All About American Airlines’ AAdvantage Business

This post has been updated as of July 19, 2024 to reflect the recent changes to the  AAdvantage Business program. 

American Airlines made headlines in 2023 replacing their longstanding Business Extra program with AAdvantage Business. The biggest changes were to what benefits businesses earn and how they earn those benefits – read on to learn how businesses benefit from AAdvantage Business.

In this guide, you'll learn:

• What American Airlines' AAdvantage Business  offers small businesses
• The Benefits of AAdvantage Business for your small business
• How you can sign your company up for AAdvantage Business
• How your employees can book flights with AAdvantage Business
• The requirements for joining AAdvantage Business
• Whether AAdvantage Business is right for your company

Understanding aadvantage business and Your Small Business Travel Program

What is aadvantage business?

AAdvantage Business is American Airlines' dedicated travel program designed for small businesses. In the program, businesses earn AAdvantage miles to use across the company for flights, upgrades, and airport lounge access. At the same time, business travelers earn additional AAdvantage miles and loyalty points on top of their usual earnings as AAdvantage members. In addition, company administrators have access to a suite of tools from American to manage their American business travel.

What are some of the benefits of aadvantage business for my small business?

• Your whole team can book and manage American Airlines tickets anywhere business travel is booked, including travel management companies, AA.com, the American app and American Airlines reservations.
• Your business earns 1 mile for every dollar spent by employees on AAdvantage bookings. Miles are accrued in addition to the miles earned by each of your employee travelers on their own personal AAdvantage accounts, and travelers earn an additional loyalty point per every dollar spent for business travel, which accelerates their path to status.
• Businesses can use miles earned from the program to offset business travel expenses or reward employees. Transfer miles from the AAdvantage Business account to employees to pay for flights, upgrades, car rentals and more.
• Bonus: Earn additional miles for your business and loyalty points toward status with the CitiBusiness® / AAdvantage® Platinum Select® Mastercard®. Businesses earn an extra two miles per dollar (three instead of one) on American Airlines purchases with their CitiBusiness® / AAdvantage® Platinum Select® Mastercard®, travelers earn two bonus Loyalty Points towards status on these purchases instead of just one.

How aadvantage business Works

How can I sign up for Aadvantage business?

It’s not complicated to sign up for AAdvantage business. The most important thing is that you're authorized by your employer to register your company in the AAdvantage Business program. Here’s how:

1. Register with your company details. You’ll need the legal business name, address and U.S. federal tax ID or Canadian business number.
2. Provide your own contact details and AAdvantage® number. When you register, you become your account’s Travel Manager with full control and permissions over account activity.
3. Select your communication preferences.
4. Go to the travel management portal to complete your business profile.
5. Add your business travelers. Employees automatically receive program invitations once you add them within the portal. Once they’re registered, they’ll receive a welcome email with program information.
6. Choose another Travel Manager to help maintain your business’s account. 

If you haven’t joined the AAdvantage program yet, it is required for AAdvantage Business registration. You can join the AAdvantage program for free in minutes.

How can I book flights with aadvantage business?

In order to book flights with AAdvantage Business, your registered employees can book through your travel agency, or book direct on the aa.com website, American app or American Airlines reservations. Your employees should follow the following steps the would normally follow when booking with your travel agency, or direct with American Airlines:

1. Log in to your AAdvantage account.
2. Choose ‘Business travel’ at booking.
3. Continue booking as normal – your business account number will be automatically added to your trip.
4. Confirm this is a business booking. Trip type cannot be changed after confirmation.
   

   You can also book on behalf of employees who are registered in your AAdvantage account (a managed travel feature), or employees can book themselves. Likewise you can change or cancel trips online with AAdvantage as the designated Travel Manager for your company.  

(As mentioned earlier, your TMC can also add your AAdvantage Business ID to bookings to identify your bookings made through your TMC.)

Does my company qualify for Aadvantage business?

Probably! Any small business can sign up for free as long as you meet the following requirements:

1. Has at least 5 active, registered business travelers
2. Is based in the United States or Canada
3. Has a valid federal tax ID (U.S.) or business number (CA) (required during registration

but wait, what happened to business extra?

Business Extra was formally shut down on January 31, 2024, companies can no longer earn or redeem Business Extra points.

Is Aadvantage Business right for my company?

Yes! AAdvantage Business is a clear upgrade compared to just booking on aa.com or through the American Airlines app because it provides miles, additional loyalty points for your business travelers and some travel management functionality for American Airlines bookings. AAdvantage Business allows your travelers to continue earning AAdvantage miles and loyalty points.

Businesses can now earn AAdvantage Business miles on bookings with third-party travel management platforms. However, AAdvantage doesn’t offer you a complete travel management solution with booking, control and tracking for travel across all airlines, hotels and car rentals. 

For that flexibility and savings, you need a travel management platform like AmTrav.

How do AmTrav’s services compare to AAdvantage business?

AmTrav is a complete software and service solution for managing your travel, offering the robust online tools and expert human service you need to book, control, measure and change all your travel – in one, centralized location. AmTrav clients’ employees love to use our powerful booking platform to book their flights, accommodation and car rentals - all in one place.

With AmTrav you will:

• Book all your flights, hotels and car rentals in one place, with access to the lowest fares and one-click unused tickets to save an extra 6% on airfare. You can change your whole booking online at once, and of course travelers earn miles and loyalty points on every booking.
• Set travel policies to guide bookers to find flights, hotels and car rentals that work for them and for the company, with optional pre-trip approvals. Also manage your user access and invite guests to book themselves.
• Track your spending, your travelers’ locations, your policy compliance, your CO2 emissions and more with AmTrav’s 25+ reports 
• Your travelers can count on expert assistance from AmTrav’s all-employee Travel Advisors who are ready to help 24x7, and you enjoy the support of a dedicated AmTrav Relationship Manager who’s your trusted advisor and advocate.

Here’s the comparison in a chart:

Bottom line

If your company is already booking on American Airlines, AAdvantage Business is a great upgrade to track your travel and earn extra miles. But if your company is a bit bigger, and you need to book, control and see more than just American Airlines tickets, book a consultation to learn how AmTrav can make managing your whole travel program easier.

About AmTrav: Through one simple technology and services platform, AmTrav helps travelers be more productive and connected, empowering companies and their people to go places, meet people and grow further. AmTrav customers enjoy integrated travel booking, travel spend reporting, traveler tracking, and 24x7 expert human support, reducing obstacles, complexity and cost so they get the full value of their business travel. Learn more or reach out for a one-on-one consultation today.