I knew that was an exceptional offer, unfortunately back in June it wasn't as clear how low risk flying was so I wasn't going to be planning to fly in time to secure the free points.

I think I'll hold off for a bit and see if it comes back, 2,000 is a lot more than 650 and I still don't see myself doing a ton of flying in early 2021. Recently I have been booking through AAvacations, since first class flights are so inexpensive now, to get better EQD returns, and I understand special fares won't credit to Business Extra anyway.

IIRC though the 650 offer is easy and really no strings attached. You just get it signing up. The higher offers i thought require a certain amount of flying to happen in a time period and takes longer to get them. I don't think the 650 offer is bad, less risk in these times. I always find BE to be too generous a program i am afraid changes have to be coming soon. Hope im wrong

Options for Unused Award Segment
 

Last December, I redeemed a Plan Ahead Business Flight Award US-Europe (BX6B) for 7200 points and booked CDG-JFK/LGA-PHL-LHR

That same month, I flew the first segment CDG-JFK.

The return, LHR-PHL-LHR was ticketed for May 2020.

Prior to May, AA , rerouted my flight to LGA-MIA-LHR.

That flight with the new routing actually flew. But given all the country quarantines, my trip was now in vain.

Before the scheduled flight date , I called BusinessExtrAA and the agent offered to make a 1 time change.

Deciding not to waste that 1 change on uncertain plans, the agent offered to cancel my flight and hold the ticket value open. The agent said I needed to fly that remaining segment before 12/31/20.

Since nothings really changed quarantine-wise and current travel to Europe is not an option, before I call BusinessExtrAA again to deal with my unused return segment, I was hoping for any info on possible options or similar experiences?

Thanks

Are they still refunding awards with a subsequent 2 year extension on the points?

As a one-off, yes. Had a 2020 BE ticket from a 2019 award. Cancelled, then months later submitted it for refund at prefunds. Emailed asking for either the points or the certificate back, and got the points added manually, with a two year expiry. All this after I called and was told nope, you have to fly it or lose it.

People here had been reporting being able to cancel certificates (I believe that hadn't been redeemed for flights yet) online with no fuss and getting the points back. I'm trying to figure out if that's still possible.

My case was only exceptional because I got a refund on a ticket from a certificate from points expiring 2018. I suspect returning an unexpired certificate is no big deal.

Cool, thanks. I'm hoping someone else will come along with a recent DP.

Are you on a 1099 basis? If so, I would sign yourself up and then use YOUR BE number for everyone's flights. Better that you receive the points.

we have a small family company and all the extended family put the BE number on the AA flights. In return I gift them Gold or AC membership, typically. It works out.

Yes, I just canceled a trip (free for EXP), and asked for the certificate to be returned as points which with free with 2 year expiration from the time points are returned.

Thanks very much. I was able to process an online return with no problem.

Were BXP1 or other instruments extended automatically?

Not sure about certificates themselves, but points were extended.

EQMs using a BXP1 Upgrade
 

I took a trip back in Dec and used BXP1 upgrades. When I got back, I noticed that I got EQMs for the trip as if I was in paid first class. Was this a glitch? I don't recall getting credit for paid first in the past when using BXP1s.