mizzou miles

yes, you earn for QR charges (fuel surcharges) as well.

handspring088

Hi!

I know that there is a Business Extra thread, but with the new website, I have not been to find it, so mods, please feel free to shift.

Is there a better way to check Business Extra award availability other than booking dummy Aadvantage awards, and checking Expertflyer? I have used those tools, but there has been Aadvantage availability , but no Business Extra availability in the same fare class (BE Plan Ahead Business and AAdvantage Business Milesaver). Both should book into U class. Expertflyer is showing no U class when I could book AAdvantage Business Milesaver. Is there another way?

Thanks!

jcatman

deleted

JDiver

If you’re looking to find AA Business SAAver Awards, ExpertFlyer is a good way. But please read the Wikipost at the top of the page of HELP DESK: MileSAAver / SAAver award questions, assistance for some useful SAAver information, which tools you can use to search for award seats, which airlines are reflected on aa.com’s award searches, etc.

BX points can be used as long as the U fare is availabkem iirc, and of course you can call.

Good luck.

JJeffrey

In these cases who is telling you that there is no Business Extra availability? The inventory and availability for awards using AAdvantage miles is the same as BE points, you're just using a different currency to pay for it. When booking awards using BE points this is the procedure I follow:

1) Find award availability at aa.com and put itinerary on hold
2) Log in to BE website and claim relevant BE award
3) Call Meeting Sevices, give them PNR for award on hold, and tell them you want to ticket it using the BE award

The Meeting Sevices people can sometimes be equally as ill-trained and/or cluless as normal AA phone reps, so relying on them to do your BE award searches is a recipe for disaster. If you put a flight on hold and they say they can't book it using a BE award, HUCA.

handspring088

Meeting Services is telling me that there is no U availability for BE awards. Upon hanging up and calling again, I was told that U availability does not necessarily mean that it can be used for a BE award.

skippythelizard

The advice about putting an AAdavntage award on hold and then calling Meeting Services to ticket as a BE award is great advice.

However, see post #1363 for some notes on a recent experience of mine...and restrictions that I was told apply to BE awards that don't apply to AAdvantage. (I might have had different results with HUCA, but I did get positive results, if not my first choice).

JJeffrey

But in both of these instances it seems you are relying on the Meeting Services phone rep to tell you what is or isn't available and what can or can't be booked. Instead of relying on the agents (mis)information about award rules and such, if you just put it on hold beforehand it takes this guesswork out of the equation. As soon as the Meeting Services agent tries to book it, it will of course go through with no problem, even if they are under the (wrong)assumption that a domestic connection can't exceed 4 hrs, for example.

And it can't be stressed enough that Meeting Services agents are no different than the normal phone reps, HUCA is king.

handspring088

In the immediate instance that writing about, I did put a reservation on hold (using Aadvantage miles). I was told that the hold is not helpful for BE awards because there are restrictions on BE awards that do not apply to Aadvantage awards. For example, I was able to book a MileSaaver Business Award that had three segments, but was told that because the middle segment was between two domestic cities, connecting to the international flight, that it was invalid as a BE redemption.

JJeffrey

That is complete nonsense (what the agent was telling you), I would have definitely HUCA. My last int'l BE award had exactly that, 4 segments with an all domestic flight flight in the middle, and of course I was able to ticket it with no problem (RDU-CLT-BNA-LAX-SYD) using a BE award.

While I won't put much of anything past AA these days, it makes zero sense as to why AA would have a stricter set of routing requirements for a BE awards, and these "requirements" again sound like complete nonsense and/or agents misunderstanding certain rules, etc.

Antarius

Sorry if this has been answered - the thread is 1400 responses deep.

how long does it take for points to post in Business Extraa?

potus18

They post around the 20th of the following month.

Antarius

Thanks. That would explain why I'm still seeing a zero balance.

skippythelizard

I did put a reservation on hold as well...the agent was happy to work with it, and thought it was helpful as it had the full details for all 4 passengers. But the "system" was not allowing her to move to the next step where the BE cert numbers are entered. She had to wait on the "help desk", which took about 15-20 minutes. They came back and said a double open jaw was not allowed.

At this point I had 4 biz seats on hold including LAX-PEK and HKG-LAX...and I didn't want to let them go. Because of married segment availability, they were not bookable on their own, but only with certain connecting flights. However, since I had the seats on hold, I had no way to check what connecting flights would allow business availability...because of this married segment nonsense. Since I'm coming from the southeast, I had the agent try every city within 4-5 hours of me. We found U availability for ATL-LAX-PEK and HKG-LAX-DFW-ATL...but the "system" was still not allowing. So, another wait on the help desk...that's when they came back with the 4 hour domestic connection limitation (overnight was required at DFW). We finally came up with MCO-LAX-PEK and HKG-LAX-MCO, and the system was fine to ticket it. This was a 90+ minute phone call, and I felt that the agent was really trying...it didn't feel like a HUCA situation.

But I didn't really look forward to a 5 hour drive to/from MCO. 15 minutes later I realized that there was SAV-CLT-MCO availability, so I called back and got another agent to see if I could add these segments. She took it to the "help desk" (again about a 15 minute wait), and they said no...with an explanation like the one you received, it was not a direct enough routing. I thanked the agent for trying and remarked about how the married segment award availability pretty much meant the only awards available are indirect.

About an hour later, I was looking at the AA app, and thought I'd double check the details for this reservation. To my surprise, SAV-CLT-MCO had been added to the reservation. A few minutes, the second agent called me back. She told me that she kept thinking about it after we hung up, and found a way to make it work. It's not ideal, but it works...SAV-CLT-MCO-LAX-PEK/HKG-LAX-MCO-CLT-SAV. Now I wait for the inevitable schedule changes to help me remove the excess connections.

So, in your case, I agree, and would recommend HUCA.

I'd also recommend being very polite, patient, respectful, and ask questions...like clarifying exactly why that middle segment in your itinerary isn't allowed. Say you want to understand so that you can look for alternatives...be inquisitive instead of demanding. Personally, I think politeness and respect goes a long way. I felt both of these agents worked extra hard for me, when it would have been easier to tell me it couldn't be done.

handspring088

I agree with all that you have written. I have found the BE agents to be conscientious with trying to figure out why an Advantage booking is working when a BE booking is not.

They were the ones that said that a single connection to a "gateway city" would work, but two connections would not. So..... MDT-CLT-PHL-LHR would not work, because the CLT-PHL segment was invalid for a BE award. However, MDT-PHL-LHR would work.

So, the BE agents were helpful. However, I would appreciate better transparency for how to construct awards on BE.