American, Delta, and United offers a reward program for small-to-medium-sized businesses. Business owners can get rewards for their employees’ travel while their employees continue to receive their miles. Think of these programs as frequent buying programs for flying — sort of like Costco Executive Membership which gives 2% back for shopping at Costco. All these programs are free to enroll.
American Airlines:
American Airlines’ program for small business is called Business ExtrAA. Small businesses receive 1 point for every $10 spent, with rewards starting at 300 points or $3,000 in spend. A free domestic ticket is 2,000 points or $20,000 spend. It’s a 1% – 2.5% rebate, assuming that a domestic ticket is $200 to $500.
The points expire every 24 months. Once you’re enrolled, you’ll receive a Business ExtrAA (BE) membership number. As long as the BE membership number is in the reservation made through AA.com or AA reservations for American, British Airways and Iberia flights, you will receive credit for the spend. You do not need to choose between AAdvantage for miles and Business ExtrAA; you can have both in your reservation and you don’t need a small business to open a Business ExtrAA account. Here’s how you maximize your earning:
- Have all your family members and friends (the ones who are not as fanatical about miles as you) put your Business ExtrAA number in their profile. Go to AA.com. The Business ExtrAA number input field is in My Account -> Reservation Preferences -> My Business ExtrAA info.
- Then have your family and friends put the number in their AAdvantage account and watch your points grow. Now getting the $20,000 spend to get a free ticket should be easy!
- This is addition to any miles you earn. That’s double dipping!
Delta:
Delta’s small business program is called SkyBonus. It earns 3 points per dollar spent from their hubs (Atlanta, Cincinnati, Detroit, Memphis, Minneapolis and Salt Lake City) and 6 points per dollar spent from other cities for coach fares. Business fares earn 10 points for hub cities and 30 points for non-hub cities.
Rewards start at 10,000 points; a free domestic ticket is 85,000 points. From a hub city, 10,000 points will require $3,334 for a basic reward. From non-hub city, it would be $1,667. For a coach reward, it would be $28,334 from a hub city and $14,167 from a non-hub city. The reward rebate ratio is not as good as American, but it works with tickets bought on Delta for Delta, Air France, KLM and Alitalia flights. The program works the same as American Airlines above but these points expire 36 months after they’re earned. Follow below to maximize your points:
- Have all your family members and friends put your SkyBonus number in their profile. Go to Delta.com. The SkyBonus number is located in SkyMiles -> Manage my Account -> Manage Profile. It’s located after your phone number section.
- Then watch your points grow.
(On the enrollment form, Delta asks for Federal Tax ID, you can just enter your own Social Security number and in the Travel Agent field, you can just enter Delta.com)
United:
United’s small business program is called PerksPlus. It is relatively restrictive — you need to spend $5,000 every three months in order for the points not to expire. And points only last 12 months. We think it is a sub-par program, but if you think you can hit that milestone every 3 months, it is something you should look into. It works the same way as the two programs above.
US Airways:
We could not find any information on US Airways’ program. If you have any information about it, please let us know.
These programs are an easy way to increase your rewards! It doesn’t cost you anything nor require any effort beyond putting the number in your profile.
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