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American Airlines Business Extra: How Businesses Can Earn & Redeem Points [2024]

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Table of Contents

The pros and cons of american airlines business extra, how to enroll in american airlines business extra, how to earn american airlines business extra points, how to redeem american airlines business extra points, the 22 best ways to use your american airlines business extra points, final thoughts.

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One of the more interesting offerings from American Airlines is a separate loyalty program, known as Business Extra , that exists alongside its standard AAdvantage frequent flyer program. This program allows you to earn rewards in addition to those you’d earn through AAdvantage.

If you’re a business owner who happens to travel frequently, or if you have employees who do, you’ll want to pay attention. We’re going to walk you through how to access Business Extra, how to earn miles quickly, and of course, the best ways to make the most of your Business Extra points.

If you use — or think you’d want to use — Business Extra at all, bookmark this guide, as later on, we’ll be showing you how to redeem your points for tons of value.

American Airlines Business Extra is the business-focused loyalty program offered by American Airlines. It caters to small and medium-sized businesses and offers the ability for companies to earn rewards for travel taken by employees .

Its sister loyalty program, American Airlines AAdvantage , is geared towards the larger travel demographic, including non-business travelers.

One particularly appealing feature of Business Extra is that you can earn points from flying with partner airlines,  including British Airways, Iberia, Japan Airlines, and select Finnair and Qantas flights.

You can use Business Extra points for more than just flights, too. You can use them for upgrades, lounge memberships, and you can even convert them to AAdvantage miles!

In general, you’ll earn Business Extra points much more slowly than you would earn Delta SkyMiles for Business or United PerksPlus .

However, we like the idea of racking up Business Extra points and AAdvantage miles on paid travel!

Businesses must meet the following eligibility criteria to register for Business Extra:

• You must have 3 unique travelers on your account (i.e. 3 employees, including yourself)
• Your company must be in the U.S., Canada, Anguilla, Bahamas, British Virgin Islands, Dominica, Hong Kong, Mexico, St. Kitts and Nevis, St. Lucia, St. Vincent and the Grenadines, or South Korea
• Your company must not currently have a corporate sales agreement, discount, or other agreement with American Airlines, American Eagle, British Airways, Iberia, or Japan Airlines

Although there’s no spending requirement for an account to remain active, Business Extra members must have at least $5,000 in qualifying flight activity during the previous 12-month period in order to redeem any points.

To register online , all you need to do is complete the online form.

You can earn Business Extra points by booking paid airfare on:

• American Airlines
• American Eagle
• British Airways
• Finnair (eligible flights must be marketed by American Airlines, and ticket numbers must start with 001)
• Japan Airlines
• Qantas (eligible flights must be marketed by American Airlines, and ticket numbers must start with 001)

You’ll receive 1 Business Extra point for every $5 spent on airfare . If you’re familiar with any similar programs from competitors, you’ll notice this earning structure is much simpler as there are no accrual levels, fare classes, or routing factors that can increase or decrease the points you’ll accumulate.

If your physical address is in Bermuda, the Caribbean, Central America, or South America, you’ll earn 2.5 points for every $10 of flown revenue.

One unique perk is that fuel surcharges and other carrier-imposed surcharges will count towards mileage accrual, but airport taxes and fees will not.

Business Extra points post to your account within 2 to 3 days after a flight has finished, and your points will expire at the end of 2 calendar years after they’re earned. Any Business Extra points earned in 2022 will expire on December 31, 2024. And any points earned are deposited into the business’ account — there are no “individual” Business Extra accounts.

Specifically, you’ll earn 4 Business Extra points per $20 spent on base airfare, which translates to an earning ratio of 1 point per $5 spent. Additionally, you’ll receive a 6% rebate on the first $1.5 million on flown eligible American Airlines airfares purchased every year.

Redeeming Business Extra points is easy — all you need to do is log in to your online account and choose your redemption there.

Keep in mind that you can redeem Business Extra points for anybody, including yourself, your employees, and everybody else.

As a reminder, you can redeem Business Extra points for:

• AAdvantage elite status
• Admirals Club membership
• Admirals Club passes
• Conversions to AAdvantage miles (at a 1:6 ratio)

We find that the best way to redeem Business Extra points is for upgrades and airfare . Sure, you can convert your points to AAdvantage miles at a 1:6 ratio and then book award travel, but this method may limit the value you’ll receive from Business Extra.

Airfare is separated into 2 buckets:

• These tickets have no blackout dates or change fees and start at 5,000 points
• These tickets do have blackout dates and change fees and start at 2,000 points

You can also book partner airfare on British Airways, Iberia, and Japan Airlines. Tickets on these partners start at 3,000 points and do have blackout dates.

Upgrades are priced and separated based on the routing and the type of fare booked (full fare versus discounted fare).

Once you redeem your points, you’ll receive a certificate that’s valid for travel up to a year from the date of issuing. These certificates cover travel within a specific region as opposed to a defined route. They can be redeemed for travel up to 330 days in advance .

There are currently 2 ways to make your redemption:

• Online through the website
• Over the phone by calling 800-433-1790

If you’ve redeemed your points but haven’t ticketed any reservations, you can reinstate your points without a fee. If you’ve already ticketed your award, you’ll want to call 800-457-7072 to reinstate your award.

American Airlines Business Extra Rewards Chart

American Airlines offers the ability to redeem Business Extra points for:

• American Airlines-operated flights
• American Airlines upgrades
• Miscellaneous rewards
• Partner-operated flights

American Airlines-Operated Flights

Here’s the award chart for American Airlines-operated flights:

As you can see in the chart, PlanAhead certificates are indeed cheaper but are subject to blackout dates. PlanAhead award availability corresponds directly to SAAver-level or Web Special-level availability. Conversely, the more expensive Anytime certificates are pricier but have no blackout dates and therefore offer greater flexibility to flyers.

Partner-operated Flights

If you’re interested in redeeming Business Extra points for partner-operated flights, you can currently do so on the following airlines:

• Finnair (select flights marketed by American Airlines)
• Qantas (select flights marketed by American Airlines)

Here’s the Business Extra award chart for partner-operated flights:

American Airlines Upgrades

You can also redeem Business Extra points for upgrades on American Airlines and American Eagle flights. Here’s a look at the award chart for upgrades:

* Flights with fare codes B, N, O, Q, and S are excluded ** J or Y fare codes are considered full-fare tickets

Miscellaneous Rewards

Here are the other ways you can redeem Business Extra points:

So, now that you know all the ways to earn Business Extra points and understand what they can be used for, what are the best ways to use them once they hit your account? Stay right here, as we’re going to show you all of our favorite ways to get maximum value from your Business Extra points.

1. Upgrade Your Transcontinental American Airlines Flights for 650 Points

American Airlines has a handful of premium routes in the U.S. that boast lie-flat seats and elevated service, known specifically as Flagship Business and Flagship First .

These are usually offered on transcontinental flights within the U.S. You can often find relatively inexpensive Flagship Business fares but Flagship First is typically much pricier.

Flights with fare codes B, N, O, Q, and S are excluded. The upgrade fare codes are A for upgrades from business to first class and C for upgrades from economy to business class. Of note, these are the same fare classes as systemwide upgrades .

But if you find an inexpensive Flagship Business ticket (these can cost as little as $499 one-way), you can redeem 650 points for a one-segment upgrade to Flagship First (where tickets can exceed $3,000 one-way).

Here are some great ways to get some exceptional value from your Business Extra points:

• Los Angeles (LAX) – Boston (BOS) upgraded one-way from Flagship Business to Flagship First for 650 points (~$1,000 cash value)
• Los Angeles (LAX) – Miami (MIA) upgraded one-way from Flagship Business to Flagship First for 650 points (~$2,000 cash value)
• Los Angeles (LAX) – New York (JFK) upgraded one-way from Flagship Business to Flagship First for 650 points (~$1,500 cash value)
• San Francisco (SFO) – New York (JFK) upgraded one-way from Flagship Business to Flagship First for 650 points (~$1,500 cash value)

2. Upgrade Your Long-haul American Airlines Flights for 3,100 Points

Although not quite as stellar of a deal as upgrading transcontinental flights using Business Extra points, you can upgrade your long-haul flights using Business Extra points for excellent value, too.

Flexible travelers will find that round-trip business class airfare on American Airlines is often reasonably priced — but there are a handful of more expensive routes.

You can upgrade an economy ticket (discounted fares of B, N, O, Q, and S are ineligible) for 3,100 Business Extra points one-way. Here are some of the highest-value routes we could find:

• Charlotte (CLT) – Rome (FCO) upgraded one-way from American Airlines economy to Flagship Business for 3,100 points (~$3,000 cash value)
• Dallas-Fort Worth (DFW) – Tokyo-Narita (NRT) upgraded one-way from American Airlines economy to Flagship Business for 3,100 points (~$4,000 cash value)
• Miami (MIA) – Tel Aviv (TLV) upgraded one-way from American Airlines economy to Flagship Business for 3,100 points (~$5,500 cash value)
• New York (JFK) – Doha (DOH)  upgraded one-way from American Airlines economy to Flagship Business for 3,100 points (~$4,000 cash value)
• Philadelphia (PHL) – Athens (ATH) upgraded one-way from American Airlines economy to Flagship Business for 3,100 points (~$3,500 cash value)
• Phoenix (PHX) – London-Heathrow (LHR) upgraded one-way from American Airlines economy to Flagship Business for 3,100 points (~$2,000 cash value)

Bottom Line: Our favorite way to redeem Business Extra points is for flight upgrades. On a per-point basis, you’ll almost always get the most value from flight upgrades on American Airlines, specifically for transcontinental Flagship routes and international long-haul flights.

3. Book Expensive Domestic Economy Class Flights Within the U.S. with No Blackout Dates for 5,000 Points

When it comes to booking flights using points, one of the biggest frustrations is the absence of award availability.

However, through the Business Extra program, you can access American Airlines’ Anytime certificates on U.S. domestic flights without blackout dates for just 5,000 points. This gets you a round-trip Anytime certificate in economy class.

Whether you’re planning your trip around ski season, the Kentucky Derby, spring break, or any other peak travel period, you can use this certificate to get awesome value.

Here are some of the most valuable routes to book:

• El Paso (ELP) – Chicago (ORD) – Dubuque (DBQ) round-trip in American Airlines economy class for 5,000 points with no blackout dates
• Oklahoma City (OKC) – Chicago (ORD) – Marquette (MQT) round-trip in American Airlines economy class for 5,000 points with no blackout dates
• Rapid City (RAP) – Dallas-Fort Worth (DFW) – Aspen (ASE) round-trip in American Airlines economy class for 5,000 points with no blackout dates
• Springfield (SPI) – Dallas-Fort Worth (DFW) – Jackson Hole (JAC) round-trip in American Airlines economy class for 5,000 points with no blackout dates

4. Fly From North America to the Caribbean in Economy Class for 2,400 Points

Is the Caribbean on your list? You can get excellent value for your airfare if you use a PlanAhead certificate. You’ll redeem 2,400 points for a round-trip economy class flight between North America and the Caribbean.

Although many of these itineraries involve connecting in a hub like Dallas (DFW) or Miami (MIA), you’ll get excellent value if your trip originates in smaller airports across the country. In doing so, expect to get a cash value of up to $1,500 round-trip.

Here are some ideas:

• Denver (DEN) – Charlotte (CLT) – Samana (AZS) round-trip in American Airlines economy class for 2,400 points
• Eugene (EUG) – Dallas-Fort Worth (DFW) – Montego Bay (MBJ) round-trip in American Airlines economy class for 2,400 points
• Santa Barbara (SBA) – Dallas-Fort Worth (DFW) – Aruba (AUA) round-trip in American Airlines economy class for 2,400 points
• Santa Fe (SAF) – Dallas-Fort Worth (DFW) – Nassau (NAS) round-trip in American Airlines economy class for 2,400 points

5. Fly From North America to the Caribbean in Business Class for 4,800 Points

If you’re interested in flying business class, you can redeem 4,800 Business Extra points for a round-trip business class PlanAhead certificate.

Depending on how these are redeemed, you can get thousands of dollars in value! Here are some great example redemptions:

• Buffalo (BUF) – Charlotte (CLT) – St. Kitts (SKB) round-trip in American Airlines business class for 4,800 points
• Chicago (ORD) – Miami (MIA) – St. Maarten (SXM) round-trip in American Airlines business class for 4,800 points
• Detroit (DTW) – Miami (MIA) – St. Vincent (SVD) round-trip in American Airlines business class for 4,800 points
• Phoenix (PHX) – Miami (MIA) – Bonaire (BON) round-trip in American Airlines business class for 4,800 points

6. Fly From the Continental U.S. to Hawaii With No Blackout Dates for 7,500 Points

Hawaii is an ever-popular destination, and also has some of the highest ticket prices around — in fact, we’ve seen economy tickets in American Airlines economy go for as much as $3,000 round-trip! Save thousands of dollars on airfare by redeeming 7,500 Business Extra points for a round-trip Anytime certificate with no blackout dates in economy class.

Check out some of these great example routes to book:

• Aspen (ASE) – Los Angeles (LAX) – Lihue (LIH) round-trip in American Airlines economy class for 7,500 points with no blackout dates
• Grand Island (GRI) – Dallas-Fort Worth (DFW) – Honolulu (HNL) round-trip in American Airlines economy class for 7,500 points with no blackout dates
• Tampa (TPA) – Phoenix (PHX) – Kona (KOA) round-trip in American Airlines economy class for 7,500 points with no blackout dates

7. Fly From the Continental U.S. to Hawaii in First Class for 5,400 Points

You can redeem 5,400 Business Extra points to fly to Hawaii in style, though keep in mind that you’ll have to use a less-flexible PlanAhead voucher to do so. If you’re able to find availability that works for your schedule, you can get an amazing value as these tickets regularly sell for several thousand dollars.

Here are some fun routes you can book:

• Asheville (AVL) – Dallas-Fort Worth (DFW) – Kahului (OGG) round-trip in American Airlines first class for 5,400 points
• Grand Junction (GJT) – Phoenix (PHX) – Lihue (LIH) round-trip in American Airlines first class for 5,400 points
• Harrisburg (MDT) – Dallas-Fort Worth (DFW) – Honolulu (HNL) round-trip in American Airlines first class for 5,400 points
• Montgomery (MGM) – Dallas-Fort Worth (DFW) – Kahului (OGG) round-trip in American Airlines first class for 5,400 points

8. Fly From the U.S. to London in Flagship First for 10,000 Points

American Airlines deploys a few of its most premium aircraft on flights to London (LHR). These aircraft, the 4-class Boeing 777-300ER, boast a spacious Flagship First seat that can swivel 270 degrees!

And if you happen to find availability, you can redeem just 10,000 points for a PlanAhead certificate in first class to London. Considering that round-trip first class tickets retail for $10,000+, you can see the value proposition here.

Here are some of our favorite flights to book:

• Los Angeles (LAX) – London-Heathrow (LHR) round-trip in American Airlines Flagship First for 10,000 points
• Miami (MIA) – London-Heathrow (LHR) round-trip in American Airlines Flagship First for 10,000 points
• New York (JFK) – London-Heathrow (LHR) round-trip in American Airlines Flagship First for 10,000 points

9. Fly From the U.S. to London in Flagship Business for 7,200 Points

If you don’t need first class and prefer to save some points by booking business class, we support that, too!

You can redeem 7,200 Business Extra points for a round-trip PlanAhead certificate in business class to London. These tickets usually sell for around $4,000 to $5,000 round-trip.

Here are some examples of nonstop flights you can book:

• Boston (BOS) – London-Heathrow (LHR) round-trip in American Airlines Flagship Business for 7,200 points
• Charlotte (CLT) – London-Heathrow (LHR) round-trip in American Airlines Flagship Business for 7,200 points
• Chicago (ORD) – London-Heathrow (LHR) round-trip in American Airlines Flagship Business for 7,200 points
• Phoenix (PHX) – London-Heathrow (LHR) round-trip in American Airlines Flagship Business for 7,200 points
• Seattle (SEA) – London-Heathrow (LHR) round-trip in American Airlines Flagship Business for 7,200 points

10. Fly From the U.S. to Greece in Flagship Business for 7,200 Points

Itching to go to Greece? You’re in luck — American flies nonstop to the nation’s capital, Athens.

You can redeem 7,200 Business Extra points for one of these round-trip business class certificates. Paid tickets in business class routinely sell for $8,000 to $10,000 round-trip.

Here are the nonstop routes you should be looking at:

• Chicago (ORD) – Athens (ATH) round-trip in American Airlines Flagship Business for 7,200 points
• New York (JFK) – Athens (ATH) round-trip in American Airlines Flagship Business for 7,200 points
• Philadelphia (PHL) – Athens (ATH) round-trip in American Airlines Flagship Business for 7,200 points

11. Fly From the U.S. to Italy in Flagship Business for 7,200 Points

American Airlines operates nonstop flights to 3 airports in Italy. You can redeem 7,200 Business Extra points for a PlanAhead certificate good for a round-trip business class flight. Depending on the exact route, you can get anywhere from $4,000 to $7,000 in cash value.

Check out our favorite routes:

• Chicago (ORD) – Rome (FCO) round-trip in American Airlines Flagship Business for 7,200 points
• Dallas-Fort Worth (DFW) – Rome (FCO) round-trip in American Airlines Flagship Business for 7,200 points
• New York (JFK) – Milan (MXP) round-trip in American Airlines Flagship Business for 7,200 points
• Philadelphia (PHL) – Rome (FCO) round-trip in American Airlines Flagship Business for 7,200 points
• Philadelphia (PHL) – Venice (VCE) round-trip in American Airlines Flagship Business for 7,200 points

12. Fly From the U.S. to Spain in Flagship Business for 7,200 Points

American Airlines serves 2 of the largest airports in Spain — Barcelona (BCN) and Madrid (MAD) — with nonstop flights from the U.S.

You can redeem 7,200 Business Extra points for a round-trip business class PlanAhead certificate, and these tickets typically go for around $3,000 to $5,000 in cash.

Here are some of the routes you can book:

• Chicago (ORD) – Barcelona (BCN) round-trip in American Airlines Flagship Business for 7,200 points
• Dallas-Fort Worth (DFW) – Madrid (MAD) round-trip in American Airlines Flagship Business for 7,200 points
• Miami (MIA) – Barcelona (BCN) round-trip in American Airlines Flagship Business for 7,200 points
• New York (JFK) – Barcelona (BCN) round-trip in American Airlines Flagship Business for 7,200 points
• New York (JFK) – Madrid (MAD) round-trip in American Airlines Flagship Business for 7,200 points
• Philadelphia (PHL) – Barcelona (BCN) round-trip in American Airlines Flagship Business for 7,200 points
• Philadelphia (PHL) – Madrid (MAD) round-trip in American Airlines Flagship Business for 7,200 points

13. Book Last-Minute Flagship Business Flights to Europe for 18,000 Points

Business class tickets booked very close to departure can be astronomically expensive, but if you have Business Extra points, you can redeem 18,000 of them for an Anytime certificate for a round-trip flight.

As a reminder, there are no blackout dates with these certificates, which is very useful for business travelers. Here are some example routes you can book using this certificate:

• Charlotte (CLT) – Frankfurt (FRA) round-trip in American Airlines Flagship Business for 18,000 points with no blackout dates
• Dallas-Fort Worth (DFW) – Dublin (DUB) round-trip in American Airlines Flagship Business for 18,000 points with no blackout dates
• Miami (MIA) – Paris (CDG) round-trip in American Airlines Flagship Business for 18,000 points with no blackout dates
• Philadelphia (PHL) – Zurich (ZRH) round-trip in American Airlines Flagship Business for 18,000 points with no blackout dates

14. Fly From the U.S. to Tokyo in Flagship Business for 7,200 Points

You can cash in 7,200 Business Extra points for a round-trip PlanAhead certificate for a round-trip business class flight to Tokyo, Japan. Note, however, that American is currently offering a reduced schedule of flights to the Japanese capital due to ongoing travel restrictions in the country.

You can expect to see prices of about $4,000 to $6,000 on this route if you were to pay cash.

Here are some of our favorite routes to book:

• Dallas-Fort Worth (DFW) – Tokyo-Haneda (HND) round-trip in American Airlines Flagship Business for 7,200 points
• Los Angeles (LAX) – Tokyo-Haneda (HND) round-trip in American Airlines Flagship Business for 7,200 points

15. Fly From the U.S. to South Korea in Flagship Business for 7,200 Points

Redeem 7,200 Business Extra points for a PlanAhead certificate valid for a round-trip business class ticket on American Airlines’ lone route to South Korea (at least for now). Paid flights on this route usually sell for about $6,500 to $7,000 round-trip.

Here’s what you can book:

• Dallas-Fort Worth (DFW) – Seoul-Incheon (ICN) round-trip in American Airlines Flagship Business for 7,200 points

16. Book Flexible Flagship Business Airfare From the U.S. to Australia and New Zealand for 18,000 Points

Award availability on American Airlines to Australia and New Zealand at the Saver level is almost impossible to find. For this reason, having a PlanAhead certificate is almost useless.

That’s why we recommend redeeming 18,000 Business Extra points for a round-trip business class Anytime certificate, which has no blackout dates.

This could be a huge money saver because paid business class flights on these routes can cost upwards of $15,000 round-trip.

Here are 2 of the best routes to use these certificates on:

• Los Angeles (LAX) – Auckland (AKL) round-trip in American Airlines Flagship Business for 18,000 points with no blackout dates
• Los Angeles (LAX) – Sydney (SYD) round-trip in American Airlines Flagship Business for 18,000 points with no blackout dates

17. Book British Airways First Class From the U.S. to London for 20,000 Points

British Airways and American Airlines, despite being close partners, vie for market share in the very competitive U.S.-U.K. travel corridor.

In general, though, British Airways edges out American Airlines for its first class product, making it a good idea to choose BA first class over AA first class when given the choice .

The other added benefit of British Airways is that it connects London with many more cities than American does, understandable given its position as the flag carrier of the U.K.

For 20,000 Business Extra points, you can get a partner award certificate for round-trip first class between the U.S. and Europe with British Airways. Keep in mind that these first class tickets routinely sell for more than $10,000 round-trip.

Here are some of our favorite flights to book with this:

• Los Angeles (LAX) – London-Heathrow (LHR) round-trip in British Airways first class for 20,000 points
• Miami (MIA) – London-Heathrow (LHR) round-trip in British Airways first class for 20,000 points
• San Francisco (SFO) – London-Heathrow (LHR) round-trip in British Airways first class for 20,000 points

18. Book British Airways First Class From the U.S. to the Maldives for 37,000 Points

If you were interested in flying British Airways beyond the U.S., why not fly to the Maldives with a short layover in London? For 37,000 Business Extra points, you could fly in first class luxury for 20+ hours to one of the world’s most exclusive destinations. And, it represents an exceptional value, given that these tickets routinely sell for up to $20,000 round-trip.

Here are a few routes that are on our minds:

• Chicago (ORD) – London-Heathrow (LHR) – Malé (MLE) round-trip in British Airways first class for 37,000 points
• Phoenix (PHX) – London-Heathrow (LHR) – Malé (MLE) round-trip in British Airways first class for 37,000 points
• Washington, D.C. (IAD) – London-Heathrow (LHR) – Malé (MLE) round-trip in British Airways first class for 37,000 points

19. Book British Airways First Class From London to the Middle East for 17,000 Points

The last British Airways redemption we’ll discuss is for travel between London and the Middle East. Despite flights being around 6 to 8 hours in duration, these flights can easily cost several thousand dollars.

For this reason, we love the idea of redeeming 17,000 points for a partner British Airways award between London and the Middle East, good for round-trip first class travel.

Here are some great example routes to book:

• London-Heathrow (LHR) – Bahrain (BAH) round-trip in British Airways first class for 17,000 points
• London-Heathrow (LHR) – Kuwait City (KWI) round-trip in British Airways first class for 17,000 points
• London-Heathrow (LHR) – Riyadh (RUH) round-trip in British Airways first class for 17,000 points

Hot Tip: Iberia often sells discounted economy and business class tickets, which can reduce the value proposition of redeeming Business Extra points for flights on the Spanish flag carrier.

20. Book Japan Airlines Business Class From the U.S. to Japan for 18,000 Points

Japan Airlines is another airline that offers a well-rounded experience bookable with Business Extra points.

In particular, we like redeeming Business Extra points on Japan Airlines because nonstop business class flights on the Oneworld airline can be pricey, while partner-level availability can be plentiful.

With such an attractive value proposition, we encourage you to explore the idea of getting a round-trip business class certificate for travel on Japan Airlines by redeeming 18,000 points. You’ll get a cash value of $6,000 to $10,000 on a round-trip ticket.

Here are example routes to think about:

• Boston (BOS) – Tokyo-Narita (NRT) round-trip in Japan Airlines business class for 18,000 points
• Chicago (ORD) – Tokyo-Haneda (HND) round-trip in Japan Airlines business class for 18,000 points
• New York (JFK) – Tokyo-Haneda (HND) round-trip in Japan Airlines business class for 18,000 points

21. Book Japan Airlines Business Class Between Japan and Europe for 18,000 Points

Japan Airlines flights between Japan and Europe are also very expensive. These flights are generally limited to international gateways, but getting one of these flights means 10 to 12 hours of comfort in the sky.

You can redeem 18,000 Business Extra points for a round-trip partner award on Japan Airlines in business class. Some of these tickets retail for up to $8,000 round-trip!

Here are some example routes:

• Tokyo-Haneda (HND) – London-Heathrow (LHR) round-trip in Japan Airlines business class for 18,000 points
• Tokyo-Haneda (HND) – Paris (CDG) round-trip in Japan Airlines business class for 18,000 points

22. Book Japan Airlines Business Class Between India and Japan for 11,000 Points

The last redemption option we’ll discuss is for regional flights between Japan and India on Japan Airlines business class.

Because these flights are still considered long-haul despite staying wholly within Asia, you can get solid value from your Business Extra points.

Specifically, you can redeem 11,000 points for a round-trip certificate in business class for travel between Japan and the rest of Asia. Because these fares can run anywhere from $5,000 to $7,000 round-trip, you can get some great value.

Here are Japan Airlines’ nonstop routes to/from India:

• Tokyo-Haneda (HND) – New Delhi (DEL) round-trip in Japan Airlines business class for 11,000 points
• Tokyo-Narita (NRT) – Bengaluru (BLR) round-trip in Japan Airlines business class for 11,000 points

Overall, there’s plenty to like about the American Airlines Business Extra program. The earning structure is an especially transparent and simplified aspect of the program.

For the vast majority of instances, you will earn 1 point per $5 spent on flight revenue — it’s as simple as that!

One of the best features of Business Extra is that you can easily redeem points for upgrade certificates and even flights on partner airlines.

But perhaps the best part (especially for business owners) is that you can redeem points for flight certificates with no blackout dates . Sure, these are more expensive, but they are incredibly useful if you have less flexibility.

Our favorite ways to use Business Extra points include transcontinental flight upgrades, long-haul flight upgrades, flexible U.S. domestic certificates, and more.

You can also redeem points for partner award certificates on British Airways, Iberia, and Japan Airlines, but these are a bit more expensive than similar flight certificates for travel on American Airlines.

There’s a lot to love about American Airlines Business Extra, and if you’re a business owner, you don’t want to overlook this valuable program.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is aa business extra.

AA Business Extra is American Airlines’ frequent flyer program specifically designed for small- and medium-sized businesses. It allows businesses to earn rewards tied to the business itself as opposed to a single individual.

How much does American Airlines Business Extra cost?

Enrolling in American Airlines Business Extra is free! You just need to meet the eligibility requirements and register.

How do businesses earn extra points?

Businesses can earn extra points by double-dipping their travel to earn business rewards and consumer rewards.

In this case, if you book a lot of paid travel for your business, you can earn AAdvantage miles  and Business Extra points.

How do I register my business with American Airlines?

You can register your business with the American Airlines Business Extra program by clicking this link .

How do AAdvantage Business Extra points work?

American Airlines Business Extra points can be earned from paid travel on American Airlines and a handful of its airline partners. The points you earn can be redeemed for airfare, upgrades, flights on partner airlines, and much more.

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The Guide to American Airlines’ Small-Business Program: Business Extra

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Table of Contents

What is the American Airlines Business Extra program?

Is your small business eligible for business extra, how to log in to business extra, how to earn points in the business extra program, how to use business extra points, final thoughts on american airlines business extra.

Travel is the lifeblood of airlines, so carriers try to incentivize companies by offering business loyalty programs. American Airlines' small-business program is called Business Extra, and it allows companies to earn rewards points when booking travel for their employees.

The American Airlines Business Extra program is a good opportunity for smaller companies to earn rewards for booking business travel. That’s because the minimum number of employees a company needs to participate in the program is three.

Employees will benefit because they can earn miles and elite status for themselves while small-business owners can effectively double-dip on earning on flights.

Business Extra is America’s loyalty program for small businesses of three or more employees. When small businesses book travel for their employees, the employees earn AAdvantage miles and the company earns points that can be redeemed for rewards.

The points earned by the company can be redeemed for free flights, upgrades, AAdvantage miles, elite status (Gold or Platinum), Admirals Club membership or passes and carbon offsets.

There are two eligibility requirements for American Airlines Business Extra: business size and location. Both are reasonable.

Companies with three or more employees can qualify, provided that the company doesn’t already have a corporate sales agreement with American Airlines, American Eagle, British Airways or Iberia. That makes Business Extra great for those with a very small business. The business must be located in the U.S., Canada, Anguilla, Bahamas, British Virgin Islands, Dominica, Hong Kong, Mexico, St. Kitts/Nevis, St. Lucia, St. Vincent or South Korea.

Similar to United Airlines' and Delta Air Line’s small-business program, you will have to spend $5,000 on American Airlines travel to start redeeming Business Extra points.

Enroll and log in to your Business Extra account to take advantage of the program. To enroll as a Business Extra travel manager, you’ll need to have an AAdvantage account. That’s because Business Extra uses the business manager’s AAdvantage log-in information.

Once you have your AAdvantage account, start here by entering your country, name, email address and any applicable referral code. On the next screen, you’ll need to enter your business name, website and address. Next, enter your contact information, job title and AAdvantage account.

To prove you’re really a business, you may need to submit documents like your Employer Identification Number, articles of incorporation, a partnership agreement or a valid business name registration certificate. You can find a list of documents the program accepts in the Business Extra FAQs .

Business Extra Promo Code

Business Extra sometimes offers incentives for small businesses to join. In a 2020 promotion, for example, small businesses could earn 2,000 bonus points by signing up with a promo code and taking a flight before June 30, 2020.

So before you enroll, check to see if there are any promo codes.

Business Extra members earn 1 point for every $5 spent on flights on American, British Airways, Iberia and Japan Airlines, as well as codeshare flights on Finnair and Qantas. These points are separate from traditional AAdvantage miles, which individual flyers will still earn, while a company will earn Business Extra points for those same flights.

The easiest way for a company to earn points from employee flights is by asking employees to add their Business Extra number to their AAdvantage account profile.

After that’s done, the Business Extra account number will be auto-filled when employees complete bookings on the American Airlines website. If employees book an American flight through another website, they can \ add their Business Extra account number before the flight by calling AA’s Business Extra phone number (800-457-7072) and asking an agent to add the number to the record locator.

Points are usually posted within two or three days of the flight. If employees forget to add the Business Extra number before their flight, they can submit a manual request for any flights taken within the past 12 months.

Companies can also earn Business Extra points from cargo shipments as long as they meet certain booking requirements. And companies will earn 1 Business Extra point per $20 of eligible spending on the American Express® / Business Extra® Corporate Card.

Business Extra points expire at the end of the year two calendar years after they’re earned. That means any points earned in 2022 will be valid through Dec. 31, 2024. There’s no way of extending the validity of Business Extra points, so they must be redeemed before they expire.

» Learn more: NerdWallet’s best travel credit cards for business

Once a company has collected enough Business Extra points, they can be redeemed for free flights, flight upgrades, AAdvantage miles, Admirals Club memberships or lounge passes, elite status (Gold or Platinum) or carbon offsets.

Once a company has spent at least $5,000 on qualifying flights, the points can be redeemed for rewards. Here are the seven ways to redeem Business Extra points.

1. Using points for free flights

There are three types of flight awards: PlanAhead, Anytime and Partner awards, and each award type costs a different amount of points. All awards are priced based on a roundtrip ticket. Here is the minimum number of points required for each award type:

PlanAhead awards are the cheapest and limited in availability. Since Business Extra members earn 1 point for every $5 spent, a company would have to spend $10,000 on employee travel to accumulate 2,000 points.

The full list of flight award prices and options is available on the Business Extra website . While you can redeem points for one-way flights, they will still cost the round-trip award price. You won’t be able to use the return portion for a future flight.

You can redeem points toward flights two different ways. If there’s award availability at the time you want to redeem points for a flight, you can book the flight on the Business Extra website .

Here’s an example of a roundtrip flight from Atlanta to Santiago, Chile for 4,400 Business Extra points.

If you need to change or cancel your flight, you can now do so without a fee. That's true whether you book a PlanAhead award or an AAnytime award.

2. Using points for award certificates

The other flight redemption option is to use points for award certificates. These certificates are valid for a year. You can use the certificate to book flights up to 330 days in advance. That makes these certificates the way to go if you need to redeem expiring points but you don’t yet know when you’ll travel.

Generally, elite upgrade certificates cannot be applied to Business Extra flights. However, top-tier Executive Platinum and ConciergeKey members can apply 500-mile upgrades to eligible flights.

3. Redeeming Business Extra points for upgrades

Business Extra members can also redeem points toward flight upgrades . There are three options.

The domestic upgrade awards (designated by the code BXP1) are popular due to their low cost and the ability to apply this upgrade to flights such as American’s coast-to-coast lie-flat business class flights and flights to Hawaii. However, neither domestic nor international upgrade certificates are valid toward bookings into the cheapest fare classes (those with the code B, N, O, Q or S).

Upgrades may only be applied after the ticket is issued, require available upgrade space and are valid for one year after issuance.

4. Redeeming Business Extra points for an Admirals Club membership or lounge passes

Business Extra members can redeem 300 points for a one-day pass to an Admirals Club (code BXP7) or 3,300 points for a one-year membership to the Admirals Club (code BXP8).

When you redeem points for lounge passes, you have to designate which traveler will be using them. The passes aren’t transferable.

» Learn more: Different ways to access Admirals Club lounges

5. Redeeming Business Extra points for AAdvantage Gold or Platinum elite status

Members can even redeem points to get elite status. Your business can redeem 3,200 or 6,600 Business Extra points to gift someone AAdvantage Gold or Platinum elite status, respectively.

Gold status comes with one free checked bag on American Airlines flights, 24-hour upgrade window, complimentary upgrades on flights under 500 miles in length, 40% bonus miles on flights, complimentary Main Cabin Extra seats at check-in and complimentary Preferred Seats.

Platinum status includes everything from Gold status, as well as a 48-hour upgrade window, 60% bonus miles on flights and two free checked bags.

» Learn more: Guide to American Airlines elite status

6. Redeeming Business Extra points for AAdvantage miles

You can also convert Business Extra points into AAdvantage miles. The transfer ratio is 1 Business Extra point : 6 AAdvantage miles. The minimum number of points needed is 100 points, which would become 600 AAdvantage miles.

» Learn more: Is an American credit card worth it?

7. Using points to offset carbon emissions

American has partnered with nonprofit Cool Effect to help customers use their points to offset carbon emissions from their flights. Points redeemed for Cool Effect will be used to support carbon reduction projects.

You can redeem points in increments of 300 for a carbon offset award certificate.

» Learn more: How to maximize rewards for business travel

American Airlines’ Business Extra program is a great way for small businesses to be rewarded for employee business travel. With rewards ranging from Admirals Club lounge passes to free flights around the world, the program is a good choice if you have three or more employees and spend about $5,000 per year on business travel.

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Guide: How to upgrade using American Airlines Business Extra (Updated 11/2019)

• November 21, 2019

15 Comments

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Step by Step – Here’s how you do it.

Business Extra is American Airlines small business rewards program. You earn a completely separate currency of points ( Business Extra Points ) concurrently with your Aadvantage miles, or whichever program you credit your flights. The long and short of the program is that you earn 1 points for every $5 spent on airline tickets with AA, BA, Iberia, and flights marketed by AA, but operated by FinnAir, JAL, and Qantas. If you have questions regarding the program, go here . One of the best redemption options for Business Extra points are 1 segment upgrades. The very best…650 points will get you a one segment upgrade – good on transcontinental flights. Let’s walk through how to upgrade using Business Extra so you can make the most of your points.

Here’s the goal…to get your feet up and your back flat. 

First Step: Make sure that there is C or A space on the flight you wish to upgrade

• Transcontinental, i.e. LAX-JFK
• C is the business class upgrade inventory on planes with 3 cabins, or economy to first on a 2 cabins

I use expertflyer to search the inventory – 

If there is avail it will look like this:

Great, there is space…

Step 2: Make sure your fare bucket is eligible.

In order to use Business Extra you need to request redemption certificates. These certs are then applied to your ticketed reservation.

As you can see here it takes 650 points to upgrade one segment. Be aware that not all fare buckets are eligible to be upgraded so buyer beware. If you have B, N, O, Q, or S – you can not apply this upgrade. However, there is a work around. You can call AA and ask to buy up the fare bucket to one of the eligible buckets.

Step 3: Redeem Points Online.

Gone are the days when you needed to have a certificate mailed to you. It is possible to do this all online.

Go to Redeem points

Go to Upgrades

Then BXP1 redemption will appear

You’ll be prompted to select the number you wish and reminded of exclusions:

You’ll receive an email, but also a prompt that looks like this with an 8 Digit Code. That’s what you need for redemption.

Step 3: After receiving your Business Extra cert, Call and add it to your record locator

• Call 1-800-433-1790
• Provide them with the 8 Digit Code
• hours are limited and open 7am CST

Step 3: Alternatively, you can upgrade online now.

After loggin in, simply click the book award travel button up top

Then click the Business Extra Upgrade button at the bottom and enter the information. It’ll notify you if you qualify and then you’ll add in your information in the following steps.

Step 4: Get your Lie-flat, champagne sipping, upgraded self into relax mode.

“C” inventory isn’t the easiest to find on transcon routes, but it’s possible. I was able to upgrade with C inventory on a flight today from JFK to LAX , and the closer the flight gets to a true redeye, the better the space is to nab. In fact, there were several flights throughout the day ( I counted 5 ) that all had C inventory available at one point or another. I ended up using a Same Day Flight Change to get in on the one with space and it only cost me $75 to change.

“A” space is available on most flights, and is very easy to nab. It’s the 1-1 cabin shown in this post’s feature image, or the International First Class cabin on the 77W that runs on certain domestic routes.

Have you had luck utilizing your Business Extra upgrades?

Opinions, reviews, analyses & recommendations are the author’s alone, and have not been reviewed, endorsed or approved by any of these entities.

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The responses below are not provided or commissioned by the bank advertiser. Responses have not been reviewed, approved, or otherwise endorsed by the bank advertiser. It is not the bank advertiser's responsibility to ensure all posts and/or questions are answered.

[…] and you’re a small business owner, you really should check out our in depth article on Business Extra. The program allows you to earn 1 point for every $5 you spend on AA, BA, Iberia, and on select […]

[…] If you can find this plane flying domestically, book it and don’t look back. It’d also be a fantastic use of a Business Extra segment upgrade. Read this article to find out how to earn Business Extra Upgrade Awards. […]

[…] Earn AA business Extra Miles […]

[…] about the program here, but if you want to learn more about what it is and how to upgrade with it, go here.  There are restrictions to fare class, so make sure you read the fine […]

[…] One key component of this offer is you must be enrolled in business extra. I’ve written about how lucrative business extra is in the past, and if you’re interested I’d read this post. […]

[…] to read more on redeeming business extra upgrades, or even what the heck business extra even is, read this post. Without further adieu, let’s check out Miles’ experience onboard American Airlines First […]

I am sorry but this post makes this process seem too easy. It is not. First off, you would need to subscribe (pay a monthly fee) to expertflyer to pre-determine C availability. Most of us call the 800 number because we need to do 2 things at once: (1) check availability and (2) check the higher fare that must be purchased (vs. the fare quoted for Coach travel on AA.com). I used to use these certificates to Hawaii by booking 11 months in advance. Now, I am holding 3 certificates that will probably expire unused. Why? AA has increased the prices of the booking codes required for using these certificates. (For example, DFW to Maui can be bought for $900 RT but the correct booking code costs over $1,200). This would be fine if the BXP1 upgrade is available, but it rarely is available when booking. You normally have to waitlist. I used to clear waitlist all the time, but now, I don’t (my status is still the same). So, you end-up buying a more expensive ticket and you don’t get upgraded. Also, I believe AA’s inventory for these awards is shrinking. Another note – you don’t need to be holding an award certificate to book a flight or wait-list — just have it before you fly. On the phone, they ask you for the expiration date of your certificate. Make-up a date in the future. Then, order your certicate to arrive before departure. As the article mentions, best case is to confirm upgrade when booking your flight (which must be bought immediately). I have gone one full year without being able to do this.

Thank you for the informative post!

thanks for reading!

how long are the paper certificates good for? upgrade availability can certainly vanish within 7 days. seems like a better strategy is to always have a paper certificate handy so that you can confirm your upgrade at booking…but that doesn’t work if they expire quickly.

Brandon – great point and I agree it’s worth having some paper certs. In terms of expiration, it varies by when you earn the points. For example some of mine expire 12/31/18 some 2019

thanks Miles. based on some flyertalk reading, the certs seem to be valid for a good while, as you indicate. but once you order them, the “redeposit” fee if you want to return them is $150 (not sure if this is per cert or per transaction). so i’d say it’s safe to have a couple sitting around but not a stockpile.

[…] How to Use Business Extra for Upgrades:  There are a lot of tricks in this hobby that few people know about…. kind of like In-n-Out’s Secret Menu.  Here’s a “how to” guide that could come in handy depending on your circumstances. […]

Related Question, about a different kind of Business ExtrAA upgrade certificate:

With SWUs, I’d often use a single certificate to upgrade up to three AA flights between Europe and South America, for example, CDG-MIA-BSB or MAD-JFK-MIA-BSB.

When using Business Extra Upgrade Certificates (BXP3), as long as my underlying flight is in the appropriate booking class, do I correctly understand that TWO certificates would be required for such itineraries? Or, in practice, could one BXP3 be used for the entire one-way ticketed routing (up to three segments)?

Hey G –

What you inferred is correct: the BXP3 only upgrades one segment at a time so you would need two certs. You can waitlist upgrades, but they are much more difficult to clear than SWU. Thanks for reading!

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• A Guide to American Airlines Business Extra

If you're interested in corporate airline loyalty programs, check out all of our guides here:

• A Guide to Delta SkyBonus
• A Guide to Southwest SWABIZ
• A Guide to United PerksPlus
• A Guide to JetBlue Blue Inc.
• A Guide to Alaska Airlines EasyBiz

A Guide to British Airways On Business

What is american airlines business extra.

Business Extra (previously Business ExtrAA) is the corporate travel program of American Airlines where companies can register and earn points on employee travel (on top of the employee earning miles too). This is what’s known as "double dipping" on points because for the same amount of travel, you can earn points in 2 different ways.

Companies accumulate these points and can then use them to redeem flights, upgrades, airline status and club/lounge access.

Business Extra is also the small business program for British Airways and Iberia. The program targets small to mid-sized companies but you don’t need a tax ID (EIN) to register.

The program is currently only valid for companies located in the United States, Canada, Anguilla, Bahamas, British Virgin Islands, Dominica, St. Kitts/Nevis, St. Lucia or St. Vincent. For companies based in the UK and Europe, American Airlines, British Airways and Iberia have a separate On Business programme .

What is the difference between Business Extra points and AAdvantage miles?

Business Extra points are for companies, AAdvantage miles are for travelers (individuals).

For every flight, a traveler can earn AAdvantage miles for themselves as well as earn Business Extra points for their company.

How do I earn Business Extra points?

Companies earn 1 Business Extra point for every $5 spent. You can earn Business Extra points for tickets marketed by American Airlines, British Airways and Iberia, this includes flights operated by those 3 airlines as well as their partner airlines, Qantas, Finnair and Japan Airlines.

Marketed, operated and ticketed are very different terms when it comes to earning points. To earn Business Extra points on Qantas, Finnair or Japan Airlines flights, you have to book it as a codeshare and it must be ticketed on American Airlines ticket stock (your e-ticket will start with 001). This is a crucial point as tickets issued on British Airways stock (125) or Iberia ticket stock (075) are not eligible for Business Extra points.

For example, you need to book a round-trip flight from San Francisco (SFO) to New York (JFK) in November.

You would pay $360 for an Economy seat with the booking code Q.

This $360 price includes $52 in government taxes which is excluded when you’re calculating how many miles and points you earn.

We work from the base fare of $308 instead. This would earn you 1,540 AAdvantage miles as the traveler and 62 Business Extra points for your company.If you paid for Business class in booking code I for $1,317 (base fare of $1,198), you would earn 5,990 AAdvantage miles and 240 Business Extra points.

If your company books 2x round-trip fares of roughly $350 a month, you’ll earn ~1,500 Business Extra points in a year.

Although you don’t earn as many Business Extra points compared to AAdvantage miles, you need fewer of the points as opposed to miles to redeem the same reward.

As a bonus, the Business Extra program is celebrating "20 years in the making" in 2017 and will have bonus offers throughout the year. Currently, they're offering 650 bonus points for any new companies regsitering and current companies, all you have to do is register here for the promotion before March 31 and fly within 30 days.

How can I use Business Extra points?

The amount of points you need to redeem an award varies from 300 points (a BXP7 award code), which will get you a day pass into all American Airlines airport lounges (Admirals Club) to 25,000 points for a First class Anytime round-trip ticket (BX5F, BX6F, BX7F and BX8F award code) from the US to Europe, Asia, South America or the South Pacific.

Business Extra points can be used for flights and upgrades, however it’s not as simple as finding a flight you want, then clicking to book with your Business Extra points, unfortunately. There’s a more laborious process to it: you need to check that the flight you want is available to be redeemed with an award, redeem your points for the correct award certificate, then call American Airlines to use the certificate on the flight you want.

Let’s keep the SFO-JFK round-trip example. It takes 2,000 Busines Extra points to redeem this trip as a PlanAhead Award (with the BXTA award code).

The PlanAhead award means they are subject to special limitations on seat availability and may be subject to travel embargo dates. You can view the availability on the AA site by selecting “Use award miles”, and searching the MileSAAver options (this shows award booking codes T for Economy, U for Business and Z for First).

Note that this will show you how many AAdvantage miles it will take to redeem the flight, not how many Business Extra points. For an Economy seat, it will be 2,000 Business Extra points to redeem vs. 25,000 AAdvantage miles. You can view all the Business Extra Awards and how many points you need for each here .

For flight awards, you first redeem your points for an award certificate, this will be sent by email with your Electronic Authorization Number. You then need to call American Airlines Meeting Services on 1-800-433-1790 to reserve the particular flight/s you want. For upgrade awards however, your award certificate will arrive by paper snail mail, you can still redeem the award though once your flight is ticketed, but you must bring the original paper certificate to the airport to be able to check in.

Upgrades get even more tricky, you not only have to find available award space in Business or First class (booking codes C for Business and A for First), but you also have to book a certain Economy fare class for it to be eligible to upgrade (the upgrade award excludes booking codes B, N, O, Q and S). In the example above, the $360 Economy fare for SFO-JFK is in booking code Q which is not eligible for the Business Extra upgrade certificate, instead you need to put the reservation on "Hold" on the AA.com site, then call American to "Upfare" (i.e. increase the fare) to an eligible booking code, and then complete the purchase online of the more expensive Economy fare that’s the correct booking code to upgrade.

You can only upgrade one class, so if you have bought an Economy ticket, you can only upgrade to Business, not First class. And you can only upgrade one segment, meaning if you have an itinerary that's San Francisco to Sydney via LA, you can only upgrade one of those two flight segments (hint: make sure it's the longer LA to Sydney flight).

Another way to use the points is by redeeming for AAdvantage Gold Status. You can redeem this for yourself or gift it to someone in your company. It’s 3,200 Business Extra points and gives the recipient access to Main Cabin Extra seats (seats with extra legroom that you usually have to pay for) within 24 hours of departure plus the occasional upgrade.

You can also use 300 points to redeem a day pass for Admirals Club. It can be used at multiple clubs on the same day. Note that these are paper awards and will be sent to you by regular US mail. 3,000 points will get you an Admirals Club membership for a year.

Is it worth the effort?

If your company spends $50,000 on travel and a lot of it is on OneWorld airlines, you could be earning 10,000 Business Extra points. 10,000 points is 5x round-trips in Economy within the US, or it’s a First class PlanAhead round-trip ticket from the US to Australia, Brazil, Japan, China or anywhere in Europe.

A free First class ticket to basically anywhere in the world is definitely worth the effort! Even if your company spends less than $50,000/year on travel, there are ways to earn more points, for example with Rocketmiles . Book a hotel and you can earn up to 500 points per night, that’s equivalent to spending $2,500 on flights for the same amount of points. Keep up to date with other Business Extra special offers here .

Additionally, if you sign up for the American Express Business Extra Corporate Card , you can "triple-dip" on points. You earn rebates and points for using the credit card, Business Extra points and AAdvantage miles! However, AAdvantage miles are a better currency than Business Extra points as you earn 25x more and redeem them for the same awards that can be 10x the miles vs. points, you should consider other American Airlines credit cards .

Something to keep in mind is Business Extra points expire on a rolling two-year basis. If you earned points in January 2015, they will expire on December 31, 2017. The same if you earned points in December 2015, they will expire on December 31, 2017 and their validity cannot be extended. You can book a flight using them for beyond the expiry date, and then change it later if you need to, but you must redeem the points by the expiry date.

How can Flightfox help?

If you like the sound of a free First class ticket but don’t like the sound of doing all the work to get it, then allow me to introduce Flightfox. We have travel experts all around the world who are crazy about earning points to offset travel costs. We connect you directly to them and they’ll do all the work for you. Just sit back and relax in your free First class suite!

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Award Travel

Use your miles to travel to 1,000+ destinations around the world with Delta and our partners. You can book Award Travel for yourself or for someone else – even if you’re not flying with them. And there are no blackout dates on any Delta Air Lines flight.

• Select ' Book ' at delta.com or in the Fly Delta app
• Check the box next to "Shop with Miles" on delta.com or "Show Price in Miles" on the app
• Enter your flight preferences and select ‘Find Flights’
• Our flexible Award calendar shows the lowest price options for the dates you select
• Choose your flight(s), complete your purchase and you’re on your way 

GET THE MOST OUT OF AWARD TRAVEL:

• Earn MQDs toward your next Medallion Status tier with Award Travel on Delta and our partners (excluding Basic Economy fares)
• We've made it easy for you to find the best deals for your miles by compiling all of our latest SkyMiles Deals 
• Follow #SkyMilesLife on Instagram to explore real experiences from your fellow SkyMiles Members and get inspired for your next adventure
• Miles can be redeemed toward travel on Delta Air Lines, Delta Connection carriers and on 30+ partner airlines 
• Book different experiences on the outbound and return flights – Relax in Delta Comfort+® on the way to your destination and fly home in Delta One® to return rested and refreshed
• Earn a Bonus Miles welcome offer with select Delta SkyMiles® American Express Cards. Plus, eligible Card Members save 15% when booking Award Travel on Delta flights. Not applicable to partner-operated flights or to taxes or fees. Terms apply.
• Award Travel flight miles flown (excluding Basic Economy fares) will count toward your total Million Miler balance

See if Award Travel or other fees apply to your ticket. All fees are non-refundable.

*Changes to origin, destination, routing, date and time are permitted except for Basic Economy tickets, and the mileage difference (and any applicable taxes) for the new Award ticket will apply. For travel originating from the United States and Canada to anywhere in the world (including flights operated by joint venture and codeshare partners), Members may change or cancel Award tickets for travel without a redeposit or change fee, excluding Basic Economy fares. For some travel originating outside the United States and Canada, Basic Economy Award ticket restrictions will vary and may be non-cancelable or may be changeable for a fee. For details, visit our Baggage & Travel Fees page .

Mileage difference, taxes and fees apply for any changes. Changes to Pay with Miles tickets are determined by the fare rules of the ticket purchased.

Mileage Upgrade Awards may be surrendered or cancelled any time prior to the scheduled flight departure time. Members may reissue or change a Mileage Upgrade Award prior to departure time. Taxes, fees and any additional collection is based on the rules of the purchased fare.

Not applicable where prohibited by local law.

1 Charges may vary by country. Charges will only apply to tickets issued in select European countries and Members may be eligible for a waiver of the direct ticketing international charge upon request. Charges are waived for all other points of origin.

2 Basic Economy fares are not eligible to make same-day confirmed or same-day standby travel changes, regardless of Medallion or other elite Status. Same-day Standby and Same-Day Confirmed are limited to availability, and only available on domestic flights.

See what other taxes and fees apply to your Award Ticket .

Terms & Conditions:

Your SkyMiles account must have enough miles for the Award Ticket you are purchasing.

All Awards are subject to availability, and additional taxes and fees may apply. See Membership Guide & Program Rules for details.

Awards are subject to capacity controls. Awards may require higher prices depending on routing rules and restrictions. Exceptions to these rules may require additional mileage or taxes and fees. Travel to all destinations within region may not be available at lowest price. Not all countries within region are serviced by Delta and/or partner airlines. Taxes and fees for Award Travel are the responsibility of the passenger and must be paid at the time the ticket is issued. The payment of any taxes, fees, and other government-, airport- or carrier-imposed charges is the responsibility of the passenger. Award redemption requires payment of at least $11.20 in U.S. government taxes and fees for domestic itineraries and may include up to $600 for foreign government taxes and fees and/or carrier-imposed fees for international itineraries.

Award seats may be limited and not available on all Delta Connection flights. Offers and benefits subject to change without notice. Other restrictions may apply.

Award Tickets issued by Delta Reservation Sales over the phone, in person at a ticket office or airport ticket counter, may be subject to a direct ticketing charge . Charges only apply to tickets issued in select European countries and may be waived upon request. Charges are waived for all other points of sale.

In some cases, seat assignments are made automatically based upon your preference for a window or aisle seat, noted in My Profile . We will request seat assignments when traveling on an airline partner at the time of ticketing. Seat assignments may not always be confirmed at the time of the request. Contact the airline partner directly for seat requests. If your seating preference is not available, "NA" will appear in the "Seat Assignment" column of your itinerary. In this case, you will receive your seat during check-in on the date of departure or you can go to Itineraries to select a seat. We accommodate the seating requirements of customers with certain types of disabilities. This could result in the occasional need to change another individual's pre-assigned seat, with bulkhead seats being particularly subject to reassignment.

Travel with Miles on Partner Airlines

Book Award Travel through delta.com with:

• Aerolineas Argentinas
• China Eastern
• China Airlines
• China Southern
• Garuda Indonesia
• Hawaiian Airlines
• KLM Royal Dutch Airlines
• Mandarin Airlines
• Middle East Airlines
• Saudia Airlines
• Shanghai Airlines
• Tarom Airlines
• Vietnam Airlines
• Virgin Atlantic
• Xiamen Airlines

Contact Delta Reservations for Award Travel on:

• Air Tahiti Nui
• Czech Airlines
• Kenya Airways

There are no blackout dates on Delta-operated flights. Blackout dates may apply on partner airline-operated flights and are defined by individual carriers .

Partner Airline Redemption for Members Residing in Japan:

Medallion Members or Delta SkyMiles Credit Card (issued in Japan) Members residing in Japan may redeem miles toward Award Travel on Skymark flights throughout Japan.

Routes/Destinations: Haneda, Kobe, Nagoya, Sapporo, Fukuoka, Kagoshima, Nagasaki, Naha and Ibaraki. Check flight schedule with Skymark Airlines , prior to submitting the request.

SEGMENTS AVAILABLE

• Fukuoka (FUK) - Naha (Okinawa, OKA)
• Haneda (HND) - Kobe (UKB)
• Kagoshima (KOJ) - Amami (ASJ)
• Kobe (UKB) - Ibaraki (IBR)
• Kobe (UKB) - Kagoshima (KOJ)
• Kobe (UKB) - Nagasaki (NGS)
• Kobe (UKB) - Naha (Okinawa, OKA)
• Kobe (UKB) - Sendai (SDJ)
• Naha (Okinawa, OKA) - Shimojishima(SHI)
• Central Japan International (Nagoya, NGO) - Kagoshima (KOJ)
• Central Japan International (Nagoya, NGO) - Naha (Okinawa, OKA)
• Central Japan International (Nagoya, NGO) - New Chitose (Sapporo, CTS)
• Fukuoka (FUK) - New Chitose (Sapporo, CTS)
• Haneda (HND) - Fukuoka (FUK)
• Haneda (HND) - Kagoshima (KOJ)
• Haneda (HND) - Naha (Okinawa, OKA)
• Haneda (HND) - New Chitose (Sapporo, CTS)
• Haneda (HND) - Shimojishima(SHI)
• Ibaraki (IBR) - Fukuoka (FUK)
• Ibaraki (IBR) - Naha (Okinawa, OKA)
• Ibaraki (IBR) - New Chitose (Sapporo, CTS)
• Kobe (UKB) - New Chitose (Sapporo, CTS)
• Kobe (UKB) - Shimojishima(SHI)

Skymark Terms & Conditions

• SkyMiles Medallion Members or Delta SkyMiles Credit Card (issued in Japan) Members, residing in Japan, may redeem miles toward Award Travel on Skymark flights throughout Japan. SkyMiles Medallion Members or Delta SkyMiles Credit Card Members cannot earn miles on their Skymark Award ticket. Supplemental card holder is not eligible for this offer. New Card Members are eligible to redeem miles for this offer after two months of activity on their card.
• Award Travel on Skymark is available on the segments listed above in Economy/Main Cabin Class in a booking class Skymark determines and currently on sale on the Skymark website. Travel must be booked at least 14 days prior to departure. Award Seats on Skymark are limited and may not be available on all flights or markets.
• Booking is available for travels through October 26, 2024
• February 2, 2024 – February 13, 2024 (for flights between New Chitose (Sapporo, CTS) and Haneda (HND), Ibaraki (IBR), Kobe (UKB), Fukuoka (FUK), and Central Japan International (Nagoya, NGO) )
• February 9, 2024 – February 13, 2024 (for all flights other than HND-CTS,IBR-CTS,UKB-CTS,NGO-CTS,FUK-CTS)
• March 19, 2024 – March 30, 2024
• April 26, 2024 – April 30, 2024
• May 1, 2024 – May 7, 2024
• July 12, 2024 – July 16, 2024
• August 8, 2024 – August 19, 2024
• September 13, 2024 – September 17, 2024
• September 20, 2024 – September 24, 2024
• October 11, 2024 – October 15, 2024
• Once your booking is confirmed, Delta will deduct the required miles from your SkyMiles account usually within 24 hours and a Skymark Confirmation Number with the flight details itinerary will be sent to the e-mail address provided when the booking was requested. If your ticket is not confirmed or additional information is needed, you will be emailed within 72 hours after the request is submitted. 
• You cannot check or view your Award Travel itinerary on Skymark website.
• A request response email of your Skymark award flight will be sent to the email address you provide on the online booking form within 72 hours after your submission of the request form. Skymark tickets are “ticketless” meaning no paper or electronic tickets will be issued after booking is complete. Once you receive the confirmation email, show the email to the Skymark check-in counter, and a boarding pass will be issued at the counter. 
• With your Skymark Confirmation Number, make sure to check in between 2 hours – 20 minutes prior to departure for your Skymark Award Travel at an auto check-in machine. If you do not meet the check-in window, you will not be able to travel on the scheduled flight. 
• Award Travel redemption on Skymark is not combinable with itineraries on any other carrier's flights, including with Delta or any other Airline Partner.
• Adults must enter their age as of the date of flight.
• Infant and children must travel with adult. Infant and children cannot travel alone. Infant is defined as a person of 0-2 years old and does not occupy a seat, and child is defined as a person of 3-11 years old.  The same award redemption level is required for children as adult. No miles are needed for infant not occupying a seat but only one infant is allowed to travel with one adult.
• One (1) infant must travel with at least one (1) adult. Please contact Skymark for more details about infant and child passengers.
• Waitlist is not permitted for Award Travel on Skymark.
• Upgrade is not permitted.
• Open-jaw travel is not permitted.
• One-way travel is permitted. One-way travel requires the same award redemption level as roundtrip.
• Return trips cannot be left open when making reservations. All flights must be confirmed before SkyMiles Award tickets can be issued. 
• Cancellation and changes are not permitted once the booking is confirmed. Redeposit of miles is not permitted. Award Travel has no cash value.
• If you miss a Skymark flight due to a flight delay or cancellation, Skymark will put you on the next flight with seats available only if you show a certificate proving the delay or cancellation of the original itinerary. If you do not use your Skymark flight due to a flight delay or cancellation, mileage will not be redeposited to your SkyMiles account, and Delta or Skymark will not provide a cash refund. 
• The number of seats available for this offer may be limited and are subject to availability.
• Passenger facility charges, fuel surcharge, security fees, any applicable taxes are the responsibility of the user.
• Redemption award level is subject to change without prior notice. Please refer to the Redemption Level for details.
• If you need any special assistance or arrangement, please contact Skymark. Please note that the special assistance or arrangement is subject to availability.
• An ID (Drivers license, Passport, Health insurance card, Student ID card, Basic resident register card, Resident card, Full copy of a person's family register, Abstract of a person's family register, Certificate of alien registration, War injury and sickness certificate, Mentally disabled person's certificate or Pension book) of the traveler is required when the customer checks-in the Skymark flight.
• Skymark terms and conditions apply .
• For luggage requirements and restrictions, please visit Skymark or contact Skymark.  
• Other restrictions may apply.
• Delta has the final authority in the interpretation of these rules.

Additional Terms & Conditions

Award Tickets on partner airlines may require higher rates or a Saturday night stay. Some airline partners impose a surcharge on Award redemptions for travel on their airline. These charges when applicable are the responsibility of the passenger and will be collected at the time of booking. Partner airline benefits are subject to change and subject to terms and conditions of each partner. Skymark operates on a Boeing 737-800.

If a flight is delayed or cancelled, Skymark is not responsible for ground transportation to/from the airport. Please visit Skymark , opens in a new window for details.

Food and beverages are not provided on Skymark flights. You can purchase soft drinks with 100 yen per drink or an alcoholic beverage with 200-300 yen per drink.

Book with Delta Vacations

Go Beyond the Flight with Delta Vacations. Your miles are now worth at least 15% more* to every destination at any time when you use them toward a Delta Vacations package booked through Delta Vacations. Use your miles to pay for just a portion or your entire vacation. With Delta Vacations you can choose from flights, expertly curated stays, rides and activities all over the world all in one place. Plus, you will still earn miles as you redeem them! 

• Visit Delta Vacations to customize your vacation package
• Enter your SkyMiles number
• During the “Review & Purchase” step, choose miles as your payment type. Keep in mind, only one SkyMiles account can be used for redemption
• Enter the amount of miles to redeem. Your mileage discount should appear in the payment overview
• Select ‘Complete Purchase’ 

* As compared to the mileage value with Delta Vacations prior to July 10, 2023.

• You can use your miles for yourself and everyone who is traveling with you, as long as they’re on the same reservation.
• There is no minimum or maximum number of miles, no blackout dates, and you don’t need a promo code. 
• You can use miles on any vacation package type. 
• When booking online, you can redeem up to 999,999 miles on flight and hotel packages to any Delta Vacations destination. To redeem more than 999,999 miles, please contact Delta Vacations at 1-800-800-1504.
• All SkyMiles Program rules apply. To review the rules, please visit delta.com/memberguide . To review rules for Delta Vacations mileage redemption, please visit delta.com/vacations-usemiles .

You can now use your miles to book your next hotel stay or vacation rental when you book with Delta Stays.  

How to Book with Delta Stays  

• Log into your SkyMiles account (either on delta.com or the Delta Stays platform)
• Click the "Book Now" button below to launch Delta Stays
• Select "Pay with miles" when searching for your hotel stay or vacation rental 
• Search the available inventory shown  
• Make your selection(s), complete your booking and enjoy your stay

General Terms and Conditions:

• Delta’s online booking engine for stays is powered and serviced by Expedia and is accessible via delta.com, delta.com/hotels, delta.com/stays or directly at travelextras-delta.com.
• Standard Mileage Offer: SkyMiles® Members will earn two (2) miles per US$1 or equivalent foreign currency spent at travelextras-delta.com on the base hotel or vacation rental rate for a completed stay. Base rate is the cost of the hotel room or vacation rental property, before taxes and fees, charged at the time of booking. Taxes and fees, gratuities, room service, other incidental charges, and insurance costs are excluded from mileage credit. Miles will not be awarded on any portion of the stay paid for using miles.
• Mileage can only be credited to the SkyMiles Member if the name on the booking matches the name of the SkyMiles account provided.
• SkyMiles number should be provided at the time of booking.
• Only one SkyMiles number can be provided per booking.
• Please allow up to 8 weeksn after completion of eligible stay for miles to be deposited in SkyMiles account.
• If mileage credit has not been recorded on your SkyMiles account within 8 weeksafter qualifying activity occurs, please  contact us  and select: Request Refund or Miles > Mileage Credit > Partners
• Requests for mileage credit will be accepted up to 6 months from check out date.
• Stays completed prior to enrollment into SkyMiles will not be eligible for mileage credit.
• Hotel currency or status are subject to each respective Hotel guest program and may not be applicable for bookings made on travelextras-delta.com.
• Miles awarded are bonus miles, and do not count toward Million Miler Status.
• Unless otherwise expressly specified as part of a limited time offer (which is subject to the terms and conditions of such offer), spend on completed stays does not count toward Medallion Qualification Dollars.

Redeeming Miles for Stays:

• For certain pay now hotel and vacation rental properties, SkyMiles Members have the option to pay for all or a portion of their booking using miles earned through the SkyMiles Program.
• There is no minimum number of miles needed to redeem for a stay, but if you would like to book your stay using only miles, your mileage balance must equal or exceed the total of your booking.
• If you do not have enough miles to pay for your entire stay, you can split your transaction using both miles and a credit/debit card for payment. When prompted, enter how many miles you would like to use for that booking; the remaining value (after subtracting the miles used) will be reflected as USD and must be paid using a credit or debit card.
• You must be logged-in to your SkyMiles account to complete a purchase when using miles.
• You may not combine miles from two or more accounts on a single transaction. Miles used may only come from one SkyMiles account.
• Miles will be deducted at the time of purchase from the SkyMiles account provided and will appear as “Delta Stays”.
• If permitted under the terms of your booking, refunds will be made to the original form of payment less any fees and charges, where applicable. If your booking was made using both miles and a credit/debit card, then the portion of your booking made with miles will be refunded as miles to your SkyMiles account and the credit/debit portion will be refunded to the original card used in the booking.
• If you change or alter your booking resulting in additional costs and charges, any charges must be paid using a credit card or debit card.
• Miles will not be awarded on any portion of the stay paid for using miles.
• Resort fees, gratuities, room service, and any third-party fees or charges, including those incurred while traveling, are in addition to the fees and charges of your original reservation and are not eligible to be paid for with miles.
• Delta reserves the right to cancel any stays bookings due to insufficient miles in your account, suspicion of fraud, violation(s) of the SkyMiles Program Rules, or termination of your SkyMiles account.
• Delta may change, suspend, or terminate the redemption program (including but not limited to any benefits and conditions of participation), in whole or in part, at any time with or without notice.

Miles + Cash

Don’t have enough miles for the flight you want? Available on select flights, Miles + Cash gives you the flexibility to pay for a flight using a combination of miles and dollars.

HOW TO USE MILES + CASH:

• Choose your flight
• Change the ‘Show Price In’ setting from “miles” to “Miles + Cash”
• Select your flight(s), complete your purchase and you’re on your way

Miles + Cash is offered worldwide only on flights operated by Delta, Delta Connection and Delta Shuttle. Remember, tickets purchased using Miles + Cash are Award Tickets and are subject to all the limitations of Award Tickets. They are not eligible to earn miles, and mileage purchases in Miles + Cash transactions are nonrefundable. All Award ticket change fees apply. In the event of ticket changes or cancellations, miles, including miles purchased as part of a Miles + Cash transaction, will be redeposited in the Member’s SkyMiles account.

Pay with Miles

Take a shortcut to your next adventure by using Pay with Miles*. Exclusively for Delta SkyMiles American Express Card Members, Pay with Miles is a Card benefit that gives you more flexibility by taking dollars off of Delta tickets or allowing you to use miles when you don’t have quite enough to cover the full ticket. Not yet a Card Member and based in the U.S. or its territories? Learn more about The Delta SkyMiles American Express Cards  here . 

HOW TO PAY WITH MILES 

• Log in at delta.com
• Go to Book a Trip
• Select flights marked as “Pay with Miles eligible”
• On the ‘Trip Summary’ page, choose “Pay with Miles” and pay with miles, money or a combination of both
• After you make your selection, continue booking your ticket
• If you choose to pay for a fare with both miles and a credit card, use your Delta SkyMiles American Express Card to pay for the remaining ticket price

Not U.S.-based? You may be eligible to use Pay with Miles internationally if you’re a SkyMiles Credit Card Member in certain countries. Learn more .

HOW DOES IT WORK*?

Pay with Miles is an exclusive benefit for Delta SkyMiles American Express Card Members.  This benefit allows Card Members to use their miles, starting at just 5,000 miles, to discount the price of Delta tickets.  Regardless of ticket price, a Card Member can reduce the cost of their ticket by up to $50 for every 5,000 miles. For example, redeeming 10,000 of your miles takes $100 off your fare, 15,000 miles takes $150 off, 20,000 miles takes $200 off, etc.

For example: a Card Member who currently has 22,000 miles in their SkyMiles account selects a round-trip flight from Atlanta, GA to Washington, D.C. for $250 total fare. By using Pay with Miles, the Card Member can redeem 20,000 miles to reduce the ticket cost by $200. The Card Member would then pay $50 and 20,000 miles for the ticket.

Frequently Asked Questions

There is no fee for using your Pay with Miles benefit.

As long as you have sufficient miles in your account, there is no limit on the number of times you can use your Pay with Miles benefit—use it as often as you like.

There is no cap on the amount of miles you can use. If you have enough miles, you can pay for your entire ticket price using miles.

Yes, you may use Pay with Miles to book someone else's ticket. You can use Pay with Miles for multiple tickets—you just need to have 5,000 miles per passenger available and they must be on the same itinerary.

If you do not have the minimum 5,000 miles per passenger available in your account, you will not see Pay with Miles as an option to purchase your ticket after selecting your flights. Pay with Miles is only available for Delta Air Lines (not partner airline) flights. You also must log into delta.com to see the Pay with Miles option.

Pay with Miles is a benefit of Delta SkyMiles American Express Cards where you can use miles to pay for all or part of the price of eligible flights. It is always available as a payment option on all Delta operated flights as long as you have 5,000 miles in your SkyMiles account. Pay with Miles always has a value of up to $50 per 5,000 miles for Card Members. Miles + Cash is a redemption option on Award Tickets offered to all SkyMiles members where you can pay for your flight using a combination of miles and dollars.

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Business Extra: Complete Guide To The Business Rewards Program from American Airlines

by Travel Spill | Aug 14, 2023

Business Extra is the business rewards program from American Airlines designed specifically to reward small to medium-sized businesses for booking flights for employees on American Airlines and select partner carriers. The program rewards companies with points for travel they book which can then be redeemed for a variety of awards, including flights, upgrades, elite status, Admirals Club memberships, and more

It is separate from the AAdvantage program , which rewards individual travelers based on the miles they fly and the fare they purchase. Importantly, members can double dip. That means that you can earn Business Extra points for your company while simultaneously earning individual frequent flyer miles on AAdvantage or another Oneworld program for your flight.

In this post:

Business Extra Eligibility and Registration

To be eligible for the Business Extra program, businesses must have at least three unique travelers and maintain $5,000 in Business Extra flight activity in the previous 12 months.

The program is available to businesses located in the United States, Canada, Anguilla, Bahamas, British Virgin Islands, Dominica, Hong Kong, Mexico, St. Kitts/Nevis, St. Lucia, St. Vincent, or South Korea.

If eligible, businesses can enroll in the Business Extra program by filling out a quick registration form with their company details .

Companies based in the United Kingdom and Europe are not eligible for Business Extra. They’re instead directed to register with American’s Oneworld partner British Airways for their On Business program .

Flyers in a Delta hub or who usually fly Delta Air Lines more frequently might consider opting instead for Delta’s competing SkyBonus Business Rewards program.

Earning American Airlines Business Extra Points

There are several ways to earn Business Extra points.

Flights: Businesses earn 1 point per $5 spent on flights operated by American Airlines, British Airways , Iberia , and Japan Airlines . Points can also be earned on flights on Finnair and Qantas that are marketed by American Airlines (have an AA flight number).

Businesses with an address outside of the U.S. or Canada get a slightly improved earning rate. They get 2.5 points per $10 spent.

Cargo: Approved AACargo customers also earn Business Extra points on cargo shipments.

Special Offers: American Airlines may offer promotions that allow businesses to earn bonus points. These promotions can be found on the Business Extra website or through email communications.

Redeeming American Airlines Business Extra Points

Business Extra points can be redeemed for a variety of travel awards to enhance your travel experience.

Flights: Business Extra points can be redeemed for flights on American Airlines and its partner airlines. The number of points needed for a flight depends on the route, class of service, and availability but the cheapest redemptions start at 2000 points. A tool on the Business Extra website allows businesses to search for flights .

Upgrades: Business Extra points can be used to upgrade flights on American Airlines and its partner airlines. The number of points needed for an upgrade depends on the route, class of service, and availability.

AAdvantage Status: Business Extra points can be used to obtain AAdvantage Gold or Platinum. Gold status costs 3,200 points while Platinum costs 6,600 points.

Admirals Club Memberships: Business Extra points can be used to purchase Admirals Club memberships or one-day passes. A one-day pass costs 300 points while an annual membership costs 3,300 points.

Converting Points to AAdvantage Miles: Business Extra points can be converted to AAdvantage miles at a rate of 1 point to 6 miles.

Carbon offsets: Business Extra points can be used to offset the carbon emissions of business travel through Cool Effect, a non-profit organization that works to reduce greenhouse gases. The number of points required depends on the carbon offset needed.

Managing A Business Extra Account

Businesses can manage their Business Extra account online through the Business Extra website . The account manager can view the balance of points, track points earned, redeem points for awards, and manage the list of travelers associated with the account. The account manager can also designate other individuals within the company to have access to the account.

Business Extra Tips and Best Practices

There are a few tips and best practices to maximize the benefits of the Business Extra program:

• Add your Business Extra number to all eligible reservations: It is important to add your Business Extra number to all eligible reservations to ensure that the business is earning points for all eligible travel. Don’t forget that Business Extra earnings stack with individual earnings on AAdvantage or another frequent flyer program. It’s essentially a double dip and there’s no reason not to do it if your business is eligible.
• Book flights on Finnair or Qantas with American: To earn points on flights with Finnair or Qantas, the flights must be booked with American Airlines.
• Use points for high-value awards: Upgrades tend to provide the best value for Business Extra points. In contrast, an Admirals Club membership is not a high-value use of points when it’s easy to get access to the lounges through other means like a credit card.
• Convert points to AAdvantage miles judiciously: While it is possible to convert Business Extra points to AAdvantage miles, this is not typically an optimal use of Business Extra points.
• Monitor promotions: American Airlines may offer promotions that allow businesses to earn bonus points. It is important to monitor the Business Extra website and email communications for these promotions and take advantage of them when possible.

Bottom line

The Business Extra program is a valuable rewards program for small businesses that fly with American Airlines. By enrolling in the program, businesses can earn points for their employees’ travel, which can be redeemed for a variety of travel awards. By following the tips and best practices outlined above, businesses can maximize the benefits of the program and get more value out of their business travel.

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A Complete Guide to American Airlines Award Travel Rules

Reviewed by Ryan Smith

AwardWallet receives compensation from advertising partners for links on the blog. Terms Apply to the offers listed on this page. The opinions expressed here are our own and have not been reviewed, provided, or approved by any bank advertiser. Here's our complete list of Advertisers .

American Airlines AAdvantage ® is one of our favorite mileage programs. Thanks to dozens of partners, you can fly to over 1,000 destinations using AAdvantage miles. And American Airlines has (largely) kept its partner mileage redemption chart the same for over seven years now. In this post, we'll cover all the rules for American Airlines award travel to help you use miles for your next adventure.

One of the key ways to get more value from your rewards is to spend a little time learning the rules for booking awards with the points and miles you acquire. Each program has its own set of strengths and weaknesses. Once you understand them clearly, you’ll be able to choose the program that best suits your goals for a particular trip.

Page Contents

Types of Rules

Award pricing, redemption partners, which airlines can i book using american aadvantage miles, can i use my miles to book for another person, how far in advance can i book my ticket, can i put an aa award travel reservation on hold, does american charge a close-in booking fee, does american charge a phone booking fee, how much does it cost to include a lap infant, how much does american airlines charge to change or cancel an award ticket, does american airlines allow free changes within 24 hours, how can i track award flight changes, can i book a stopover with american miles, can i book one-way travel with american miles, can i book an open jaw with american miles, can i fly with multiple partner airlines on the same trip, can i book an itinerary with multiple classes of service, can i book a round-the-world ticket with american miles, american third-region exceptions, published route requirement, maximum permitted mileage (mpm), american airlines award segment limits, married segment logic, final thoughts.

• Booking rules cover the details you need to know to get your trip confirmed. Can you use your miles to book a flight for your grandma? How much does it cost to add an infant who doesn’t need her own seat? How far in advance can you confirm your flights?
• Change and cancellation rules cover all the fine print to ensure you don’t pay unnecessary fees and know exactly what to expect if your plans change.
• Itinerary rules cover your options and limitations for the flights you add to your trip. For example, can you add a stopover in Europe on the way to Asia? Can you book a one-way flight at half the price of a round-trip? Will you save miles if part of a business-class trip is in economy?

American Airlines AAdvantage Award Travel Costs & Partner Airlines

Before we get started, two important factors aren’t covered in this post: award pricing and redemption partners.

The number of miles you need and the taxes and fees you’ll pay out of pocket are determined by the type of points you redeem. In many cases, the costs in miles and money can be more important than other rules. This post isn't about how much you'll spend for an AA award or a comparison of AA's booking prices against competitors.

You can use AAdvantage miles to book travel with more than 20 partner airlines . But it’s also true that you can use dozens of different types of points to book flights operated by American or its partner airlines. If you aren’t familiar with this, check out our beginner’s guide to award travel planning .

If you’ve done a good job of diversifying your points and miles, you should have the option to use rewards from other frequent-flyer programs to book a similar (or identical) itinerary. When using AAdvantage miles makes the most sense, here are the rules.

American Airlines Award Booking Rules and Fees

Yes, American Airlines will let you book a flight for anyone you wish. However, program terms and conditions prohibit selling miles, so you shouldn’t book for people you don’t know or receive payment to book on someone else's behalf.

When paying for the taxes and fees on award tickets, American Airlines requires that the name on the credit card match the name of the AAdvantage account holder. Thus, your brother can't use your credit card when booking a ticket using his miles.

Related: Rules on Booking Award Flights for Other People

You can redeem AA miles up to 331 days before departure. Some of AA's partner airlines — like British Airways and Cathay Pacific — make awards available almost one month earlier than this, but that requires booking with those programs.

Related: How Far in Advance Can You Book Airline Award Tickets?

American has one of the most generous hold policies of any frequent flyer program. Members can hold an award for five days if the award is booked more than 14 days before departure. Less than 14 days from departure, members can hold awards for 24 hours. Even within 24 hours of departure, you can get a hold until two hours before departure.

American Airlines no longer charges a close-in-booking fee. In February 2020, American Airlines eliminated its $75 close-in booking fee .

What is this? Some frequent flyer programs charge an extra fee when you book a ticket within 21 days of departure. American Airlines award travel no longer has this fee.

American Airlines no longer charges a fee to book reservations over the phone. Before November 2020 , AA charged a $25 fee to book travel within the U.S. by phone but waived this fee for tickets that couldn't be booked on AA.com. The fee jumped to $35 for international travel, but this is gone also. However, this fee remains in place for cash fares booked over the phone.

The cost to add a lap infant to an AAdvantage award depends on where you're flying:

• International awards: American charges 10% of the cash price of an adult ticket to add a lap infant to your reservation. If you’re flying on a business- or first-class award, 10% of the retail ticket cost can be a lot of money.
• Domestic awards:  Within the U.S. or to Canada, Puerto Rico, or the U.S. Virgin Islands, there is no additional cost.
• You can add your child to your ticket by calling AA reservations at 800-433-7300. If travel is within the U.S. (including Puerto Rico), you also can add a lap infant online when booking a trip or modifying an existing reservation.

But a caveat: AA will charge the full mileage price if you add an infant at the time of booking. A best practice is to book tickets without the infant on the reservation, and call AA after booking to add the infant. This way, you don't have to redeem more AAdvantage miles than is necessary.

Here’s American Airlines' resource on traveling with children and infants.

Related: These are the best award programs for traveling with a lap infant

American Airlines Award Travel Change and Cancellation Rules

The AAdvantage program really shines with its rules for travel changes and cancellation policy. The airline eliminated change and cancel fees in November 2020 and (re)added the ability to change certain awards in July 2023 .

American Airlines no longer charges a fee to change or cancel an award ticket. Before November 11, 2020, American Airlines charged up to $150 per passenger to change or cancel an award ticket — unless you had Executive Platinum elite status.

Now, you can cancel award tickets and have your miles reinstated free of charge up to one year after the ticket was issued. The latest you can cancel an award ticket is before the first flight in your itinerary departs.

The U.S. Department of Transportation requires airlines serving the U.S. to allow travelers to put itineraries on hold or to change or cancel a ticket for 24 hours after booking without a penalty. American meets the requirement with the (up to) five-day award hold, so it isn't legally required to allow cancellations in the 24-hour grace period.

With that said, American has historically honored requests for free cancellation within 24 hours of booking an award. Please let us know in the comments if your experience is different.

Related: 24-Hour Cancellation Policies for Major U.S. Airlines

AwardWallet tracks all your travel plans automatically (and alerts you to any changes) by importing reservations from your email or connected accounts. The best method for getting all your travel plans into AwardWallet is to link the email you use for reservations.

American Airlines Award Travel Itinerary Rules

American Airlines does not allow free stopovers on award travel. Any connection of 24 hours or more on an international award will result in paying for more than one award ticket.

American Airlines and Alaska Airlines have a lot of redemption partners in common. Alaska MileagePlan allows free stopovers as long as you follow a few rules. That combines with the fact there are some awards we recommend booking with Alaska miles instead of American miles .

Yes, you can book one-way awards with American Airlines AAdvantage miles. American typically charges half the price of a round-trip award for one-way itineraries. However, some round-trip Web Special awards will price out cheaper than two one-way awards. And some AA routes will offer a cheaper per-price flight on round-trip bookings than the cost of two one-way awards.

Pro tip: For international tickets, be aware that many countries require proof of onward travel. Thanks to American's generous five-day hold policy, you can create a record locator for a return trip without actually confirming the ticket. If you prefer to have a confirmed reservation, consider booking a fully refundable ticket or using a ticket-rental service like OneWayFly .

American allows open-jaw tickets at both the origin and destination. An open jaw ticket that includes more than one region will be priced as two one-way awards.

If you don't know what we're talking about, check out our beginner’s guide to stopovers and open jaws .

Yes, American allows you to combine partners on an award ticket. Award prices are the same for all partner airlines, so there shouldn't be any extra cost if your flights are operated by more than one carrier.

However, any itineraries including partner-operated flights are ineligible for Web Special pricing. It might be cheaper to book an itinerary that only has AA-operated flights, depending on the route.

American prices its awards according to the highest class of service you book on your itinerary. This differs from some programs like Avianca LifeMiles , which charge a prorated number of miles based on the percentage of your trip in each class. With American, you won't save any miles by booking one flight in economy and other flights in business class.

However, American does not have any rules that prohibit you from booking a ticket with different classes of service (you may see this referred to as a “mixed-cabin award”). This can be a good thing. In some situations, you might not be able to find business- or first-class awards for the entire trip.

For example, if you're flying from Amsterdam (AMS) to Boston (BOS) via New York (JFK), you might find a business-class ticket across the Atlantic, but the short flight from New York to Boston might only be available in economy. You can lock in that award, and if the short flight becomes available in business class, you might be able to upgrade without paying any extra miles.

Most domestic “first-class” awards are treated as business class when you pair them with an international flight. In other words, you won't be charged the first-class price on an international business-class award when you add a domestic flight in AA's domestic first class.

Pro tip: American's mixed-cabin award rules generally work in your favor. But be aware that American will happily charge you the business-class price for itineraries with a 10-hour flight in economy and a 45-minute flight in business class.

Some frequent flyer programs — like All Nippon Airways (ANA) and Cathay Pacific Asia Miles — offer a 'round-the-world (RTW) ticket at a discount compared to booking each award flight separately. Trips with stops in more than one award region (as defined here ) are not a strength of the AAdvantage program.

American uses a zone-based award chart, which means that the price of travel between two regions (like Europe and the Continental U.S.) should be consistent, regardless of the specific origin and destination airports. Prague to Los Angeles should cost the same number of miles as Dublin to Boston — even though the former is twice the distance!

However, when your itinerary connects at an airport that is not in the same region as your origin or destination , American Airlines may charge you for each trip separately. For example, if you book a flight directly from Paris to New York, you’ll pay the Europe-to-U.S. price on the award chart. But if you fly from Paris to Doha (in the Middle East region) and then to New York, you’ve transited a “third region”.

As a general rule on award travel booked with American Airlines, you’ll pay more when you transit through a third region. But American has a list of exceptions that don’t require separate awards.

Unless otherwise noted, North America includes the regions of the contiguous U.S., Alaska, Hawaii, Canada, Mexico, and the Caribbean.

You can find an in-depth discussion of the third region exceptions for AA award travel in this FlyerTalk forum . However, note that some of the content is outdated.

Itinerary Rules for Complex Award Bookings

The remaining routing rules aren't likely to be a factor for most award bookings. However, if you find yourself unable to book the flights you want online, one of these could be the problem. It's worth noting that American's reservations system is known to make mistakes. If you see a price in miles that is higher than what you expect based on the award chart, check these rules first.

It's also worth noting that few American reservations agents understand these rules (or even know they exist). If the computer says 110,000 miles, that's what the agent will try to charge you. Fortunately, the AAdvantage program does have a process for manually ticketing reservations when the system makes a mistake. If you've checked these advanced rules and the price doesn't look right, ask your agent to check with the rates desk or a supervisor.

American Airlines' general award travel rule is that awards must be booked on a published route. More specifically, the airline that flies you across the ocean (the overwater carrier) needs to sell a ticket between your origin and destination.

Let's take a trip to the Maldives for example. There's no better way to go than in Etihad's Apartments. However, in order to book an AAdvantage award, Etihad has to sell a ticket between your origin and Male (MLE). To confirm this, you'll want to check ExpertFlyer's Fare Information search . If you're unfamiliar with the tool, check out our guide to ExpertFlyer before proceeding further.

While it's not as exact, you also can search the route on Google Flights and see if there's an option to book on Etihad.

If you're departing from a major hub, such as New York City or Los Angeles, you aren't going to have any issues finding a ticket sold by Etihad:

However, there are no published fares on Etihad between Billings, Montana (BIL) and Male:

Thus, you wouldn't be able to book an AAdvantage award on Etihad flights on this route. If you run into this dilemma, it may still be possible to book the ticket depending on the agent who's ticketing the award. Otherwise, you might need to buy a separate “positioning” flight from the smaller airport to a major hub with a published fare to your final destination.

Related: Free Holds, Maximizing Award Regions, Other Tricks for Booking Awards Using AAdvantage Miles

“Maximum Permitted Mileage” is a lovely piece of jargon that means exactly what it says. For each origin and destination, there is a maximum number of miles you can travel. This American Airlines award travel rule relies primarily on the “published route” requirement explained above. However, in cases where your desired award ticket isn't a published route, you may still be able to book it if the itinerary is less than 125% of the MPM.

Unfortunately, the MPM isn't published online. ExpertFlyer members can check the MPM under the “Travel Information” section:

American allows up to two connections (three flight segments) on one-way domestic awards. You can add one more connection (four segments) on one-way international awards.

For round-trip travel, you must follow these same limits in each direction of travel. Your destination is the first stop that lasts more than 24 hours (international) or 4 hours (domestic). If your trip requires more than this limit, American Airlines will charge you for more than one award.

In the past, American Airlines released award availability flight by flight. Say you wanted to fly from Los Angeles (LAX) to Frankfurt (FRA). If you found award availability on a flight from Los Angeles to Dallas–Fort Worth and on a flight from Dallas–Fort Worth to Frankfurt, you could book the award. Likewise, someone just flying from Dallas to Frankfurt also could book an award on just that nonstop flight.

That all changed in late 2017. Instead of releasing award availability by flight, American Airlines now releases award availability by trip . Under these rules, you might only be allowed to book the Dallas to Frankfurt flight if you start in Los Angeles or some other city — but not in Dallas. If you want to start in Dallas, you might need book a connecting flight through Charlotte or Miami on the way to Frankfurt to book the cheapest award. Married segment logic might prohibit booking a nonstop flight from A to B on certain routes.

This irritating way of releasing award availability is referred to as “married segment logic.” That's because the award availability for each individual flight is “married” to the entire itinerary. Put simply, American uses these rules to make the cheapest awards less convenient with the hope of getting you to pay more miles for a nonstop award.

American Airlines AAdvantage miles can be extremely valuable if you know how and when to use them and are aware of the basic rules for award travel. While there is certainly a learning curve for more complex itineraries, there are plenty of awards you can book at a great price with limited experience.

American's policy for putting award tickets on hold is among the most generous of any frequent flyer program. When planning travel that will require more than one type of miles, it's a huge asset to be able to lock in your AAdvantage award for up to five days while you figure out the other parts of your trip.

The rules for changing tickets are another standout feature of this program. American Airlines eliminated award mileage redeposit fees, so you no longer have to pay a fee to cancel an award.

The AAdvantage booking rules are more complex than revenue-based programs like Southwest Rapid Rewards and JetBlue TrueBlue . However, a little extra effort to learn how this program works can pay huge dividends.

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If I use AA miles to book a flight on JAL, is there a fee if I cancel and are the miles redeposited to AA?

Hi Toan, the miles will be redeposited to AA, yes. AA doesn’t charge award cancelation fees on most awards. You can find details on change/cancel fees here: https://awardwallet.com/blog/airline-award-ticket-change-and-cancellation-policies/

If I book an award ticket with miles, use the outbound ticket and then cancel the rest will the return miles be put back into my advantage account?

That’s a good question. I generally book one-way awards (unless the round-trip is cheaper, which it can sometimes be) to avoid this issue. I’d reach out to AA with that question if you’re facing that situation on an already-booked award.

Hello! Please, do you know if Mxp/Mia no stop flight will resume this year? I have advantage miles and I’d like to use them.

Thanks for this very comprehensive breakdown of the AAdvantage program rules, a lot of which I didn’t know. The 5 day hold is very important, as is the ability to cancel more than 60 days out without penalty — might help in making longer term plans, which is what we are all doing now! Thanks again for this post!

HI! How can I use American Airlines miles when booking in Iberia for example?

AA.com does show some results for Iberia, and you should be able to ticket those awards on AA.com. I don’t think AA.com is very reliable for showing you all the Iberia options. You can use a site like ExpertFlyer (paid) for Iberia biz class, or you can use British Airways to find options that AA.com doesn’t show. Once you’ve found what you’re looking for, just call AA to use your miles.

Thanks, however I would like to do the opposite. Use the miles I have in AA to but a ticket in Iberia, is it possible?

Yes, that is how I understood your question. You can book a flight on Iberia with AA miles. You need to call AA and they will book you on an Iberia flight if it is available.

Thank you Erik! I’ll try that!

Really very usefull information. Up to some years ago, American Airlines allowed makes a reservation using miles with a free stop. But now, it is not possible to make a reservation with a free stop in the route. Very clear all information. Thanks!!!!

This is a great and complete guide to the Aadvtange rules. Do you have any information on Aadvtange miles redeemed for Latam airlines flights are still honoured? American lost a good partner in South America to earn and redeem miles on short flights in the region. Any thoughts would be welcome!

I can’t find an option in the mileage program that takes into consideration unaccompanied minors.

Thank you Mr. Paquet for a very informative article. As a senior citizen I have had to put my travel plans on hold to vist my grandchildren due to the virus. AwardWallet had notified me that my American award miles would be expiring soon and in browsing through the many blog articles I found yours which was clear and easily understood.

Another reason to like award travel: Canceling award travel is better than canceling a paid ticket in some obvious ways, and one less-obvious way. Canceled award travel tix go back into your mileage account. Canceled regular tickets just sort of disappear, and if you lose the email with the e-ticket, you could easily forget you even are owed a flight.

Thank you Erik for this great article, very useful, great tips! I always have many doubts and feel frustrated when trying to use my miles on the AAdvantage website. This 2020 there were so many changes that it turns even more confusing. Your guide encourages me to redeem my miles once and for all. Well done!

This is VERY helpful, thank you so much for putting all this in one place it’s all I needed. What about LATAM miles now? are they still going to be able to continue adding to the other oneworld companies?

Yes, LATAM is still partnering with most other Oneworld airlines for earning and redeeming flights. It seems LATAM probably didn’t want to leave Oneworld, but needed to because of the joint venture with Delta.

By far one of the most complete and thorough guides to using my awards miles I’ve seen. I’m new to this blog but this sold me on it. Well done!

Thanks for all the information. This article has clarified many doubts I had about the AAdvantage program.

Impressive guide! The free 5-day hold on awards is magical, I used it once to coordinate awards from two different programs and get tickets on the same flight.

So useful as I have miles that will expire in a few weeks and now I can extend them for 18 month.s Thanks!!

I find the married segment logic to be the most frustrating thing about the AAdvantage program. While trying to piece together an itinerary to Spain and Portugal last year, I was blocked at every turn by married segments. Granted, I was trying to book with Iberia Avios, but AA’s married segments were the problem. In the end, the only way I could make it work was to book separate itineraries with STL-ORD through AA and ORD-BCN through IB.

Any news regarding the aliance between AA & Santander rio bank? the expiration miles will be the same?

Hey Nicolas, I’m not very knowledgeable about Santander specifically, but the general rule for any transfer partner is that the miles become subject to the AA rules as soon as they arrive in you account. So if your question is about transferring points to AA, yes they will have the normal AA expiration rules.

I have always found it frustrating that at least half of the agents want to charge you the phone fee when you call in an award that can’t be booked online. Usually it gets cleared up quickly, but once I had an agent that insisted the Terms & Conditions were “wrong” and said it had to be charged.

While I know the industry is moving to dynamic pricing, I find the above AA program to be much easier to wrap your head around. I also use Delta, and it takes me a lot of checking flight after flight to find wide variances. It can be good if you get lucky, or ridiculously high. With the current AA program, you know what you are getting.

Everything is very well explained in order to take “advantage” of my AAdvantage miles. Thank you for this very useful guide!

Guia muy completa sobre premios en AA, excelentemente explicada y muy útil. Muchas gracias.

Defenitely I will use this guide the next time that I book an Aadavantage award

Very interesting guide. Unfortunately, it is not always easy to find a space for awards in AA flights. I wish there was more flexibility in AA rules, but it is better and simpler than other airlines anyway. As a tip, it is always possible to book one way tickets separately, so you can actually buy the inbound flight and redeem miles for the outbound flight.

Thank you for this really useful guide, I did not know how many airlines were in one world

Very useful guide about how to use American Advantage miles. Thank you!

This was a very helpful article. I didn’t know that there are so many airlines in the alliance. We need to keep that in mind next time we are booking flights.

Not previusly aware of three flight limit on domestic award travel. Very limiting for me – going from HVN to BUR, my frequent request, is a minimum of 3 segments. HVN-PHL-PHX-BUR. If I cannot get on the PHL-PHX segment, I can’t travel.

Great info! Nice to have them all compiled on one post. Thanks!

This is a great breakdown of their rules. Thank you.

So sad that there’s no more stopovers on AA awards!

AA removed stopovers back in 2014. Thankfully there are still plenty of programs that offer stopovers! We list them all here: https://awardwallet.com/blog/beginners-guide-stopover-open-jaw/

They removed them in 2014 🙁

Thanks so much for putting all this in one place!

Thanks you for this full report on booking AA using miles. This is very useful!

Great tips!!! They once tried to charge me the fee for booking by phone when it was a promo that couldnt be booked by the web AA.com. Next time i will insist with different agents.

Possibly the most comprehensive post ever on AA Awards. Excellent & very informative. I did not now there was a service for obtaining a PRN for ongoing one way tickets.

I have AAdvantage, and thanks to him I was able to travel to the Perito Moreno Glacier with all my family. It is a very advantageous program. It is always good to review the rules, because I learn something new. Thank you

Thank you for this great reference article. I find that AA miles are very important to my award travel. So this information is very important to me.

Thank you. I found this a great guide to using AA rewards. The pro tips are really helpful – particularly the 5 day hold to help waiving fees

Great guide, bookmarked! thanks!

The one thing that really upsets me is the lack of flexibility between Advantage and AVIOS when these airlines are supposed to operate under One World

No living in Spain, I continued to log all my Iberia flights onto AA to find that I lost a huge benefit

I asked AA to reverse the awards so I could post to Iberia (who were open to this) – no chance.

I have been Exec Platinum and member since 1990 – customer service on this was poor

I am so glad they got rid of the close on fee that never made sense. Good in depth review of all the rules.

Many airlines have been removing a lot of fees and surcharges lately. That’s wonderful.

I just found out that they are not charging the $75 for close in according to this article. Finally they are starting to get rid of fees instead of charging for every little thing. Maybe they will get rid of baggage fees to attract more people to fly with them.

Definitely some positives recently! Another fee AA is getting rid of: starting July 1, you can change/cancel an award ticket 60+ days to departure with no fees.

It is fantastic that most partner awards can be booked online now. Let’s hope that the pandemic will be over soon.

I wonder if they’ll make any third region exceptions now that Royal Air Maroc has joined OW. I’m thinking of N America to the Middle East via Africa. That might come in handy for some if any of the Middle Eastern partners doesn’t have space available or if the flight schedules are better using RAM.

They got around having to add more third-region exceptions like that by moving Morocco to Europe! https://awardwallet.com/blog/aa-aadvantage-moves-morocco-europe/

If AA has the power to to move Morocco to Europe, can we put in a request to move the Himalayas to somewhere in the American Midwest? Would like them to be a nice day trip.

Wouldn’t that be nice?! I’d love to fly Qatar biz to the Himalayas for the cost of a domestic flight!

so useful! I’d refer to this if I need to book AA awards

American AAdvantage is one of my favorite frequent flyer programs. Thank you very much for the information. Unfortunately, as of August, it will not add miles with Santander Argentina. We will have to find new ways to continue accumulating miles, especially in this time when you cannot travel.

Really nice bookmarkable post. Thanks.

Good and informative post! I have about 80k miles i need to use but this article has helped me with some tips on how to book! American Airlines has been bad in the past so hope with these changes they have recently made, they stick to it

Good post to know all the options in the Program AA Awards, and how to maximize the use of miles Thank you Team AW

Another super helpful, easy to follow guide. Thanks, AW team!

Good guide! to understand the AA Awards travel rules!! Thank you

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Business Extra is the loyalty program from American Airlines that’s aimed at small and medium-sized businesses but, in practice, anyone can join (you don’t actually have to have a business).

Back a little over a year ago American Airlines began dragging the Business Extra program out of the dark ages by replacing paper upgrade certificates with e-certificates sent out by email .

Of course American Airlines couldn’t bring itself to fully commit to bringing Business Extra into the 21st century, so flyers may have been receiving upgrade certificates via email for the past 12 months but they’ve also had to continue calling up the American Airlines ‘Meeting Services’ team to actually get those upgrades applied (or waitlisted)….but not any more.

American has slowly been sending out emails letting Business Extra members know about a new booking tool ( American Airlines for Business ) which allows users to view award availability, book award flights and apply upgrade certificates all without having to interact with an American Airlines employee.

Right now there’s at least one limitation in the system (this was never going to be a smooth roll out) and that’s that the new site won’t allow bookings with more than one passenger to be upgraded.

Let’s hope American doesn’t take another year before it updates Business Extra again!

What Is Business Extra?

The terms and conditions of membership state that:

Subject to approval by American Airlines, Inc. (American), membership in Business Extra program (Program) is available to companies (Member): (1) with two or more employee travelers; and (2) that maintain their primary physical address in one of the following countries:

• United States, Canada, Antigua, Argentina, Aruba, Brazil, Barbados, Belize, Bermuda, Bolivia, Cayman Islands, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, El Salvador, Guatemala, Haiti, Honduras, Jamaica, Mexico, Netherlands Antilles, Nicaragua, Panama, Paraguay, Peru, Saint Lucia, Trinidad And Tobago, Turks And Caicos Islands, Uruguay, Venezuela

How you earn points:

Business Extra members earn the company (themselves) Business Extra points each time they:

• Book tickets through American Airlines, British Airways or Iberia for flights on American Airlines, British Airways or Iberia.
• Book tickets though American Airlines for flights on Finnair, JAL and Qantas.

Members that have a physical address in the United States and/or Canada will earn one (1) Point for every $5 of Flown Revenue during a calendar month. Members that have a physical address in other countries will earn two and a half (2 ½) Points for every $10 of Flown Revenue during a calendar month. Points shall be awarded based on the Member’s primary physical address, not where the majority of a Member’s travel originates.

Flown revenue is the base fare + any carrier imposed surcharges (so taxes do not count).

How you can redeem points:

Business Extra points can be redeemed for award flights, upgrades, Admirals Club memberships and more.

Details of all the ways you can redeem points are here , but here are a few highlights:

US Domestic Miles SAAver Awards (Plan Ahead Awards)

• Coach – 2,000 Business Extra Points (one way or roundrip)
• Business / First Class on 2 class cabin flights – 3,200 Business Extra Points (one way or roundrip)
• First Class on 3 class cabin flights – 4,800 Business Extra Points (one way or roundrip)

International Upgrades:

• From discount economy (Fare codes B, N, O, Q, S are excluded) to Business Class – 3,100 Business Extra Points
• From full fare economy  to Business Class – 1,200 Business Extra Points

Bottom Line

The Business Extra Program costs nothing to join and you still earn your normal AAdvantage Miles alongside Business Extra points for all your bookings….and now it had just got easier to book awards and to apply upgrades.

It’s an incredibly simple program, it takes no effort at all and it’s free points so if you haven’t already signed up you should do so asap.

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I believe the flight costs in points is the round trip price. Only upgrades have one way points pricing.

Mgg303 is correct, the awards are round trip OR one way, of course it’s a waste to only use them one way!

My mistake! (now corrected)

[…] Services” to have the upgrade applied or to ask to be put on the waitlist – as of a few weeks ago this process was moved online […]

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How to earn a free round-trip award through AA's Business Extra program

Editor's note: At TPG, our top priority is providing our readers with the information you need to make educated decisions about travel and your rewards-earnings strategy. This is not the best time to travel, domestically or internationally, but we are sharing this promotion because it can offer a good value for those who still need to travel for essential reasons.

While the Big Three US airlines (Delta, United and AA) tend to copy each other pretty closely when it comes to the details of their loyalty programs, there's one area where American really stands out above the competition: While all three legacy carriers offer separate loyalty programs for small businesses , American's Business Extra program is by far the richest.

Business Extra members accrue points in addition to the normal AAdvantage frequent flyer miles they earn from flying, and can redeem these Business Extra points for award flights, upgrades, lounge access and more. Now, View from the Wing is reporting that new Business Extra members can earn 2,000 Business Extra points by enrolling at businessextra.com with promo code 202KMM and taking a single flight by June 30.

For more TPG news delivered each morning to your inbox, sign up for our daily newsletter .

Obviously with the ongoing coronavirus pandemic, now is not the right time to be traveling unless it's unavoidable. But there are plenty of people who continue to travel because their jobs have been deemed essential who may be able to get great value out of this offer.

Business Extra members normally earn points at a rate of 1 per $5 spent on eligible flights, so this bonus nets you the same number of points as if you'd spent $10,000 on American Airlines flights.

Business Extra points can be used toward a number of different redemptions, but these 2,000 points could net you a domestic round-trip economy award (excluding transcontinental flights) if you redeem them for a "BX1A" award. These awards book into the T fare class , meaning you should be able to use them on any flight that has regular sAAver level award space.

Further Reading: Guide to earning and burning with American Airlines' Business Extra program

Another great option, especially if you plan to fly on a more premium transcontinental route, would be to redeem your 2,000 points for up to 3 "BXP1" awards, which are one segment upgrades within North America, including Hawaii and the Caribbean. BXP1s cost 650 Business Extra points each, so you could use this new member bonus to earn three upgrades and still have a few points left over.

Perhaps the single best redemption would be to book a cheap business class fare on a premium transcontinental route operated by one of AA's specially configured three-cabin A321Ts, featuring lie-flat business and first class in addition to economy. Upgrade inventory from business to first class is very easy to come by, and in addition to the incredible lie-flat seat, first class passengers can also access AA's exclusive Flagship First dining facility on the ground (currently closed due to the coronavirus pandemic).

Bottom line

No matter how good the promotion is, you should only be making plans to travel in the next few months if you absolutely need to, primarily if you're traveling for work in a job that's been deemed essential.

Business Extra is a great option to "double dip" on American flights, earning Business Extra points and AAdvantage miles at the same time. If you're not yet a member of the Business Extra program, signing up with this promotional offer and taking one flight by June 30 is a great way to boost your account balance from the start.