might be legit maintenance, that website it held together with bubble gum, no 🧢

Changes to Business Extra clarification
 

I find this program valuable and want to continue to benefit from it. As I understand it I will have to meet the new qualifications as of Jan 1 2023 as I'm an existing member. I'm not entirely clear, however, what the requirements are.

I do understand that I need to have 3 unique employees not including me. And they may require W-2's as proof. I'm a dental corporation with about 10 employees. However, I don't fly them places typically. The occasional continuing education meeting, pre covid, probably won't be doing that for years if ever. I do, however, employ my wife, one of my son's, and another son's girlfriend so can see maybe one or two flights per year but maybe not all three flying in a calendar year.

I can't seem to get a straight answer from Business extra on a few things. Do the employee's listed on the account have to log at least one flight per year? Could see a year where one or two only take flights. I also don't understand the $5000/year. Is that the calendar year or some kind of rolling total? I easily eclipse this with my flying alone but it's not consistent as some months there would be a lot of flying and then could be 2 months where I don't fly. If it's a calendar year, clock starts Jan 1 2023 I assume and I must reach the $5000 by years end I assume.

It is a rolling 12 month period for both requirements. And as I understand it this requirement is only to redeem points.

So say you go online and try to redeem your BE points for an award on July 1, 2022, you would need at least $5k spend and 3 unique travellers crediting at least one flight to your account during the previous 12 months (7/1/21 - 6/30/22).

For any account that hasn't met the requirements, presumably AA will somehow "lock" these from making redemptions. Hopefully they will add some sort of a rolling 12 month spend ticker to keep up with this, as otherwise it will be a nightmare trying to keep up with.

Yes, seems impossible to keep up with. When I asked if I was part of the three was I was told no. So really it's 4 unique travelers then.

That just sounds like a bogus response from a Meeting Services rep making things up on the fly. The updated BE FAQ's just say you need 3 unique travelers, whether the account's travel manager is one of the 3 or not shouldn't have any bearing on anything.

Locking of redemptions
 

So I understand this: If we do not have 3 unique travelers in 2021 and the $5000 anytme in 2021 (our travel vastly decreased for the past two years) before we can redeem anything in 2022 we will first need to have 3 unique and $5000 requirements to redeem? So our ability to redeem after Jan 1, 2022 is locked until those requirements are met?

So if we think we may not meet the 3/$5000 we need to redeem all points by December. 31st, 2021. This correct? It is a nightmare!

Seems like they should give us 2022 to make the 3/$5000 and start locking in 2023.

Has this lockdown just gone into effect? We only joined less than two months ago... or do I have until January 1 to pull out as many benefits as we can? 3 employees is no problem (4 gets tougher), but no guarantee on how much spend occurs, the boss mostly flies Delta due to her destinations.

In short, it doesn't affect existing members for new redemptions until the start of 2023. The change was emailed to members on October 5th and first reported in this thread in post #1353. Take a look at that post for the details. I updated the wiki to add this info but there is still room for cleanup and improvement to make the wiki clearer.

How did I miss this? I do remember seeing the email but I think I just saw January 2023 and said meh ok, and moved on. Thanks for updating the Wiki. So, if someone joined say, October 1st, (I looked, we actually joined in July, definitely do not have 3 flyers with 5000 points yet), is it definitively clear that come January 1, 2023, I'd be locked from redeeming anything? If yes, is the idea to convert the POINTS to the certificates (any kind) before then, and/or convert to miles? Presumably once the certificates are issued whether they be for lounge passes or flights, they aren't locked away like the points are? Good golly, has anyone done on a Wiki on points value? While I hate taking award flights in a year when I still need flights/dollars/loyalty points to hit a certain status level, I can't imagine why anyone would opt for miles, 2000 points gets you a roundtrip in the US, or 25000 miles, but 2000 points is worth 12k miles. I guess I've got a year now to find the best value for me/us.

Thank you very much clarifying the new program rules... gives us another year until we need to evaluate the use of rewards before new program freeze is active for us old accounts!

BXP1 waitlist reliability
 

I’m looking. At applying a bxp1 to a flight that doesn’t currently have C inventory, but hoping this will bump me ahead of other EXPs with comp upgrades.

how reliable is the automated processing of a BXP1 waitlist? I’ve read in the past it’s been unreliable and/or skipped in the automatic upgrade processing.

I’ve applied bxp1 online and it sent me a confirmation email listing sector as waitlisted. Upgrade didn’t clear when C opened, so I’ve called in and was told that (1) the cert was attached to the reservation, (2) no, I wasn’t waitlisted so it would never clear.

Gary at VFTW made a post that the BusinessExtra program has a fast track promotion to get status quickly:

https://www.exploreamerican.com/glob...Details_TC.pdf

https://viewfromthewing.com/new-fast...antage-status/

Questions if anyone knows (I may contact AA if people don't):

1) Does anyone know if this is officially a public offer? I can't find it anywhere in my BusinessExtra profile (I've had the account for several years now)
2) Can I combine my day job corporate travel bookings with my side job BusinessExtra travel bookings to get to the flight level?
3) It reads like this is flight segments and not one-way itineraries (e.g. PHL-DFW-IAH is 2 flights, PHL-IAH nonstop is 1), am I reading that correctly?

Just got this in an email. Looks like it's time to cash out for a bunch of BXP1 upgrades.


"Turn your points into more Business Extra awards

We're thankful for our Business Extra members and proud to support small businesses with programs that maximize the value of business travel. In honor of Small Business Saturday, we're excited to offer reduced point redemption values for select Business Extra awards to help your company's rewards go further.

Turn your points into more awards that make business travel simpler. Starting today, select awards with lower point redemption values are available in your Business Extra account through November 30, 2021.

Awards that take your company's rewards the extra mile:

U.S. Domestic One-Segment Upgrade
Regular: 650 points | Promo: 500 points

Admirals Club® Membership
Regular: 3,300 points | Promo: 2,900 points

Admirals Club® One-Day Pass
Regular: 300 points | Promo: 200 points

As always, Business Extra points can be redeemed for over 60 awards and start as low as 100 points. Log in to your account through the end of November to redeem awards for less.

We thank you for being a valued Business Extra member, and all of us at American Airlines look forward to welcoming you and your travelers on board soon."

I didn’t get that email, but may be tempted to get an AC membership… naaaaaah!!!