The American Airlines small business program Business ExtrAA — which provides rewards for your travel and those who use your small business account number, entirely in addition to regular miles and points — has turned 20 and is offering a promotion: 650 points for crediting one flight by September 30 (this promotion has been around all summer, but they’re reminding folks of it now). Registration is required.
They describe themselves as consistently rewarding over 20 years, despite “radical advances in technology” where “we have traded pagers for smartphones and fax machines for cloud storage.” Of course Business ExtrAA still mails paper certificates. And applying an upgrade certificate prevents checking in online or via mobile app.
650 points is enough for a one cabin upgrade in North America. Of course confirmed upgrade availability has mostly dried up this year. But it’s still a great offer since it doesn’t trade off with anything else, Business ExtrAA points are earned on top of miles and this promotion is on top of usual Business ExtrAA earning.
Terms and Conditions:
*Based on One-Segment Upgrade award (BXP1) valid Within North America or between North America & Hawaii or Caribbean. All taxes and fees, including reservation fees, assessed at the time of ticketing are the responsibility of the passenger.
Bonus Offer Terms and ConditionsNew Members
New members must enroll in the Business Extra program between February 22, 2017 and December 31, 2017 and use the BX20UPGWELCOME referral code during enrollment. Company must complete a minimum of one (1) qualifying flight within 30 days of enrolling in the Business Extra program.
Existing Members
Existing members: In order to qualify for the 650 bonus point offer, members must register using code UPGRADE and fly using their Business Extra number between May 31, 2017 and September 30, 2017. Qualifying companies may earn a maximum of 650 bonus points via this offer. Cannot be combined with other Business Extra promotional offers.
Promotion is valid for travel on purchased, eligible, published-fare tickets on eligible flights booked in eligible fare classes for travel on (1) American Airlines (2) British Airways and Iberia, ticketed on American Airlines (001), British Airways (125), and Iberia (075) ticket stock. Promotion is also valid on purchased, eligible, published-fare tickets on eligible codeshare flights operated by Japan Airlines, Qantas or Finnair, ticketed on American Airlines (001) ticket stock.
Your company’s Business Extra account number must be in the travelers’ reservation to earn points. American reserves the right to exclude or modify specific fare types in all or specific markets from its calculation of Flown Revenue. Retroactive ticket requests may not be eligible for promotional points.
I just received the email, and registered. Is this retro active? Will the flight I took earlier this week count? I don’t have any flights before September 30
So I got the email but with a non-working code:
“We’re celebrating the Business Extra® program’s 20th anniversary by offering you 650 bonus points when you register using code BX20UPG and take one flight within 30 days of registering, that’s it.
Register by September 30 and your next flight could earn you points for a single-segment upgrade within and between North America and Hawaii or the Caribbean.”
“Points received for this promotion will be posted to your company’s account and can be viewed in future Account Summaries.” ???
They’re really cagey how they run this program. I purchased 3 RT tickets so far this year that I’m told were not an eligible fare class (main cabin, from aa.com, NOT basic economy) yet I don’t see anywhere on their site that they actually define the eligible fares. I guess they don’t want the little guy to succeed using this program. Yet another reason to take business elsewhere 🙁
Is it possible to add the business extra information to an existing reservation that has been purchased? I had a flight that I purchased a few months ago for travel next month. Will be a new member so I was thinking about enrolling when I’m within 30 days of flying.
Thanks for the post on this. I would have totally missed this.
I usually follow these promotions pretty closely so I’m surprised I didn’t see anything about it especially if it started in end of May. I didn’t see this code on any of my emails either. Any idea how it was publicized?
What fare types qualify to trigger the bonus?