Last edit by: Prospero
American Airlines Business Extra Program (master thread)
Historical Notes
Key Information
Note: older posts have been archived to ARCHIVE: Business Extra Program master thread (consolidated)
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"[/url]
- 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"[/url]
- 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"[/url]
- 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[/url]
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)
#496
Join Date: May 2017
Location: San Francisco
Programs: AA EXP
Posts: 364
#497
Join Date: Sep 2015
Programs: AA EXP
Posts: 158
Have they stopped collecting paper certificates at the airport? Since February I've used quite a few BXP1s on transcon flights and none have been collected (these are the older paper ones I ordered before the switch to digital). Have I missed something?
#498
Moderator: New York City and FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: Sep 2007
Programs: AA PLT, Natl EC
Posts: 10,855
Specifying BXP1 / BXP3 Upgrade-eligible Fares in ITA
As we know, BXP1 & BXP3 upgrades exclude B, N, O, Q, S fares. It's possible to "upfare" to an eligible fare class. So, how to search for eligible fares specifically on ITA? One option is to specify a V or G fare, which is often the lowest eligible fare. But, with the advent of Premium Economy (P fare), this is not always the case. So, the better solution is to exclude the ineligible fares. Took me some hunting around and trial & error to figure this out, so thought I would share here. Applying ~ NOT logic and & AND logic, the ITA code looks like this:
If you want to string that together with other commands, such as maximum duration, you separate them with a semicolon:
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.)If you want to string that together with other commands, such as maximum duration, you separate them with a semicolon:
jfk:: aa /maxdur 800 ; f ~bc = b & ~bc = n & ~bc = o & ~bc = q & ~bc = s
If people feel this is useful, I can add to the wikipost.I've added the info to the wikipost but the whole thing needs some formatting cleanup and scrubbing of older info if someone has a chance!
#499
Moderator: New York City and FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: Sep 2007
Programs: AA PLT, Natl EC
Posts: 10,855
More likely they are missing something! But since they started recording serial numbers on remaining paper certs, it shouldn't make a difference.
#500
Join Date: Aug 2004
Location: Chicago
Programs: AA- EXP UA - Silver SPG- PLT Marriott- PLT
Posts: 748
if you can actually get on the airport upgrade list. Ive been waitlisted for bXP one upgrades before and they dont seem to transfer over to the airport. When Ive asked at the check-in counter and at the admirals club, they have no idea what Im talking about, let alone anyway to have you to the upgrade list using that instrument.
#501
Join Date: Jun 2006
Location: SFO/OAK
Programs: AA EXP 3.4MM, BAEC, UAMP, Skyteam (<10k) HH Gold, IHG Plat, Hertz Gold, GE/TSA TT
Posts: 2,723
If you redeem Business ExtrAA points for an international upgrade, and you waitlist for that upgrade, and your upgrade does NOT clear ... what happens to your BE points? Can you redeposit the award? Waitlist on your next flight? Does the award have an expiration date?
For example, I have two paper BXP3 certs expiring 6/30/2018 that I probably won't be able to use, so I will put turn the certs back in ~30 days before that if no international travel is on the horizon by then.
So far as I know, the same procedure and fee applies to the new electronic-only certificates.
#503
Join Date: Sep 2008
Location: AUS
Programs: BAEC Gold, AA PPro, Hyatt Globalist, Amex Plat
Posts: 6,977
Apologies if this has been answered, I've reviewed the FAQ and a good bit of the thread but still might have missed it. I'm considering creating a Business Extra account for my wife and I to utilize. This would be utilized for our own "side hustle" travels. However, we also both work for large companies and occasionally have to book travel via Concur under our companies travel policies.
Does anyone know if having a Business Extra membership number in our AA profiles would cause any "conflict" or issues with travel booked via Megacap Corps which likely have their own, brokered travel discounts, etc. negotiated directly with AA? Should I not keep the number in our AAdvantage profiles and just enter it manually when booking our personal travel?
Any experience or advice in this area is greatly appreciated.
Regards
Does anyone know if having a Business Extra membership number in our AA profiles would cause any "conflict" or issues with travel booked via Megacap Corps which likely have their own, brokered travel discounts, etc. negotiated directly with AA? Should I not keep the number in our AAdvantage profiles and just enter it manually when booking our personal travel?
Any experience or advice in this area is greatly appreciated.
Regards
#504
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: Feb 2001
Location: RDU <|> MMX
Programs: AA EXP 2MM, SK EBS
Posts: 12,280
Apologies if this has been answered, I've reviewed the FAQ and a good bit of the thread but still might have missed it. I'm considering creating a Business Extra account for my wife and I to utilize. This would be utilized for our own "side hustle" travels. However, we also both work for large companies and occasionally have to book travel via Concur under our companies travel policies.
Does anyone know if having a Business Extra membership number in our AA profiles would cause any "conflict" or issues with travel booked via Megacap Corps which likely have their own, brokered travel discounts, etc. negotiated directly with AA? Should I not keep the number in our AAdvantage profiles and just enter it manually when booking our personal travel?
Any experience or advice in this area is greatly appreciated.
Regards
Does anyone know if having a Business Extra membership number in our AA profiles would cause any "conflict" or issues with travel booked via Megacap Corps which likely have their own, brokered travel discounts, etc. negotiated directly with AA? Should I not keep the number in our AAdvantage profiles and just enter it manually when booking our personal travel?
Any experience or advice in this area is greatly appreciated.
Regards
#505
Join Date: Jul 2011
Posts: 2,297
Apologies if this has been answered, I've reviewed the FAQ and a good bit of the thread but still might have missed it. I'm considering creating a Business Extra account for my wife and I to utilize. This would be utilized for our own "side hustle" travels. However, we also both work for large companies and occasionally have to book travel via Concur under our companies travel policies.
Does anyone know if having a Business Extra membership number in our AA profiles would cause any "conflict" or issues with travel booked via Megacap Corps which likely have their own, brokered travel discounts, etc. negotiated directly with AA? Should I not keep the number in our AAdvantage profiles and just enter it manually when booking our personal travel?
Any experience or advice in this area is greatly appreciated.
Regards
Does anyone know if having a Business Extra membership number in our AA profiles would cause any "conflict" or issues with travel booked via Megacap Corps which likely have their own, brokered travel discounts, etc. negotiated directly with AA? Should I not keep the number in our AAdvantage profiles and just enter it manually when booking our personal travel?
Any experience or advice in this area is greatly appreciated.
Regards
My two cents.
#506
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: May 2004
Location: DFW/DAL
Programs: AA Lifetime PLT, AS MVPG, HH Diamond, NCL Platinum Plus, MSC Diamond
Posts: 21,422
I would like to thank whoever is using my BE number when booking tickets.
This hasn't happened recently, but awhile back I was getting credit from people I did not know.
This hasn't happened recently, but awhile back I was getting credit from people I did not know.
#507
Join Date: Aug 2010
Programs: AA EXP
Posts: 1,648
How long does it take for a Gold for a member reward to be processed? Requested one last Friday and the members account still does not reflect Gold almost a week later? We are traveling on Monday and would like that to be sorted out.
#508
Join Date: May 2003
Location: Bangkok, Thailand. No longer Palm Coast, FL though still exiled, again, from the Bay Area.
Programs: Only the good ones
Posts: 5,153
Please ask them to use my BE number as I need 700 more points by the end of the year for an award, before most of my points expire. Thanks.
#509
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: May 2004
Location: DFW/DAL
Programs: AA Lifetime PLT, AS MVPG, HH Diamond, NCL Platinum Plus, MSC Diamond
Posts: 21,422