American’s AAdvantage Business program lets small companies earn bonus miles and status credits on employee travel. It’s essentially a free add-on to the regular AAdvantage frequent flyer program, designed for businesses based in the US or Canada. Even if you’re a small business owner with just a few employees, you can join and start earning rewards on your team’s flights.
The beauty is that employees still earn their own AAdvantage miles and Loyalty Points as usual, but the business earns extra rewards on top – essentially “double dipping” on the same travel. Let’s dive into how the program works and how to make the most of it.
What Is the AAdvantage Business Program?
American Airlines’ AAdvantage Business program (formerly known as Business Extra) is a small business travel rewards program that rewards companies for booking travel with American. It runs in addition to the regular AAdvantage program. Here’s the gist of how it works:
Free To Join
There’s no cost to enroll your business, and no ongoing fees or minimum spend required just to accrue rewards. You simply register your company with a corporate tax ID and link it to an administrator’s AAdvantage account.
Double Dipping On Rewards
When employees fly on American Airlines (or eligible partner flights booked through AA), they earn their usual AAdvantage miles and Loyalty Points in their personal accounts. Meanwhile, your business earns bonus rewards for those same flights. Specifically, the company earns additional AAdvantage miles, and the traveler earns an extra Loyalty Point for each $1 spent on airfare through the business program.
Centralized Business Account
The rewards your company earns are credited to a central AAdvantage Business account controlled by your company. You can later redeem those miles for travel or transfer them to individual employees under certain conditions (we’ll cover that in “How to Redeem”).
Flexible Booking Channels
Initially, American required booking through AA’s website for flights to count, but now eligible flights count regardless of where you book – whether directly on aa.com or via a travel agency – as long as you include your AAdvantage Business account number before travel. This adds flexibility for companies that use corporate travel agents or tools.
Business Only Travel
The program is intended for business travel, not personal trips. When booking, you’ll designate the trip as “Business” and attach the AAdvantage Business number. Leisure trips shouldn’t be credited to the company account.
Who Is Eligible for AAdvantage Business?
The AAdvantage Business program is aimed at small and mid-sized businesses (as well as larger ones that don’t have a corporate contract with AA). Eligibility requirements include:
- Business in the US or Canada: Your company needs a primary address in the United States or Canada and a verifiable federal Tax ID (FEIN) or business number to sign up. (American Airlines currently extends eligibility to a few other regions as well, but US and Canada businesses are the primary focus.)
- No existing corporate discount agreement: Companies that already have a corporate sales agreement or discounted corporate fares with American cannot enroll in this program. The idea is to target smaller businesses that book travel at standard rates, not those with big negotiated corporate deals.
- Not a travel reseller: Travel agencies, consolidators, or other sellers of travel aren’t eligible to join. The program is for businesses that are the end consumers of travel (e.g. a tech startup sending employees to conferences, not a travel agent booking for clients).
- Small businesses welcome: There is no minimum company size or spend required to join. Even a single-person LLC or a startup with a few employees can qualify, as long as you have that tax ID and aren’t under a corporate contract. American explicitly allows “even small businesses” to participate.
How to Sign Up for the AAdvantage Business Program
Signing up is simple and online. American Airlines has a dedicated portal for AAdvantage Business registration (previously the Business Extra site).
Here’s How To Get Started
- Have an AAdvantage account: The person managing the business account (e.g. the owner or travel manager) should have a personal AAdvantage frequent flyer account. If you don’t have one, create one for free on aa.com first.
- Prepare basic business info: During signup, you’ll need to provide some company details – business name, address, and tax ID (EIN) are key. American will ask for a physical address in eligible countries (like US or Canada) and a verifiable tax ID number. Interestingly, entering a tax ID might be optional in some cases, but it’s best to have it handy.
- Designate an account manager: You’ll assign an individual (often yourself) as the authorized administrator for the account. You’ll provide that person’s name and AAdvantage number in the signup form. This link connects your personal AA login to the new business account.
- Use the signup portal: Visit American’s AAdvantage Business registration page (on aa.com). You may need to log in with your personal AAdvantage credentials, then fill out the business registration form. It only takes a few minutes, and there’s no cost.
- Get your Business account number: Once registered, your company will be assigned an AAdvantage Business account number (this might be the same as your old Business Extra number if you had one, or a new code). This number is what you’ll add to reservations to accrue business rewards.
- Invite employees (optional): After setup, you can invite employees to link to the business account via the AAdvantage Business dashboard. Employees who accept the invite will have the option to mark bookings as business travel under your account.
If you previously used the old Business Extra program, note that it transitioned to AAdvantage Business in late 2023. Your login and point balance likely carried over. New users will simply start fresh with AAdvantage Business.
How to Earn Rewards (Miles & Points) for Your Business
Earning rewards with AAdvantage Business is straightforward. Every time you or your employees fly on American Airlines for business, both the traveler and the company reap benefits:
1 Bonus AAdvantage Mile Per $1 Spent On Airfare Goes To The Business’s Account.
For example, a $500 (base fare) business trip will net your company 500 AAdvantage miles, in addition to the miles the traveler earns personally. These are full redeemable miles that your business can later use for free flights, upgrades, etc.
1 Bonus Loyalty Point Per $1 Goes To The Individual Traveler’s AAdvantage Account.
Loyalty Points count toward elite status qualification on American. So if that employee spent $500 on a flight, they’d get 500 extra Loyalty Points, helping them reach AAdvantage Gold, Platinum, or higher status faster. This is on top of the usual Loyalty Points they earn from the flight itself.
No Impact On Personal Earning Rates
Importantly, the traveler still earns their standard miles and Loyalty Points for the trip as if nothing extra was going on. The business program’s miles and points are in addition to the regular earnings. It doesn’t reduce or divert the employee’s own rewards in any way.
Eligible Flights
In general, any paid flight marketed by American Airlines (with an AA flight number) counts, including those operated by AA or partners like British Airways, Iberia, JAL, etc., as long as the ticket is issued by AA. You should enter your AAdvantage Business account number at booking and mark the trip as business-related. If booking on aa.com while logged in, you can select “Business” as the travel type or have your business account saved in your profile.
If using a travel agent, ensure they include your business account reference in the reservation. With recent updates, it no longer matters if you book via AA’s website or an agent – both will earn rewards as long as the business number is attached.
Posting Of Rewards
The extra miles and Loyalty Points typically post within a few days after the flight is flown (American says within 72 hours of an eligible flight’s completion. In practice, you can check your business account online to see the miles accumulating per trip.
No Minimum Spend To Start Earning
From the very first dollar your company spends on flights, you’ll earn the additional miles and points. There are no minimum thresholds to accrue rewards. For a small business, this means even an occasional flight will generate some miles in the company account.
If you value American AAdvantage miles at roughly 1.5 cents each (a common valuation), that 1 mile per $1 is like getting an extra ~1.5% rebate on all your company’s airfare spending. Meanwhile, the extra Loyalty Point per dollar can be invaluable for employees chasing elite status (which brings upgrades, free bags, etc.).
For example, an Executive Platinum flyer would normally earn 11 Loyalty Points per $1; with AAdvantage Business, they’d earn 12 – a nice boost.
Make sure every employee who travels for the company knows to include the AAdvantage Business number on their reservations (or have your travel manager do it). It can be saved in their AAdvantage profile for convenience. This way, you won’t miss out on any miles if someone forgets to tag a flight.
How to Redeem Your Business Rewards
As your company accumulates AAdvantage miles in the business account, you’ll eventually want to redeem them for rewards. American has made redemption fairly flexible, essentially treating the business miles like regular frequent flyer miles with a couple of extra steps. Here’s what you need to know:
Use Miles For Travel Or Upgrades
The miles your business earns are AAdvantage miles, so they can be redeemed for all the usual awards in the American Airlines AAdvantage program. This includes booking award flights on American or partner airlines, one-way or round-trip tickets in any class of service (where award seats are available). You can also use miles for seat upgrades on paid flights, Admiral’s Club lounge memberships, or other mileage redemptions that AAdvantage allows. Essentially, your company account acts like a corporate frequent flyer account.
Booking Awards From The Business Account
To spend miles directly from the business account, you would log in to the AAdvantage Business portal (using the admin’s credentials) and redeem for flights or other awards in the name of an employee (or any traveler you choose). For instance, you could book a free flight for one of your staff to attend a conference, using the miles in the company account to pay for the ticket.
Transferring Miles To Individuals
A unique feature is that you can transfer the miles out of the business account into an individual’s AAdvantage account (for free) if you prefer. This might be useful if, say, the business wants to gift an employee a chunk of miles for personal use, or if the owner wants to combine the company’s miles with their personal miles for a big redemption. However, American Airlines imposes certain conditions before you’re allowed to transfer out miles:
- Activity threshold: The business account must have at least five unique travelers and $5,000 in flight spend credited to it within a year or…
- Co-branded credit card holder: …you (the business) hold an eligible American Airlines co-branded business credit card, which waives that minimum requirement. Specifically, the Citi® / AAdvantage® Business Mastercard is mentioned by American. If you have that card linked to your AAdvantage Business account, you can transfer miles to individual accounts at any time, even if you haven’t yet flown 5 travelers or spent $5k.
No Minimums To Redeem Via The Account
If you meet one of the above conditions, you can transfer miles out freely. If you don’t meet them yet, you can still redeem the miles directly from the business account for flights or other awards (you just wouldn’t be able to move them into someone’s personal account until hitting the threshold). There’s no hard minimum balance required to spend miles through the account; you’re limited only by the award costs. For example, if you have 10,000 miles, you might redeem for a one-way domestic ticket if availability allows.
Managing Redemptions
In practice, many small business owners simply use the miles themselves or distribute them as needed for employee travel. The fact that you can gift travel to anyone is quite handy – you could even use company miles to cover a client’s flight or give an employee a vacation, as there’s flexibility to book in any passenger’s name (similar to how corporate reward points can be used to incentivize staff).
Remember that AAdvantage miles do expire after 18 months of inactivity in an account. It’s not clear if the business account has the same expiration policy as personal accounts, but likely it does (American hasn’t highlighted an exception). So it’s wise to earn or redeem from time to time so the miles don’t languish too long. With regular company travel, this shouldn’t be an issue.
Why the AAdvantage Business Program Is Worth It
If your company flies with American Airlines, this program gives you free rewards without changing how you book. You don’t pay to join, and your business collects miles and Loyalty Points every time your team travels. Those rewards can cover flights, upgrades, or offset future travel costs.
Your employees benefit too. Loyalty Points help them reach elite status faster, which brings perks like upgrades, early boarding, and free bags. That makes work trips easier and more comfortable—without costing you anything extra.
Your business earns miles that you can use however you want. Cover flights for team members, fund travel to client meetings, or reward top performers. You can even use miles for things like lounge access during long layovers. The flexibility gives your travel budget more reach.
The setup is easy. Employees add the business account when booking, either through their profile or by selecting “business trip.” The system tracks everything automatically. No paperwork. No extra admin time.
If your company spends $20,000 a year on flights, you’ll earn 20,000 bonus miles. That’s around $300 in value, plus Loyalty Points that could lead to upgrades or savings. Over time, the numbers add up.
Pairing this program with the Citi AAdvantage Business credit card unlocks full access and adds more rewards. The card earns miles on purchases and lets you transfer or redeem with no limits.
There’s no catch. If someone leaves your company, you just stop tracking their trips. The program stays flexible and low-effort.
For small businesses, this is an easy way to earn more from travel you’re already paying for.
