American Airlines’ Radical Plan to Reinvent Business Travel

American Airlines is betting against the traditional business of business travel.

Gone are the days when bankers and consultants spent Monday through Thursday on the road, dutifully booking trips through clunky company portals. More than three years after the pandemic began, business travelers are taking some meetings at home and mixing work and leisure travel in new ways. 

Once some of airlines’ most profitable customers, the typical road warrior “just went away,” said Vasu Raja, American’s chief commercial officer.

That’s left American rethinking the contracts that have long dictated employees’ travel choices—and accounted...