If you are ready to book or make changes to business extra, corporate contract bookings, companion certificates, paper certificates with a star file, meetings slash conference discount, press one. If you have questions regarding your group deposit and or block space prior to ticketing, press two."
Calling this number works for the time being, but isn't going to last for much longer. It's used as American Airlines' loyalty program for small businesses, known as Business Extra. However, American Airlines has announced that this program will be phased out as of January 2024, and it's no longer accepting new members.
The automated system makes no effort to tell you this when you call, however. In fact, when calling, there's no indication that you've reached a specific section of American Airlines' phone system at all. It simply says you've reached American Airlines and presents the automated system's options.
You can ask for assistance with ticketing, changing a reservation or wait on the line for any other concerns. As I didn't have a reservation and wasn't planning to make one, I opted to wait on the line to see if I could reach a representative.
I was connected to an agent within 2 minutes, and they asked how they could assist me. I asked how long I had to make a qualifying flight with American Airlines before my miles would expire, as I knew that American Airlines miles do expire and I wanted to be sure that mine wouldn't be in danger of expiring anytime soon. He said he didn't handle miles and didn't want to give me wrong information, so he would transfer me to another department that could give me an answer that would definitely be accurate.
As this didn't apply to this department, I ended the call there after he transferred me to another area. My experience showed that the customer representatives at American genuinely care about giving correct information, and this is not a catch-all spot for customer service. This number is strictly for a specific part of AA's customer service, which means it likely won't last very long with this service ending in January 2024.
I thought wait times were easy and the representative was both honest and friendly, which made the call a pleasant experience. The number doesn't have any chokepoints that block access, but it also can't be used effectively by people with other needs. If your needs don't fall into the business category, all you'll get is a transfer to a different department that can help.
Because this department will be defunct as of January 2024, I cannot recommend using this number. It provided great service at the time of my call, but that likely won't continue once this department is discontinued.