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Note: older posts have been archived to ARCHIVE: Business Extra Program master thread (consolidated)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)
Feb 13, 2019, 12:50 pm
#811
Join Date: Jun 2008
Programs: AA EXP
Posts: 167
One question I would ask is, if C space doesn't wind up opening up on your flight and your best bet is a gate upgrade, will the BXP1 still provide you higher priority than the free EXP upgrade? Or is your hope of effectively using the BXP1 dashed once the flight turns over to gate control?
Feb 13, 2019, 1:32 pm
#812
Join Date: Dec 1999
Location: NYC/PHX
Programs: IATA, Sabre, AvgeekAgent
Posts: 1,958
One question I would ask is, if C space doesn't wind up opening up on your flight and your best bet is a gate upgrade, will the BXP1 still provide you higher priority than the free EXP upgrade? Or is your hope of effectively using the BXP1 dashed once the flight turns over to gate control?
Feb 16, 2019, 11:55 am
#813
Join Date: Jun 2002
Posts: 551
Anyone know how the gold status business extra award works in practice? Does it artificially bump up the miles/EQDs to the gold level (for purposes of higher level elite tiers)? In other words, would they be able to qualify for platinum from the gold threshold, or is it like starting from scratch to get to platinum?
The reason why I am asking is because the person for whom I am gifting the gold status may be flying enough to get gold by the end of the year anyway.
The reason why I am asking is because the person for whom I am gifting the gold status may be flying enough to get gold by the end of the year anyway.
Feb 16, 2019, 12:25 pm
#814
Join Date: Dec 1999
Location: NYC/PHX
Programs: IATA, Sabre, AvgeekAgent
Posts: 1,958
Anyone know how the gold status business extra award works in practice? Does it artificially bump up the miles/EQDs to the gold level (for purposes of higher level elite tiers)? In other words, would they be able to qualify for platinum from the gold threshold, or is it like starting from scratch to get to platinum?
Think of the gift as a facade over the organic earning process (although some might perceive their earned status as a facade too).
Feb 16, 2019, 12:36 pm
#815
Join Date: Sep 2015
Location: Santa Barbara, CA, Park City, UT
Programs: AA EXP, Delta Plat, Marriott Plat,Hilton Diamond, Hyatt Globalist, IHG Plat
Posts: 901
For flights upgraded using BXP1 upgrade redemption I'm going to be cancelling the flight most likely. Once canceled will the certificate automatically go back into the count, though show as redeemed? Meaning I'd have 1 year from when first redeemed to use, correct?
I believe I can also redeposit it back into my points. As an EXP I believe that it is free then to do that. But, what I'm wondering if I do that will the points used for that BXP1 then expire one year from when I redeemed it? If so I guess the only point of doing it is if I had another use for it, not to use for BXP1.
Thanks!
I believe I can also redeposit it back into my points. As an EXP I believe that it is free then to do that. But, what I'm wondering if I do that will the points used for that BXP1 then expire one year from when I redeemed it? If so I guess the only point of doing it is if I had another use for it, not to use for BXP1.
Thanks!
Feb 16, 2019, 5:21 pm
#816
Join Date: Dec 1999
Location: NYC/PHX
Programs: IATA, Sabre, AvgeekAgent
Posts: 1,958
The Business Extra account is technically owned by your business (in whatever legal form it takes), not by any of the travelers or manager linked to the account. It's possible some courtesy might be extended to an EXP listed as the travel manager, but I suspect it's unlikely. I'd plan on just applying the certificate to an upgrade later on, or paying the Business Extra redeposit fee.
Feb 17, 2019, 11:02 am
#817
Join Date: Sep 2015
Location: Santa Barbara, CA, Park City, UT
Programs: AA EXP, Delta Plat, Marriott Plat,Hilton Diamond, Hyatt Globalist, IHG Plat
Posts: 901
The Business Extra account is technically owned by your business (in whatever legal form it takes), not by any of the travelers or manager linked to the account. It's possible some courtesy might be extended to an EXP listed as the travel manager, but I suspect it's unlikely. I'd plan on just applying the certificate to an upgrade later on, or paying the Business Extra redeposit fee.
Feb 17, 2019, 1:07 pm
#818
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: 6,656
The Business Extra account is technically owned by your business (in whatever legal form it takes), not by any of the travelers or manager linked to the account. It's possible some courtesy might be extended to an EXP listed as the travel manager, but I suspect it's unlikely. I'd plan on just applying the certificate to an upgrade later on, or paying the Business Extra redeposit fee.
Meeting Services is bad at booking awards and upgrades but they're pretty good about administering the program otherwise.
Feb 18, 2019, 6:07 am
#819
Suspended
Join Date: Apr 2007
Location: London
Programs: BA Gold
Posts: 860
Is there a set date for when the previous month's Business Extraa points should post?
I have a few BA flights from early Jan that I'm waiting on before I can trigger an award, but still no sign of AA processing Jan points. Even when they do process the month of Jan, I'm expecting that I'll have to submit a claim since BA flights rarely ever post automatically for me (which then usually takes an extra few weeks on top).
I have a few BA flights from early Jan that I'm waiting on before I can trigger an award, but still no sign of AA processing Jan points. Even when they do process the month of Jan, I'm expecting that I'll have to submit a claim since BA flights rarely ever post automatically for me (which then usually takes an extra few weeks on top).
Feb 18, 2019, 1:03 pm
#820
Join Date: Nov 2001
Location: SAV/HHH
Programs: BA Lifetime Gold (current GGL), HH Diamond
Posts: 1,293
Feb 18, 2019, 10:02 pm
#824
Suspended
Join Date: Apr 2007
Location: London
Programs: BA Gold
Posts: 860
They must have some crazy archaic system to take this long to process. You’d think that they’d integrate it with the “regular” advantage accrual/posting process. But i guess that would maybe make too much sense.
Feb 18, 2019, 10:16 pm
#825
Join Date: Jul 2004
Location: SNA
Programs: AA EXP, UA 1K (until it expires then never again), *wood Plat, Marriott Gold
Posts: 9,239
Thanks, confirms my concern...I'll set an EF alert and call in to un-waitlist/re-apply should I get an alert and know better for next time!! Frustrating part is I booked Mint for the outbound but figured I'd take AA for the return to grab some EQMs as the Mint ticket was $400ish and AA was >$700 for J but $180 for Y and with a completely empty J cabin figured I'd likely clear using BXP as I need EQMs more than EQDs this year. If I had a do-over I would have just booked Mint both directions :/
Given the schedule change was not ideal for me I took the option to refund the 200ish I paid AA and just booked a Mint flight for ~400 since if I have to leave later (the earliest Mint flight was 12:35 so not much later than the AA flight I was moved to) I figured it made sense to pay an extra $200 to save the BXP1 not have to gamble on the upgrade. I checked and AA J fare on the same flight was >$700 and that is on a domestic 737 that doesn't include a lie flat suite with a door so as much as I'd like to earn miles/EQMs and stay with AA it just doesn't make sense to do so in this case. The refund has been processed but that was all done via regular AA EXP reservations so my new question is: regarding the BXP1 cert previously applied to by reservation, do I need to call meeting services to refund it or is that automatic and I can just re-use the cert number in the future?
