How American Airlines Is Redefining Business Travel for Employees and Travel Managers Alike

This sponsored content was created in collaboration with a Skift partner.

Business travel demand has rebounded significantly in recent years. However, even as working travelers have returned to the air, companies now face the dual challenge of managing rising trip costs while maintaining the quality of their commuters’ in-air experiences.

According to the Global Business Travel Association, spend in the category is projected to reach $1.5 trillion by the end of 2024. However, increasing costs and pricing pressures accompanying that uptick require travel managers to adopt increasingly cost-conscious strategies. And they must do this while keeping their employees happy and satisfied.

“Businesses need to manage travel easily without sacrificing the traveler experience,” said Scott Chandler, senior vice president of revenue management and loyalty at American Airlines. “With the right tools, it’s possible to deliver both seamless management and the ability to make travel more rewarding — for the company and for the employee in the seat, too.”  

Offering businesses flexibility and rewarding both travelers and companies — an essential combination in Chandler’s evaluation — AAdvantage Business is helping businesses optimize their travel spend while enhancing the overall travel experience.

Unlocking Business Travel Flexibility and Control

According to Alyssa Heath, managing director of AAdvantage, there are two increasingly non-negotiable components of a successful business travel program.

“People want more control of programs and the ability to self-serve,” Heath said. “Just like in day-to-day life, customers want a seamless experience.” 

With those expectations in mind — and evolving as well — travel managers are seeking tools that allow for easy management of travel policies while ensuring satisfaction for their registered travelers. They also want benefits to flow back to their businesses as they transact on behalf of traveling teams.

In response, one of American’s key differentiators is a dual rewards system that benefits both the company and the individual traveler. 

For example, businesses earn AAdvantage miles for every dollar spent that can be used for future employee travel, while registered travelers earn Loyalty Points that count toward personal AAdvantage status and its benefits. Additionally, self-serve features such as visibility into traveler trends and customizable reporting empower travel managers to streamline travel operations, enforce policies, and adapt to changing business needs. 

Successful business travel programs also offer travel managers suites of tools that provide visibility into traveler trends and spending patterns. Transparency into that process enables data-driven travel policy decisions and ensures organization-wide compliance.

“AAdvantage Business gives all the management experience that a travel management company would usually provide,” Chandler said. “Through AAdvantage Business, the travel manager now has all those functions in one self-serve package.”

According to Heath, trip credit management is a crucial feature, allowing companies to recover and reuse travel credits more efficiently by having the credit returned to the company rather than the original traveler. “It’s common knowledge that travelers change often for business travel,” she said. “We need to make that easy, so American is the only airline that returns trip credits directly to the business instead of the employee so the travel manager can choose who uses it in the future.”

With the ability for both company and individual travelers to earn rewards — incentivizing more efficient travel while enhancing the traveler experience — this holistic approach allows businesses to meet the demands of modern business travel, offering control over both cost and traveler satisfaction.

Enhancing the Travel Experience for Employees

While cost savings are crucial, and streamlined processes are highly prized, companies also recognize the importance of enhancing the underlying experience of a given trip for their employees. 

Put another way, in an always-competitive business environment, ensuring that workers in transit feel valued and comfortable fosters loyalty and drives retention.

Helping employees reach loyalty status more quickly makes a noticeable impact on their travel experience. Through the Loyalty Points that travelers earn as part of the program, they can easily achieve status and enjoy the associated benefits, such as priority boarding, complimentary upgrades, and access to the network of American Airlines and partner lounges. 

“These benefits don’t just make travel more comfortable; they create a better experience that increases traveler satisfaction,” Heath said.  

Real-World Benefits for Businesses

Some business owners elect to use miles not just for their employees’ business travel, but also as a form of employee recognition.

“The most rewarding aspect of my AAdvantage Business enrollment is undoubtedly the ability to transfer miles,” said Razzak Memon, founder, president, and CEO of R:BASE Technologies, Inc. “I relish the monthly opportunity to transfer miles to my top three employees. This small gesture allows them to enjoy their well-deserved time off by booking family trips or upgrading their itineraries using miles.”

In addition, as noted in Skift’s 2024 State of Travel report, travel businesses are recovering and seeing healthy margins, making cost-conscious programs like AAdvantage Business critical to maintaining profitability in an improving landscape.

Tracking the outcomes the program generates is an ongoing process, including metrics showing how companies and employees accumulate additional rewards and Loyalty Points. Those metrics, plus positive qualitative feedback, are adding up to a bright forecast. 

“We’re proud that we’ve heard great feedback on what we set out to do — create a simple program that is both rewarding for the business and the traveler,” Heath said.

As companies look for ways to stay competitive in today’s rapidly evolving business travel landscape, programs like AAdvantage Business are setting a standard for flexibility, cost savings through rewards, and traveler satisfaction.

For more information about the American Airlines AAdvantage Business program and to register for the program, click here.

This content was created collaboratively by American Airlines and Skift’s branded content studio, SkiftX.