Continue to earn American AAdvantage Miles for business travel with Concur Travel and TripLink maintaining managed travel programs and traveler satisfaction

American Airlines announced on February 20, 2024, it will change eligibility on how customers earn miles and loyalty points for corporate tickets issued, starting on July 11, 2024.  The good news is that SAP Concur travelers and travel managers can rest assured they can configure their Concur Travel instance and/or leverage Concur TripLink to maintain travel program efficacy and visibility while earning American AAdvantage Miles.

There are two ways to enable American content directly in Concur Travel that will allow travelers to continue to get their points.  Today, customers using Sabre at the U.S. point of sale can enable the Evolution of Travel module and its modern display, which, in addition to many other benefits, also supports American’s direct booking platform via the Sabre NDC Global Distribution Systems (GDS) and their modern retailing solution that has been live since October 2023.

Concur Travel customers can also gain access to American’s direct booking platform via Concur Select Access, which has been available to all Concur Travel customers since 2021.  Travel managers can find out more about how to enable this functionality by visiting the Explore American website.  Customers who utilize the Amadeus GDS will be able to switch from Select Access to enable NDCX in Amadeus when released in Q2 2024.

In both approaches, customers will need to have their AA corporate discount loaded in Concur Travel, or have signed up for an AAdvantage Business account.

While booking on AA.com and the American Airlines mobile app, Concur TripLink provides SAP Concur customers with the ability to find all the best fares American offers, obtain corporate negotiated fares, earn miles, and remain in policy. With Concur TripLink, American itineraries booked through American’s website flow into the SAP Concur ecosystem, automatically flowing into Concur Expense and also ensuring that the company has the ability to administer policy and honor their duty of care obligations.  To find out more about Concur TripLink, visit www.concur.com/triplink, or talk to an SAP Concur Salesperson or your SAP Concur account executive.  It’s easy to sign up and start using Concur TripLink right away.  Companies that already have Concur TripLink should encourage their users to connect their AA accounts in Concur by visiting the Concur TripLink Hub in Concur.

“SAP Concur has been ahead of the game in helping our customers prepare for airline full content by developing a multi-channel approach through our industry leading Concur Travel platform,” said Charlie Sultan, President of Concur Travel. “Fortunately, Concur Travel has a long history of solving industry challenges such as this, and we will continue to create solutions to ensure that our corporate customers can access a supplier’s full content, lowest fares and all of their benefits, while giving the corporation the controls and data they need to effectively manage their programs.”