Should make for a busy season of gifting December 2022......

I really see the changes as more positive than negative. The additional ability to redeem for Platinum status as well as the conversion to AAdvantage miles. I know that ratio isn't the best however it gives another option for expiring points.

What happens for companies in the USA which mainly purchase flights on airlines other than AA (e.g. BA) and credits company points to Business Extra? This is the recommended practice by BA for companies based in the USA. It will end up with lots of points without the required qualifying expenditure to redeem them :confused:. Or have it misunderstood the change?

If your company meets the redemption criteria, I agree. But there are companies that earned the points with 3+ employees and 150K+ annual spend, but are no longer in that situation. It's clearly not great for those folks.

I don’t think any of us are thrilled, but it was expected. Also, what’s an active traveller anyway? If it’s someone that takes a single flight a year, then it’s more than doable. DL requires five such travellers and their award pricing sucks. If you fly AA regularly, these changes are not the end of the world.

Okay, so we won’t convert. However, this conversion is handy for those who never make enough points for an award. It makes this programme more flexible and flexibility is good in the long run. This is one change I actually like even if I never use it.

150k spend? I thought it said 5k spend.

It did.

It did. But the people who had 30x that spend and now cannot redeem the points in the manner expected are likely disappointed -- I know I am.

Are you not in that situation because of less travel, or the 3 person requirement?

You can still redeem through the end of 2022 I believe.

I'll probably cash out for BXP1s at the end of 2022.

The program got us lie-flats to Hawaii and a few other victories of the years, so it was a pretty decent run while it lasted.

I consider this change very reasonable.

Agree. They never intended for this to be for random solo businesses as sole proprietors and minimal revenue, Nice enough to show us the door rather than going to war.

Do you have family or friends? Just have them use your BE number and you’ll have three unique travellers. It’s not that hard, folks.

Even if that wasn’t the intent. The criteria is doable for anyone who is PLT or better during a year. Again, this is not an oppressive change.

I don't see what stops those sole props from booking one trip a year under their significant other, friends, or family. And the 5k revenue number seems very reasonable to me. I don't think this is a problem.

While I’m not going to celebrate these changes, I agree they are pretty reasonable. Anyone who wasn’t crediting at least a few thousand dollars a year to the program wasn’t getting the most out of it anyway. Points expire 2-3 years after they are earned. I did appreciate the ability to get a couple Admirals Club passes even in the lean years when travel was down (which I gave away to my employees or colleagues) but no big deal.

I do take exception to the fact that businessextra.com is, right this very minute, advertising “Business Extra is is free to join and there's no minimum spend requirement.” While that is technically true it seems deceptive. They are also still highlighting Three Twins Ice Cream in their customer spotlight. The founder of that company was a well-known flyertalker but if I’m not mistaken the business failed some time ago.

I will gladly help you use them if you need help :cool:
The easiest way to use that amount of points is one domestic plane ticket. The most "value" for that amount of miles is probably 2x Int'l One-Way Upgrade on Discounted Fare awards. If you have any plans to travel somewhere far thats probably the most "value" since a long international flight is so much money in business.

As of now, I wouldn't meet even the $5K spend requirement, and I also no longer meet the 3 person requirement. We'll see how my customers decide to proceed regarding travel. I expect I'll meet the $5K fairly soon but I don't see a return to travel for my support staff.

And yes I can still redeem through 2022, But I've got points that don't expire until 2024 and there are fairly easy ways to roll over the points so I definitely wasn't planning on having them all spent even by then. I understand it would add complexity, but I would have liked to see existing points grandfathered under the old rules.

I've read some of the recent replies, and while I don't disagree that the changes are reasonable overall, I'm still not sure I think it's fair to change the redemption conditions for existing points. I realize it's not the exact same situation, but imagine that they said you can't redeem your existing AAdvantage miles without some minimum spend... I doubt many would find that fair, but I could be wrong. I've got 80K points to burn and not much time to do it.

Back when Biz ExtrAA first started, you just told the AA people how many employees you had, without giving any names, and they sent the administrator for a different company than where I am now, a matching number of day passes for the Admirals Club and matching number of drink/headset coupons. None of these had any expiration dates. It was a gold mine back in the day. No wonder they chose to reign it in.

The ratio sucks. If you have enough points to redeem for a travel award, you should be able to get enough miles to pay for a similar travel award, not at the highest levels, perhaps, but at least the minimum number of miles
For example 2000 BE points gets you a non transcon, which would cost 12500 miles. As the minimum requirement goes up o $5000 per year, that means the minimum points earned before expiration is 3000 ($5000 = 1000 points)
So, except for newbies, and current members (untl Jan 1, 2023) who earn under 2000 miles, I don't see this conversion being a good thing.at this rate, unless the goal is simply to top off miles to reach an award level.
Of course the change to 3 travelers is a bit interesting, since it makes sense to allow accounts with 3 people at $5000 per year total versus 2 people spending $100K per year for company travel.
At that level, it would be worth it to buy a ticket for another person so you have 3 people. Tell them it was for a doing such a good job. :)
Sometimes, although rarely, I actually get an odd booking using my company BE number. I try to contact these people to ask why, but I have never gotten a response.

i redeemed for bxp1s in feb 2020, which expired feb 2021. obviously due to covid i was unable to use them. were there automatic extensions of these certs?

I would call in and ask if you can redeposit them

In my recent experience, they are being very liberal about allowing you to redeposit certificates (converting them back into points).

In my recent experience, they sometimes have a very difficult time locating redeemed certificates, even when you provide customer service reps the redemption date; confirmation number; and authorization number. It's best to save those confirmation emails when you make the redemption......otherwise, you may find yourself in the Business Extra Twilight Zone.

Expired Points 2021
 

----I was wondering if anyone thought AA would again extent when points will expire this year. As another year has gone b with travel I would like to move these again to 2022. Delta has extended their program but have not heard anything from AA.
If they do not, is it possible to redeem an award for the miles expiring and then calll and ask to have them re-deposited? Does this reset the expire date another 2 years?
Thanks!

You don't even have to call. Just go online and redeem an award (for more points than are set to expire), then immediately go find the award under Returns>Return Award, select it and click through to return. The points are redeposited and expiration date reset. Done this the past 2 years.

Thanks this is great news... do I have to use ALL of the expire points for the date to be reset? I may want to save some for possible usage later this year.
Also, I assume when I have redeemed, I go to the menu RETRUNS, enter the search dates, and then an option appears to return them? THE FAQ mentioned that these are be return at no fee but only by calling? But that could have not been updated to the new process.
And to be clear, if I do this today, these returned points will go to 12/31/2022 not 2021.

Bingo.

That said, i don't understand the 5 person minimum. The revenue number should knock down a lot of sole proprietorships and random one off travelers. If 3 people meet the spend, it's actually more profitable for AA than 5.

I thought the new minimum was going go be 3.

Sorry, you're right. I guess 3 vs 2 for my question then!

Do you ever get random people who have some how manage to enter your number?

Were that to happen and the member not report it, they may well become the victim of AA's historically aggressive actions against those that they think are abusing their affinity programs.

Do you have to credit your flights to Aadvantage to get the Business Extraa points?

Specifically I have some flights coming up that I want to credit to Alaska, but they are on AA metal so would like to get the Business Extraa points as well if possible.

No, you don't need to.

I routinely credit my personal points to my British Airways account but my company points to Business Extra. My company is based in the US so it qualifies for membership of the AA program.

Great news, thank you!

Can you get business extra points for reservations booked with AA flight numbers but operated by B6?

I have a ton of BE points that expire end of this year any word on if they are going to extend them again?

order a redemption and refund it!

Can refunds be processed online or do I need to call?

Can be done online -- very quick and easy