I have two BXP1s that will expire, and the account they came from was closed (as it was sole proprietorship and they started enforcing that).

So no account to log on to. I will call in and plead my case, but was wondering if anyone had experience or tips for this situation.

Wait really? Did something prompt the closure, or was it a periodic review?

They do a periodic review?? Hmm our LLC may be closing down, bummer. However we have 6 periodic flyers, 4 of which are mostly coach, and have done >$5000 since June, so we may be safe. I just gave our busiest flyers an annual AC membership, and they wanted that instead of platinum.

Booked my wife on a BXP1A upgrade for an LAX to MCO trip a few weeks ago. Ticket was confirmed and ticketed with seat assignment in business class. Went to check in for the flight today and I was prompted to purchase 5, 500-mile upgrade at $40 a pop for a total of $200. Called meeting services and the rep reached out to help desk. Both were unable to do anything. Told me to send wife to airport tomorrow without boarding pass. I wasn't willing to do that since there is a current operational meltdown and its a short time window that she has to arrive and check in. After 1.5 hours on the phone and speaking to a supervisor who was unwilling to provide a workaround I decided to just pay the $200 and figure it out with customer relations after the fact. What would you have done? Will I have a problem getting the refund?

By the way neither my wife nor I are elite....I have no idea why it was trying to process the upgrade using 500-mile stickers when I had already used a BXP1A upgrade instrument. We live in a new reality where even when customer service reps know the system is broken they have no way to actually fix it. I wonder if this has to do with the shift away from giving agents full access to tickets and gives them a UI that is less functional when it comes to tickets.

^ What does the receipt say is the booking class? BXP1 domestic upgrades confirm into C class. It is possible that AA downgraded you, but that seems unlikely if they were asking for e500 stickers (which clear into R class). I would guess the original upgrade never went through somehow. I would wager that the BXP1 is still good (so don't discard the redemption code). If C is now unavailable, then meeting services won't be able to help.

The receipt shows that it was booked into C. I had an ExpertFlyer alert set up for that route and when C opened up I booked it with cash and the BXP1 over the phone with meeting services. FWIW I check EF and there is no C space for that flight now. I am seeing that there was a change to this flight. Originally when I booked it the flight departed at 8:20 AM but then during a schedule change it was pushed back to 9:15. I wonder if the BXP1 didn't get synced up after the change? I checked the Business extra account that had the BXP1 certificate and it showed no certs eligible for return. How else can I check the status of that BXP1 cert? I have the cert identification number.

If there was a schedule change then that's almost certainly the root cause of whatever happened. I've seen it both ways, sometimes the upgrades stick on the new flights and other times you're booted back to economy and have to call AA to fix it.

I agree that it doesn't make any sense why, without status, the system is telling you to purchase 500-mi upgrades for this. Did you end up buying the upgrades and checking in?

This seems like a cut and dry situation where there was a schedule change and you lost your upgrade, any decent agent would be able to fix this, however IME a number of the meeting services reps are pretty clueless. You can always try HUCA tonight if there's still time.

I ended up checking out and seeing if they actually charge my card. Indeed it is pending on my CC for $200 for the 5 x500mile Certs.

im not interested in another 1.5hr phone call at this point. My plan is to write to customer relations, dispute with credit card, file a DOT complaint…in that order until I get a resolution. I do think it’s due to the schedule change but it’s so odd that the agents and the help desk and a supervisor couldn’t make it work for me today.

you could try tweeting them too

this is a good idea. I will try that my assumption is that they are totally overwhelmed in every way right now but it could be possible to get a response before the morning.

I don't think filing a credit card dispute is going to work. You ultimately did agree to buy the upgrades.

You're better off talking to Customer Relations.

point well taken. I guess I will start with customer relations (I tweeted over an hour ago with no luck yet). If customer relations can’t resolve I can attempt a DOT complaint but I doubt I will have to take any other action than an email to customer relations.

periodic review

Did they give you the opportunity to provide any documentation?

Yes, they asked for my account and my wife's. We never knew about the minimum employee requirement, and we didn't meet them.

Mine was a hobby business, my wife's was real, but never had 3 employees.

The 3 employee minimum is new and only takes effect in 2023, right.

I've had this issue before. It took almost an hour at the airport to get it sorted.

Anyone know if a BXP8 redeemed for someone who already has a club membership will simply extend the existing ?

If neither of you were elites, I'm surprised that you were prompted to use stickers since those can only be used by passengers holding elite status or traveling with someone that has it.

Hopefully you get your $ back.

Looking at using a BXP3 on flight next year and not clear if to go into Business class I need to purchase an Economy or Premium Economy?

Also, can anyone check availability for C space on EF for AA 6973 on 8/30/22?

TIA

According to Lucky,

• The upgrade can only be redeemed for a flight booked in G class or higher (N, Q, O, S, and B fares are not eligible)

here's the link: https://onemileatatime.com/guides/am...usiness-extra/

Duplicate

Double duplicate

2 w2 employees in 2020

Want to answer my own question here. Apparently not.

The new requirements with a minimum number of travelers and minimum revenue seem reasonable and I'd rather have it documented and disclosed up-front, vs closing accounts after the fact. It would be pretty extreme if they were routinely asking for copies of W2s for a program that realistically amounts to a few hundred dollars a year in benefits for most small firms. Even the old signup bonuses (e.g. the SMEQ... ones) required at least 2 travelers so I think the intent of the program was clear from the start.

Very new to EF and to BusinessExtra, but now a part of both. EF says there's at least 7 Cs, your flight is 10+ months away after all... but this is a British Airways flight with an AA Codeshare. My understanding is that you can't use a BXP3 on BA...
https://www.businessextra.com/awards...dId=12&catKey=

Then again I just learned today BA is part of BusinessExtra,
Maybe I am wrong, check with someone else more experienced than I, but at least there's your EF info.

you can earn business extra points for British Airways flights. you cannot redeem business extra upgrade certificates on non-American Airlines / American Eagle operated flights.

So the flight is operated by BA but the ticket would be through AA and with AA ticket#. Still cant use? Guess its back to trying to use SWU.

You can not use a SWU on this either. Must be operated by AA.

Strike 2!

Thanks for the guidance

After referring the case to customer relations I got a generic email with a refund for the $200. They also threw 2500 points my way, which is better than nothing but I put the headache and the miss at closer to 5k or 10k points since it required quite a bit of work on my end and the system was clearly at fault. Nevertheless I'll take it.

Has anyone had any issues with the business.aa website to be able to redeem Business Extra UGs? I keep getting an error that the record doesn't exist, but I can go to "View Itinerary" and that has no issue pulling up the flights.

I redeemed a BXP1 about 2 months ago. Had to wait until the reservation was fully ticketed before Business ExtrAA site would find my record.

duplicate

I've had issues with the way it spells names (I forget whether it needed my middle initial appended to the end of my first name, like JOHNQ DOE, or if it also needed a Mr., like JOHNQMR DOE, but I definitely had a weird situation with it at least once).

Duplicate

Ive usually never had a problem, or at least this major. I’ve tried a different persons PNR and 3-4 of mine, no dice. I’ll try the Prefix/Middle name, but I never have those associated with my AA account.

Still not working, and I've tried every rendition of my first/last/middle and title

Anyone else seeing that Business Extra is down for a couple of days, until end of day Texas time, 11/14? Maintenance or something...worse?