Originally Posted by
TheFlyGuy2
Hello,
I purchased a ticket on AA to Denver a while back, and called reservations this evening to see if upgrades were available using miles for my flight tomorrow. The agent confirmed that there were upgrades available. I agreed to use 15,000 miles plus pay the $75 Award Co-Payment. But, to my surprise, after reading the email confirmation, I was also charged a $75 award processing fee, which the agent did not inform me of.
Is this normal? She said my ticket was re-issued, but I thought that was standard procedure. I'm thinking I should not have been charged the additional $75. I browsed the AA website and could not find conclusive information. Any help would be appreciated!
Thanks!
It used to be called an "expedite fee." It is a legacy fee from back in the days when the AAdvantage Department issued paper certificates by mail which you then brought to the airport to redeem. Because it took some time to process these certificates, if you needed to use them within 21 days, you would have to pay extra to "expedite" the issuance process.
Of course, nowadays, all AAdvantage certificates are electronic. But, AA decided to leave the fee in place, and give it a different name....."award fee" or "processing fee."
Every bit of revenue helps! There is one way to avoid the fee: become Executive Platinum. EXPs are exempt from the expedite fees.