In early 2014 there was a promo where I was able to refer friends and earn up to 5,000 AA Business Extra points. I made this offer into a giveaway on my blog and 4/5 winners signed up for an AA Business Extra account.

Then I accidentally let some of my points expire but AA was kind enough to reinstate them for me! By the end of 2015 I once again wondered what I should do with my AA Business Extra points.

I ended up claiming them for two PlanAhead Awards, which was good for travel in the Continental US, Canada and Mexico.

Once you claim the award, you have one year to use your award.

With the expiration date closing in, I came up with a couple of options regarding what I should do with my two AA Business Extra awards.

1. I could call and ask if the expiration date could be extended
2. Use the award for a flight.

The issue with option 1 was that I already had my points reinstated so I didn’t know if this would cause an issue with getting an extension. There’s definitely a chance it would’ve worked since one of the reps mentioned it was a possibility…

Booking a flight sounded like a better idea but we already had flights booked for a couple of upcoming breaks.

Then an idea popped up. Not something I’d consider a sexy booking, but more of a need booking.

As you probably know, Michael W Travels is a member of BoardingArea. BoardingArea hosts a conference called BAcon. At the event we get to learn more about blogging and its also a chance to do some networking with fellow bloggers.

BAcon 2016 was held in Washington, DC. Without traffic that’s a 4 hour drive from Brooklyn. I couldn’t really take off work (or miss other appointments) for the first day so I figured that if I was going to get to DC, we had to fly.

The best fit for us to fly from NYC to DC was on American Airlines due to the times the flights were offered.

If I chose to use some AAdvantage miles, we could’ve booked for 15,000 miles + $11.20 in taxes per person.

Since I had my AA Business Extra award expiring, I figured I should just redeem it. It definitely wasn’t the way I had hoped to use my award but I figured that it was certainly better to use it than lose it.

After a lengthy phone call, I booked our flight from New York’s LaGuardia Airport to DC’s Reagan National Airport.

The 4,000 AA Business Extra points that I had redeemed, were free points which I had earned from doing my referrals a couple of years back!

When I priced the flight to see what our exact booking sold for, I was shocked.

To book our exact flight at AA.com, each ticket cost $448 which comes to $894.40 for Kim and I. Talk about an insane price to pay for a 40 minute flight!

So was my booking really worth close to $900? I’d definitely say no considering I could’ve paid for flights on another carrier for a much more reasonable price.

Regardless, my AA Business Extra awards served a purpose and filled a need. In my opinion, that makes the deal a fair value to me.

Did you earn AA Business Extra points from the referral offer a couple of years back? If so, how did you use your points?