Any news on what happened?
Anyone else have recent experience with clearing BXP1s from waitlist or gate? I was hoping that it might improve from previously reports of it being unreliable, but it seems to still be an issue.

That sounds terribly wrong. You should be charged the same taxes and fees when using a BE award as a normal AAdvantage award (definitely no YQ on AA metal).

Looking at aa.com, a dummy award booking in business using AA to LHR then BA to TLS comes back with $165 in taxes/fees round trip. Have you already booked it? I would for sure call back to get the taxes recalculated and a refund if you've already booked it.

Whenever I book BE awards, I always put the flights on hold at aa.com then call Meeting Services to have it ticketed as a BE award. That way there's no question as to the flights, taxes, etc.

hi guys, anyone know if I redeem for AA Gold for 3200 points, how long will it last? Would it be thru end of January of the following year? Thanks


Nevermind, I see it on the website. It follows the same rules as a status match, if issued after July 01, is good until end of January of the year after next.

They're your points but what could Gold status possibly give you to make it worth 3,200 BE points?

Thanks to promos and a fair bit of flying, and despite my use of BXP1s when I can, I have amassed about 10,000 BE points. Which means that, if I wanted to, I could redeem them for a Flagship Dining adventure on something like DCA-MIA-JFK-LAX-HKG, roundtrip (and there is surprisingly enough availability to make this happen). I'd just be doing it for fun, to spend a couple days in HKG and to go flying because I like to fly.

Which raises the question whether spending 10,000 points on an F rt is a "worse" use of points than saving them for BXP1 (and maybe BXP3) redemptions. So I did some math to see how I'd value the points at each redemption level:

15 x BXP1 (650 each, 9750 points). Ordinarily a BXP1 replaces a 15k + $75 upgrade award. Let's say I value miles at 1.8 cents each, that's $270 + $75 = $345, times 15 = $5,175. Caveats = I might not have occasion to use 15 BXP1s (but my earliest expiring points are 12/31/2019, so who knows); BXP1s require higher fare buckets and are only good for one segment (but I typically use them on J-->F transcons, so that doesn't matter). The $345 valuation seems a bit high... I'd certainly pay this to go Y-->J on a transcon or to confirm various other "important" upgrades, but only rarely would I pay $345 for J-->F on a transcon. I would peg the value of a BXP1, subjectively, at around $250 for me. But I'll stick with $345 (and $5,175 total) for the purpose of comparison.

or

3 x BXP3 (3100 each, 9300 points) + 1 x BXP1. Ordinarily a BXP3 replaces an SWU or a 25k + $350 upgrade award, so $800 per my valuation (which seems about right, I'd usually pay $800 cash for an upgrade subject to the same terms as an SWU is). So $800 x 3 = $2400, plus $345 = $2775. Clearly, I don't value BXP3s as being worth effectively 5 times a BXP1. Which probably explains why I've never redeemed for one!

or

1 x BX7C (10,000 points). This replaces two 110,000-mile US-Asia 2 F awards, so 220,000 * .018 = $3,960 per my valuation (which again seems about right). This is obviously more than my BXP3 valuation but less than my BXP1 valuation.

Despite the above math, I'm still inclined to redeem for the BX7C because of (1) the appeal of taking the fun trip, (2) the fact that I don't personally value the one-segment upgrade at $345, (3) holding onto 10,000 points seems like begging to incur devaluation risk--I'm much more inclined to earn and burn generally, especially when future travel plans are uncertain (who knows whether my schedule will continue to allow impromptu trips to HKG), and (4) I don't have a foreseeable use for 15 BXP1s (nor is there any other redemption that I would find more valuable, I don't think).

Anyone think I'm missing something?

It's all relative...
 

Honestly, it's all relative. You sound like a very frequent flyer and "amassing" miles isn't a problem for you. As such, I wouldn't overthink it and nickel and dime myself, just do whatever you feel will make you happiest, without regard to the value of the award. Using that logic, a RT in F is not a bad use of miles, even if F is only marginally better than C. Now, if you actually don't fly that much and earning miles is tough, then definitely do the math. Using the latter logic, AA F is not something you want to use hard-earned (and possibly once-in-a-lifetime) miles/points for. So, you see, it's all relative.

My monthly summary email today contained this:

It really was a quick survey, asking what sort of communication content from Business Extra I find most valuable. So happy to get the extra free 500 points.

I'm not sure if this was targeted or not, but those of you who normally don't bother reading these emails, may want to take a closer look now.

Thanks for posting this. I did not look closely at the email and would've missed this. Easy 500 points!

I just found out my BE email was going into junk mail on my phone :)
Easy 500 :)

Yes, many thank you. I would've missed out on the 500 points.

How is the returned fee waiver for Exp figured on a BXP1. The owner of the account (my wife) has no status. I'm the one who uses them. Did I make an error in setting it up in my wife's name instead of mine?

If it's a paper one, there hasn't been a fee for anyone recently as far as I can tell. Call 'em up, they'll probably tell you to write VOID on it and scan it to them in an email along w/ a short note saying that you don't have use for it anymore.

If it's electronic then presumably it has been attached to a reservation? If it's attached to your reservation and you're an EXP, I imagine you might get traction calling to return without a fee. Not sure there are data points since the changeover to electronic. Maybe they'll base it on the account owner like with miles, but maybe not.

Is the link targeted? Anyone has a link to the survey?