Nov 21, 2012, 10:53 am
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Note: older posts have been archived to ARCHIVE: Business Extra Program master thread (consolidated)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)
Mar 28, 2019, 12:49 pm
#856
Join Date: Dec 2014
Location: New York City + Vail, CO
Programs: American Airlines Executive Platinum, Marriott Bonvoy Ambassador Elite
Posts: 3,225
But business extra points also have a hard expiration date. How do you use your business extra points?
Mar 28, 2019, 1:15 pm
#857
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: Aug 2012
Location: KHOU/KIAH
Programs: AA EXP | Marriott Bonvoy Titanium| Hyatt Globalist
Posts: 11,236
What is a better use of BE points then?
Mar 28, 2019, 1:38 pm
#858
Join Date: May 2011
Location: DFW
Programs: AA EXP, LT Gold
Posts: 3,146
Mar 28, 2019, 9:03 pm
#859
Join Date: Jul 2004
Location: Live: IWI; Work: DCA/Everywhere; Play: LAS/SJU/MLE
Programs: AA EXP, DL PM, Hyatt Glob, Marriott Ambassador/LTP, Nat'l Exec Elite, LEYE Gold
Posts: 6,670
that means BXP1 gets you nearly 50 cents per point in value -- which I think is the best value you can get out of BE points (compare to BXP3s, which cost 3100 points to do what an SWU or 25k+$350 -- a "$775 value" so only 25c/point -- does)
Mar 30, 2019, 3:01 pm
#860
Join Date: Nov 2017
Posts: 108
I had a one way EZE-DFW-DCA itinerary in December. Ended up using miles+copay to upgrade the EZE-DFW leg from prem economy to business (economy for domestic leg). However, I only received BusinessExtra points for the DFW-DCA leg even though it was all one ticket number. I’ve already emailed in but curious if anyone has experienced this before.
Thanks!
Thanks!
Apr 2, 2019, 10:03 pm
#861
Join Date: Sep 2011
Location: Philadelphia
Programs: AA lifetime plat 2.5 million
Posts: 298
Business Extra upgrades--when do they clear?
I've earned enough points in my business extra account (about 1800) to qualify for a few domestic upgrades. I can't seem to find info on when these clear. Is it at booking? Does it go to the upgrade list and if so where? After other elites? The info doesn't seem readily available. I am platinum flying PHL/LAX/PHL. Would I be better using 500-mile stickers? I have about $6000 in rolling annual spend.
This is new to me and I welcome input from the circle of wisdom here. Thanks in advance.
This is new to me and I welcome input from the circle of wisdom here. Thanks in advance.
Apr 2, 2019, 10:09 pm
#862
Join Date: Dec 2014
Location: New York City + Vail, CO
Programs: American Airlines Executive Platinum, Marriott Bonvoy Ambassador Elite
Posts: 3,225
I've earned enough points in my business extra account (about 1800) to qualify for a few domestic upgrades. I can't seem to find info on when these clear. Is it at booking? Does it go to the upgrade list and if so where? After other elites? The info doesn't seem readily available. I am platinum flying PHL/LAX/PHL. Would I be better using 500-mile stickers? I have about $6000 in rolling annual spend.
This is new to me and I welcome input from the circle of wisdom here. Thanks in advance.
This is new to me and I welcome input from the circle of wisdom here. Thanks in advance.
Apr 2, 2019, 11:52 pm
#863
Join Date: Jul 2004
Location: Live: IWI; Work: DCA/Everywhere; Play: LAS/SJU/MLE
Programs: AA EXP, DL PM, Hyatt Glob, Marriott Ambassador/LTP, Nat'l Exec Elite, LEYE Gold
Posts: 6,670
They don't work on B, N, O, Q, or S fares, so make sure you don't have those. There is plenty of information in the Business Extra thread, you should look there. (Mods: merge?)
You will likely notice in that thread that the waitlist process for BXP1 upgrades is a little hit-or-miss -- if it doesn't go automatically and you get an ExpertFlyer alert telling you there's C availability, it can be difficult to get an agent who can push the upgrade through. (You have to do the upgrades through Business Extra / Meeting Services -- regular AAgents won't touch these). For that reason, I don't waitlist them -- I personally only use BXP1s when I can confirm them at booking, which I check by looking on ExpertFlyer before I buy my ticket.
I then use Matrix - ITA Software by Google to search airfares to look for an eligible fare (typically H, K, M, L, G, or V) -- in your case, for example, I would type the following into the "Departing From" field: PHL :: aa+ /f bc=h bc=k bc=m bc=l bc=g bc=v and then tab over to type LAX :: aa+ /f bc=h bc=k bc=m bc=l bc=g bc=v for Destination, then hit tab again. That should result in the aa+ going in the routing codes field and everything after the / going in the extension codes box. I always check matrix because you might find that the higher fare you have to pay for a non-BNOQS fare makes the BXP1 no longer worth it. You can book the fares using bookwithmatrix or by calling AA.
You will likely notice in that thread that the waitlist process for BXP1 upgrades is a little hit-or-miss -- if it doesn't go automatically and you get an ExpertFlyer alert telling you there's C availability, it can be difficult to get an agent who can push the upgrade through. (You have to do the upgrades through Business Extra / Meeting Services -- regular AAgents won't touch these). For that reason, I don't waitlist them -- I personally only use BXP1s when I can confirm them at booking, which I check by looking on ExpertFlyer before I buy my ticket.
I then use Matrix - ITA Software by Google to search airfares to look for an eligible fare (typically H, K, M, L, G, or V) -- in your case, for example, I would type the following into the "Departing From" field: PHL :: aa+ /f bc=h bc=k bc=m bc=l bc=g bc=v and then tab over to type LAX :: aa+ /f bc=h bc=k bc=m bc=l bc=g bc=v for Destination, then hit tab again. That should result in the aa+ going in the routing codes field and everything after the / going in the extension codes box. I always check matrix because you might find that the higher fare you have to pay for a non-BNOQS fare makes the BXP1 no longer worth it. You can book the fares using bookwithmatrix or by calling AA.
Apr 3, 2019, 10:22 am
#866
Join Date: Dec 1999
Location: NYC/PHX
Programs: IATA, Sabre, AvgeekAgent
Posts: 1,958
Apr 12, 2019, 9:42 am
#867
Join Date: Jun 2010
Location: Lubbock, TX
Programs: AAPlatinum, UA
Posts: 250
Have your Points for February/March posted yet?
I know it takes usually until the 24th day to post the points of the previous month; but I haven't seen anything yet. Just wondered if anyone else has their points in the system....if so, then I will need to do a missing point request with BE.... (and no one wants to do that, ha!) 
Apr 12, 2019, 9:55 am
#868
Join Date: Jul 2004
Location: Live: IWI; Work: DCA/Everywhere; Play: LAS/SJU/MLE
Programs: AA EXP, DL PM, Hyatt Glob, Marriott Ambassador/LTP, Nat'l Exec Elite, LEYE Gold
Posts: 6,670
I know it takes usually until the 24th day to post the points of the previous month; but I haven't seen anything yet. Just wondered if anyone else has their points in the system....if so, then I will need to do a missing point request with BE.... (and no one wants to do that, ha!)
Really?
Apr 19, 2019, 12:28 am
#870
Join Date: Apr 2009
Posts: 48
Has anyone else had problems getting upgraded using BXP3 when booked as Premium Economy. It seems like its an ordeal every time. I just somehow lost an upgrade because it took Business Extra 45 minutes to figure out why they couldn't take from the C inventory only to have it taken by someone using Miles+Money or SWUs. I have SWUs sitting in my account and would have used them for a HKG->DFW upgrade. It seems like this is a problem EVERYTIME i try to upgrade from PE.
Am I just an isolated case?
Am I just an isolated case?