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AA’s Business Extra promotion offers free upgrade after one flight.
I just received an email from American Airlines Business Extra program regarding a 20th anniversary promotion. It allows members to earn enough points ( 650 ) for a one-segment upgrade by flying one flight within 30 days of registering. It’s a pretty straight forward offer and if you’re part of the Business Extra program ( or would will be) I don’t really see why you wouldn’t take part in it. In fact, because it’s 650 points, you wouldn’t even have to use the points for a one-segment upgrade and could save them for a different redemption. I’ll definitely take part in AA’s Business Extra promotion offering enough points for a free upgrade after one flight.
What is the Business Extra program?
It is a separate and parallel AA loyalty program designed for small businesses and their employees. It allows bulk employee travel to accumulate miles in a central account to be redeemed for various AA awards and perks. You and your employees will continue to earn miles in your/their AAdvantage accounts. It’s basically earning two currencies of AA miles in one flight. If you aren’t enrolled, I’d highly recommend doing it.
You don’t even have to be a current member. You can enroll and take part
The Terms and Conditions of this promotion.
- 650 bonus points. Enough for a BXP1 ( one segment upgrade)
- Must enroll between 2/23 and 3/31 2017
- Use the code BX20UPGWELCOME
- 1 qualifying flight within 30 days of registering
- AA ( 001), BA (125) and Iberia(075) flights qualify
There are certain restrictions on which flights you can redeem your one-way upgrade: here they are
As you can see, points can be use to upgrade EXCEPT B,N,O,Q or S fares buckets
So yes, you can use those points to upgrade to a lie-flat transcon.
OR save the points for an international one-way upgrade. Again excluding B, N, O, Q, or S fare buckets.
Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card
The Chase Sapphire Preferred is a great starter card that earns Premium Ultimate Rewards that can be transferred into over a dozen partners many of which are US based.
Welcome Offer
60k Points after $4k spend in 3 months
Annual Fee
$95
Points Earned
Transferrable Chase Ultimate Rewards
If you carry this card alongside Chase’s cashback cards like the Chase Freedom Flex℠and Chase Freedom Unlimited® or the business versions: Ink Business Cash , Ink Business Unlimited you can combine the points into Preferred account and transfer into hotel and airline partners
Annual fee is quite low at $95 a year + you get a 10% anniversary bonus on points + $50 hotel credit in Chase travel.
- 3x on dining
- including eligible delivery services for takeout
- 3x on select streaming services
- 3x on online grocery purchases
- (excluding Target, Walmart and wholesale clubs)
- 5x on all travel purchased through Chase Ultimate Rewards – Chase Travel Portal
- $50 Annual Credit on hotel stays purchased via Ultimate Rewards/Chase Travel
- The begins immediately for new cardmembers and after your account anniversary for existing cardmembers
- 10% Anniversary Bonus
- Every year you keep the card, your total spend will yield a 10% points bonus. If you spend $10k in a year, you’ll get 1k bonus points
- Chase Sapphire Preferred® continues to redeem at 1.25c in the Chase Travel Portal and the slew of other benefits remain in tact including primary rental car insurance, purchase protections, etc.
- Points are transferrable to 13 Ultimate Rewards partners
- Redeem in the Chase Travel center for 1.25 cents per point
- No foreign transaction fees
- Suite of Travel and Purchase Coverage
- Primary rental car coverage is my favorite
We keep an up to date spreadsheet that lists the best ever offers: You can find that spreadsheet here.
Historically 80k is a very, very good offer and hit in both 2022 and 2023. In 2021, we saw the offer hit an all time high of 100k. Who knows if that will ever come back.
Main Cast:
Cards that earn flexible points and should be used on the bulk of your purchases.
Supporting Cast:
Cards that earn fixed points in the currency of the airline/hotel and can not be transferred at attractive rates. These cards yield benefits that make it worth keeping, but not necessarily worth putting a lot of your everyday spend on.
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