I do not understand what's flawed in the premise. If you pay F and you are involuntarily reaccommodated in J, you're not going to ask for the difference in cost? Of course, if you pay for J and AA involuntarily reaccomodates you in F no additional payment is due. That's common sense. Similar logic here -- you are going from a more expensive option (BA) to a cheaper one (AA) and the difference in cost is due.

I think this is also a good test case with the DOT about the application of YQ in general onto the FREE awards and AA's ability to charge for them. I finally found some of the original information from when I signed up for AAdvantage, and it's inequivocabile that the awards are supposed to be free; there was never any communications about a change in the program requiring co-pays in the form of YQ, which BA calls fuel surcharges on its site.