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Note: older posts have been archived to ARCHIVE: Business Extra Program master thread (consolidated)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)
Dec 2, 2018, 1:20 pm
#721
Join Date: Sep 2010
Location: DFW
Programs: AA EXP, AVIS President's Club, Hilton Diamond
Posts: 50
Use 40k AA miles or 3,000 BE points? Your thoughts?
Background:
16,736 BE points current balance
2,477 BE points are expiring at end of 2018
I am AA EXP with 25,158 EQD an 131,522 EQM for 2018
Over 2 million lifetime miles. Over 1 million award miles left to spend
Scenario:
4 of us going to Hawaii in March 2019
I have 4 confirmed seats DFW-OGG 20,000 AA miles x 4 people = 80,000 miles going and 4 confirmed seats OGG-DFW 20,000 AA miles x 4 people = 80,000 miles returning = 160,000 miles total for all 4 of us. I worked very hard over a long period of time to research and find and book these. You know how hard that is for Spring Break to Hawaii.
BX2A PlanAhead NorthAmerica & Hawaii is 3,000 points per person x 4 people = 12,000 points
Decision:
keep Door #1 : spend the 160,000 miles as these are cheap 40k miles roundtrip per person
or go for Door #2 : spend the 12,000 points for DFW-OGG roundtrip. BE desk and EXP desk said no problem returning 160k miles to me and BE desk can convert to BE award. ( I know there is discussion below about them not being or being in the same buckets but these two agents agree it was doable, but that is not the discussion )
Discussion:
I say keep door #1 . These are 40k per person roundtrip. If these were 80k or 120k or 180k per person roundtrip, then that would be a different story. 40k is much less valuable then 3,000 BE points
BE currency is MUCH more valuable than AA miles currency
Your thoughts?
16,736 BE points current balance
2,477 BE points are expiring at end of 2018
I am AA EXP with 25,158 EQD an 131,522 EQM for 2018
Over 2 million lifetime miles. Over 1 million award miles left to spend
Scenario:
4 of us going to Hawaii in March 2019
I have 4 confirmed seats DFW-OGG 20,000 AA miles x 4 people = 80,000 miles going and 4 confirmed seats OGG-DFW 20,000 AA miles x 4 people = 80,000 miles returning = 160,000 miles total for all 4 of us. I worked very hard over a long period of time to research and find and book these. You know how hard that is for Spring Break to Hawaii.
BX2A PlanAhead NorthAmerica & Hawaii is 3,000 points per person x 4 people = 12,000 points
Decision:
keep Door #1 : spend the 160,000 miles as these are cheap 40k miles roundtrip per person
or go for Door #2 : spend the 12,000 points for DFW-OGG roundtrip. BE desk and EXP desk said no problem returning 160k miles to me and BE desk can convert to BE award. ( I know there is discussion below about them not being or being in the same buckets but these two agents agree it was doable, but that is not the discussion )
Discussion:
I say keep door #1 . These are 40k per person roundtrip. If these were 80k or 120k or 180k per person roundtrip, then that would be a different story. 40k is much less valuable then 3,000 BE points
BE currency is MUCH more valuable than AA miles currency
Your thoughts?
Dec 2, 2018, 1:38 pm
#722
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: Feb 2001
Location: RDU <|> MMX
Programs: AA EXP 2MM, SK EBS
Posts: 12,466
I say keep door #1 . These are 40k per person roundtrip. If these were 80k or 120k or 180k per person roundtrip, then that would be a different story. 40k is much less valuable then 3,000 BE points
BE currency is MUCH more valuable than AA miles currency.
BE currency is MUCH more valuable than AA miles currency.
That said, are your mileage tickets already booked or just on hold? If they're booked, I would triple check with the agents again on if it's even possible to just "switch" the award to BE points from AA miles (I'm doubting this). In order to technically do this and get your miles redeposited you'd need to cancel the awards, and there's no guarantee and I certainly wouldn't plan on the award space going back to inventory, so that you could then book the award using BE points. Maybe a good EXP agent can work some magic but again I'd be cautious.
Dec 2, 2018, 2:31 pm
#723
Join Date: Mar 2007
Posts: 4,964
I can find the plan ahead awards on the calendar, but they disappear when I get to the select flight screen. Looks like its not very accurate yet.
Last edited by olouie; Dec 2, 2018 at 2:36 pm
Dec 10, 2018, 7:39 am
#725
Join Date: Jan 2017
Programs: AA Gold, Hilton Gold, SPG Gold, Marriott Gold
Posts: 26
I plan on using expiring Business Extra points to maintain Gold status for next year. I understand I have to use the points before the end of the year to prevent them from expiring. However, I am currently Platinum (very little flying this year, so without BE I would drop to no status). Does anyone have any knowledge or experience with the program regarding whether my current Platinum status would be affected by redeeming this award? That is, would this somehow cause me to drop from Platinum to Gold right aware? Or can I expect to retain Platinum through the end of January and drop to Gold February 1?
Dec 10, 2018, 7:51 am
#726
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: May 2004
Location: DFW/DAL
Programs: AA Lifetime PLT, AS MVPG, HH Diamond, NCL Platinum Plus, MSC Diamond
Posts: 21,422
Background:
16,736 BE points current balance
2,477 BE points are expiring at end of 2018
I am AA EXP with 25,158 EQD an 131,522 EQM for 2018
Over 2 million lifetime miles. Over 1 million award miles left to spend
Scenario:
4 of us going to Hawaii in March 2019
I have 4 confirmed seats DFW-OGG 20,000 AA miles x 4 people = 80,000 miles going and 4 confirmed seats OGG-DFW 20,000 AA miles x 4 people = 80,000 miles returning = 160,000 miles total for all 4 of us. I worked very hard over a long period of time to research and find and book these. You know how hard that is for Spring Break to Hawaii.
BX2A PlanAhead NorthAmerica & Hawaii is 3,000 points per person x 4 people = 12,000 points
Decision:
keep Door #1 : spend the 160,000 miles as these are cheap 40k miles roundtrip per person
or go for Door #2 : spend the 12,000 points for DFW-OGG roundtrip. BE desk and EXP desk said no problem returning 160k miles to me and BE desk can convert to BE award. ( I know there is discussion below about them not being or being in the same buckets but these two agents agree it was doable, but that is not the discussion )
Discussion:
I say keep door #1 . These are 40k per person roundtrip. If these were 80k or 120k or 180k per person roundtrip, then that would be a different story. 40k is much less valuable then 3,000 BE points
BE currency is MUCH more valuable than AA miles currency
Your thoughts?
16,736 BE points current balance
2,477 BE points are expiring at end of 2018
I am AA EXP with 25,158 EQD an 131,522 EQM for 2018
Over 2 million lifetime miles. Over 1 million award miles left to spend
Scenario:
4 of us going to Hawaii in March 2019
I have 4 confirmed seats DFW-OGG 20,000 AA miles x 4 people = 80,000 miles going and 4 confirmed seats OGG-DFW 20,000 AA miles x 4 people = 80,000 miles returning = 160,000 miles total for all 4 of us. I worked very hard over a long period of time to research and find and book these. You know how hard that is for Spring Break to Hawaii.
BX2A PlanAhead NorthAmerica & Hawaii is 3,000 points per person x 4 people = 12,000 points
Decision:
keep Door #1 : spend the 160,000 miles as these are cheap 40k miles roundtrip per person
or go for Door #2 : spend the 12,000 points for DFW-OGG roundtrip. BE desk and EXP desk said no problem returning 160k miles to me and BE desk can convert to BE award. ( I know there is discussion below about them not being or being in the same buckets but these two agents agree it was doable, but that is not the discussion )
Discussion:
I say keep door #1 . These are 40k per person roundtrip. If these were 80k or 120k or 180k per person roundtrip, then that would be a different story. 40k is much less valuable then 3,000 BE points
BE currency is MUCH more valuable than AA miles currency
Your thoughts?
Dec 10, 2018, 8:15 am
#727
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: May 2004
Location: DFW/DAL
Programs: AA Lifetime PLT, AS MVPG, HH Diamond, NCL Platinum Plus, MSC Diamond
Posts: 21,422
Dec 19, 2018, 5:24 pm
#729
Join Date: Jan 2013
Location: Vail, CO
Programs: AA EXP/1mm, Marriott Titanium/LT Gold, UA Silver
Posts: 626
I know this has been answered here - but just wanted to triple check - BXP3's work the same exact way as SWUs right? Same priority, automatic reticketing, etc correct? Literally the same instruments in the eyes of AA (assuming of course the applicable fare code has been booked to use?)
I am headed to Shanghai for the holidays and trying to upgrade from PE to J and one way is still waitlisted. I called the EXP desk who told me SWUs take priority over BXP3 which I am pretty sure is not the case. However since I will be traveling from China to the USA (on 1/1 which will be a rough day as is) I did not want to risk and swapped the BXP3 for a SWU. Was that a mistake? This was an SWU expiring Jan '20 whereas the BXP3 expires in May '19 - clearly I would like to use whatever expires first if all else is equal. Any advice here would be greatly appreciated!
I am headed to Shanghai for the holidays and trying to upgrade from PE to J and one way is still waitlisted. I called the EXP desk who told me SWUs take priority over BXP3 which I am pretty sure is not the case. However since I will be traveling from China to the USA (on 1/1 which will be a rough day as is) I did not want to risk and swapped the BXP3 for a SWU. Was that a mistake? This was an SWU expiring Jan '20 whereas the BXP3 expires in May '19 - clearly I would like to use whatever expires first if all else is equal. Any advice here would be greatly appreciated!
Dec 19, 2018, 5:35 pm
#730
Join Date: Jan 2008
Location: JFK, DCA, BUR, YVR
Programs: AC, AS, BA, DL, HH (D), MR (T/LTP), UA (*S), UScAAre (PLT/1,87MM), WN
Posts: 5,207
I know this has been answered here - but just wanted to triple check - BXP3's work the same exact way as SWUs right? Same priority, automatic reticketing, etc correct? Literally the same instruments in the eyes of AA (assuming of course the applicable fare code has been booked to use?)
I am headed to Shanghai for the holidays and trying to upgrade from PE to J and one way is still waitlisted. I called the EXP desk who told me SWUs take priority over BXP3 which I am pretty sure is not the case. However since I will be traveling from China to the USA (on 1/1 which will be a rough day as is) I did not want to risk and swapped the BXP3 for a SWU. Was that a mistake? This was an SWU expiring Jan '20 whereas the BXP3 expires in May '19 - clearly I would like to use whatever expires first if all else is equal. Any advice here would be greatly appreciated!
I am headed to Shanghai for the holidays and trying to upgrade from PE to J and one way is still waitlisted. I called the EXP desk who told me SWUs take priority over BXP3 which I am pretty sure is not the case. However since I will be traveling from China to the USA (on 1/1 which will be a rough day as is) I did not want to risk and swapped the BXP3 for a SWU. Was that a mistake? This was an SWU expiring Jan '20 whereas the BXP3 expires in May '19 - clearly I would like to use whatever expires first if all else is equal. Any advice here would be greatly appreciated!
Dec 19, 2018, 6:53 pm
#731
Join Date: Jan 2013
Location: Vail, CO
Programs: AA EXP/1mm, Marriott Titanium/LT Gold, UA Silver
Posts: 626
Apparently, BXPs have been knocked down a bunch of pegs, and are mostly worthless. I tried to redeem a BXP1 on a flight that had an empty J cabin, and was still waitlisted. Suffice it to say I never got the upgrade, so I made AA refund me the fare difference I paid for the privilege of being jerked around.
Dec 20, 2018, 9:34 am
#733
Join Date: May 2010
Location: PHL
Programs: AA EXP, UA *S, Hilton Diamond, Marriott Titanium, Hyatt Exp, IHG Plat, National EE, Sixt Plat
Posts: 648
I'm planning on opening a new BE account. Does anyone know if there are any active promos or referral codes that offer a signup bonus? Thanks
Dec 20, 2018, 10:20 am
#734
Join Date: Jan 2013
Location: Vail, CO
Programs: AA EXP/1mm, Marriott Titanium/LT Gold, UA Silver
Posts: 626
Thanks for the feedback here. One more question - if there is confirmable upgrade space on a flight can I use a BXP3 now to confirm even if the flight is after the expiration date on the cert?
Dec 20, 2018, 1:27 pm
#735
Used to be 'g_leyser'
Join Date: Jul 2002
Location: Brandon Johnson International Airport (expect delays)
Programs: AA PlatPro, HH Gold, Bonvoy Gold, IHG Plat, Reno Air MEGA Platinum
Posts: 10,036
You no longer need to present the paper certificate. Just call Business Extraa to upgrade your SIL and give them the certificate number. You should have no issues.