and if available)?

No and no.

EXP/CK can upgrade North America award tickets with UDU/500-mi upgrade privileges, but outside of that you can not upgrade an award ticket with any upgrade instrument (SWU, miles/copay, BE upgrade cert) and similarly you cannot do double upgrades with any upgrade instrument as well.

Yesterday, I had a BA flight post to BE, but that flight still has not posted the EQM/EQD/RDM to regular AA.

..... Thanks

QQ... I think I've read that you can. But if I use an upgrade cert now can I pull it back later if it appears I'll get my normal upgrade as plat pro?

I'm not aware of any upgrade instrument with AA (SWU, miles/copay, BE cert) where you can't just call AA and have the request removed if you no longer want to upgrade (or want to upgrade with a different method).

I have a BA marketed flight operated by Iberia. I added my Business Extraa number in BA booking system.
Do I need to add this to Iberia booking as well ? I did not find a way to add that in Iberia
booking. Any advice is appreciated...Thanks.

Is there any way to extend the expiration dates of points? I have some expiring end of year and I am fully booked on flights (and upgrades).

I could be wrong, but can't you get the upgrade cert for this year and that gives you 1 year to use it?
Flight Award Redemption maybe?

Anyone else having issues with https://business.aa.com/ ? I find flights to use my cert on, but the page just loads up and reloads, reloads, reloads more and more flights and I cannot select anything.

That's consistent with my experience. It has never worked smoothly or reliably for me.

I hadn't found a post that provided a clear answer so wanted to share that I recently redeemed BE points for a J award to Europe on IB. Since the flights booked into a revenue fare code (R), I wasn't sure if they would earn miles. Low and behold, I earned EQM and RDM as if I had paid for these flights. Silver lining for the expensive taxes and more costly points than AA saver award would have been, but worth it since the points were expiring soon anyways and there was no saver awards on the dates I needed!

Is anyone else having issues with being able to use a BXP1 that gets waitlisted but never clears? Always seems to be an issue for me - when I try to use again I get an error that its "tied to another reservation." Yet another reason I am no longer waitlisting these - just putting on C-alerts and calling when space opens up

I haven't wait-listed them in awhile either. As I travel mostly for leisure I only book flights I can confirm the upgrade. My trip last week instead of calling I actually applied the upgrade online (once my trip was ticketed) and it actually worked. I was shocked but was happy not to waste the 5 minutes to make the call.

100%. I called and got mine freed up then applied online. Gotta say - the online process is pretty quick and easy!

Hi guys,

I live in the UK and am trying to find availability for LHR - LAX in April next year. Have a BX6B cert and enough points for a second. The new business.aa.com tool is indicating PlanAhead as available in Business on AA for the dates in the interstitial calendar and then when I click through shows nothing. I have tried many routings and I know this type is tricky to use. But is anyone else finding phantom space like this? Or is this an instance where I need to call?

Related: is it safe to say the 6Bs are nearly impossible to use? I can be flexible and don't mind another EU airport departure and any west coast airport for arrival...but I just don't see anything available from anywhere to anywhere for 04/2020.

Many thanks!

Welcome to FT. I haven't used the BE online booking tool much, but when I tried it it seemed very clunky. You can always search availability at aa.com for a normal AAdvantage award, put on hold whatever you see that works, then call Meeting Services to book it using your BE certificate.

And yes, as BX6B's require sAAver space in business class on AA metal to/from Europe, they've become very hard to use, especially if you're looking for a route like LHR-LAX. sAAver space in busines on AA longhaul flights is somewhat of a unicorn, although with flexibility you should be able to find something. I've seen a decent amount of space from ZRH and AMS, for example.

Upgrade Award - what happens if downgraded due to equipment swap?
 

So let's say you book/use an Upgrade Award for a flight segment and then later, that flight changes due to equipment change and it's a one-cabin aircraft?
Do they re-instate the upgrade award with a new 1-year expiration?

I just booked a trip for August and the outbound sector is in V fare class (eligible for BXP1 upgrade) but when I went to business.aa.com and tried searching the PNR up in Business Extra Award Upgrade I got a message saying this kind of reservation is not eligible for Business Extra upgrades :confused:

Anyone experienced this? Or is it because there are no confirmable upgrade space I have to call and be waitlisted?

I have seen the same with V and could not figure out why. It lets you waitlist if no C space with other eligible fare codes

When I enter my First/Last name and record locater to see my itinerary at the BE booking site, it says "No Record Found"...
We two split our record locater earlier and maybe that's causing the issue??? My travel partner's itinerary doesn't show, either...
Of course at AA.com we can see our itinerary, though...

Hello. I'm having the same problem and I was wondering if you ever found a solution to this? Thanks.

anyone have any idea why when trying to use the BE booking portal for awards it does not allow me to change the Number of travelers? Using two awards for friends for their honeymoon and I can't change the number of travelers. Would be stupid though to have to book one traveler at a time (I would think). I guess other option is to have certificates issued and then hold a reservation and then call in and have the certificates applied? Or do you basically have to do multiple passengers separately?

The BE award booking portal is wonky at best. I just tried and couldn't move it to more than one pax either. Luckily you don't have to book BE awards through the BE portal. I would just go to aa.com, put the flights you want on hold, then call Meeting Services to have the award ticketed using BE awards.

I was trying to apply a BXP1 upgrade award to a reservation with 2 passengers a few months ago, and multiple agents told me they would need to split the record and apply the upgrades individually.

Wouldn't surprise me if you end up having to book separately in this situation also.

Ive had problems with the booking tool, too. I thought we are allowed to book an award before expiration for at least one year out. I have an award ending 12/31/19, but want to redeem for a trip in March. Is that no longer possible? Doesn't it just have to be booked before its expiration, not flown?

AA Business Extra
 

Hi,
I have a business that doesn't require travel, however I was wondering if it would be possible to sign up for BusinessExtra to take advantage of 300 point lounge passes, etc. I have a separate address and such, but don't want to be violating any terms and conditions. Thanks in advance.