13

Sep

I legitimately have a business, or several, but I seem to recall it was iffy at best back when I signed up for American’s Business ExtrAA program.

I seem to recall signing up for all of the small business programs way back when, they’re a way to double dip on rewards when flying (you earn miles and also credits in these programs) and if you’re someone who books a lot of travel for others you can credit their flights to your small business rewards account.

Of course the overall idea is that everyone at a business credits their flights to one account, and the business encourages everyone to use the airline. It’s for small businesses, a rather automated system to encourage business loyalty for companies that don’t rise to the level of travel spend to have an actual account rep with an airline and a discount contract.

THe best welcome kit once upon a time was US Airways which used to provide upgrade certificates in the signup package, some folks maybe 8 years back would sign up for a whole lot of those packages!

American’s program is really quite useful, there are pretty low point rewards like gifting someone gold status (2400 points) or signing up for a year’s AAdmiral’s Club membership (3000 points). The average 100,000 mile flyer should get at least an award like that for their flying, or if you book trips for others you can get there pretty easily (points do expire after a couple of years).

There’s a current signup bonus of 5000 American Airlines miles just for joining the program, which is free to do and takes a few minutes only.

Join at BusinessExtra.com using referral code SME3Q11 to receive the bonus.

Meanwhile, AAdvantage Geek says you can earn half a million American AAdvantage miles for building a million dollar home in Texas. Me, I’ll earn my miles 5000 at a time…

(HT: titans26 on Milepoint.)

Update: Gary from Free Frequent Flyer Miles emails with his take on the promo, which is that it does require flight activity to credit to the new Business ExtrAA account:

This Milepoint discussion tells us how to get 5,000 American Airlines miles for enrolling in this program by December 31, 2011, and having at least two travelers fly using the account by that date. Use referral code SME3Q11 on the page after accepting the terms and conditions. The offer may very well be targeted to only those receiving an email offer for it. But if you are going to enroll anyway, its worth a shot.

23 Comments

  1. caveman said,

    Thanks for the update. Where does it say you will earn 5000 miles for signing up?

  2. Alan said,

    Hadn’t signed my consulting biz up for this yet, but even upon signup I don’t see any mention of 5k miles bonus.

  3. Ted said,

    Usually using referral codes for anything won’t show offer attached to code, but I trust Gary’s info. I just did it for my gf and I.

  4. Jimgotkp said,

    The Business part of this mile thing is killing me. Can’t exactly qualify since I don’t have a business so there is 5K AA miles. Can’t sign up for the Citi AA Biz card because I don’t have documentation to provide since I don’t pay ANY bills so there goes 75K AA miles. 80K AA miles in total I can’t participate it. :(

  5. Chaney said,

    Same here; I signed my small business up using the promo code, but I don’t see anything about the miles bonus.

  6. FreeFrequentFlyerMiles.com said,

    Any info on when this offer expires?

  7. garipi said,

    The place to put in the code is on the third screen (top) after you advance through your personal (compacy) info..Just signed up. Thanks Gary – always much appreciated!

  8. Elizabeth said,

    Hey Jimgotkp, I got the Citi AA biz card and I don’t have a business either. I just listed myself as a sole proprietor and listed the biz income as the small amount that I make off of eBay and freelance writing. I got the card and was never asked for additional documentation. If I were you, I’d at least apply.

  9. Chris said,

    Does BusinessExtra allow you to enter past trips for credit? Delta’s SkyBonus works by adding ticket numbers and the credit shows up later.

  10. Tyler said,

    Where did this code come from? is it 5000 AAdvantage miles or 5000 extrAA miles?

  11. mommafrica said,

    Can u also list “sole propietor”on this sign-up as well?

  12. mommafrica said,

    Can u write “sole proprietor” as biz name here as well?

  13. mommafrica said,

    Didn’tmean 2 dbl post-comp problems

  14. Nick said,

    I had the same question as mommafrica. When you try to signup it asks you how any employees are part of your business. The minimum option to choose is ’2′. How do sole proprietors fit into this. You don’t have to have >1 employee to have a business, so why would AA not allow you to sign up if you have 1 (yourself).

  15. Jimgotkp said,

    Hey Elizabeth, I’m considering it but would hate it being a waste of a hard pull. I might do it on my next churn which will probably be next year or the end of this year since I just got a car, student loan and four credit cards in the past three months. Chances of getting an application approved with all these recent things is pretty slim. Thankfully my credit score when up five points after dropping by eight.

  16. The Travel Abstract said,

    @Jimgotkp I would say your plan sounds fine. Even if you did not get denied the extra spend requirement might be to much to bite off with all of your other debt obligations.

  17. Jimgotkp said,

    @The Travel Abstract, I actually finished my spend and paid off all the credit cards (2 AA Citi AMEX, Chase Sapphire Preferred and SPG AMEX). The only thing that I really have to pay RIGHT now is the car bill since the student loan can “wait” till graduation. Thankfully, my parents have been able to send me money so I can pay off their bills for them using my credit card especially the larger bills like insurance, rent, etc.

  18. Roger Haynie said,

    I received an email today from AA wanting stating that this was a directed offer and so they wanted a copy of the offer notification email I received. So forget that one.

  19. justanotherblogger said,

    Does anyone know if flights that are already booked can have the Business ExtrAA program # attached to it? Or does it have to be attached at purchase?

  20. FriendlySkies said,

    Thanks for posting this. I signed up our company and was able to include the promo code. I think I’ll bite the bullet and fly AA on a short r/t and have another employee do the same. I’ll update with any news on earning the points..

  21. Sunday Reader Email Question: Can I Get Points for Booking Corporate Travel? | The Points Guy said,

    [...] from one of over 200 airports [excludes Dallas/Fort Worth (DFW) and Miami (MIA)]“ Gary at View From the Wing recently blogged that it may be possible to earn an extra 5,000 AA miles for signing up using promo code SME3Q11, [...]

  22. Maximizing Airline Business Frequent Flyer Programs | The Points Guy said,

    [...] bonus points for every 40 travelers that fly on a Group & Meeting Travel reservation.Gary at View From the Wing recently blogged that it may be possible to earn an extra 5,000 AA miles for signing up using promo code SME3Q11, [...]

  23. jim said,

    Hi

    I’ve just joined the EXTRAA and booked a trip through a travel agent. My reservation is recognized on AA.com through my AAdvantage number, which has my Extraa number associated. Will I earn my points automatically or should I have to do something through the travel agent to get the points (additional to my miles)?
    thanks

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