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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
- A is the first class upgrade inventory on planes marketed with 3 cabins. It will allow you up bump up from Biz to First
- Transcontinental, i.e. LAX-JFK
- LAX-MIA
- 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: Request the Certificate.
Go to Generate Award Certificate
Upgrades and within North America
Request the quantity you want and mailing address.
- It took roughly 7 days to receive my certs in the mail. You can have them expedited for a fee
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 serial number, etc
Step 4: Bring the certificate to the airport
The upgrade will be reserved on your record locator, but you must bring the cert with you to the airport. It’s not consistently attached to your ticket, but if you are asked for it you must provide it.
Step 5: 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 last year from JFK to LAX, and the closer the flight gets to a true redeye, the better the space is to nab.
“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 from LA to Miami.
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!
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.
Thank you for the informative post!
thanks for reading!
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.