Originally Posted by
cedricgerald
If you gift them to a Friend and change your mind (because he's no longer your Friend) prior his flight can you legally take them back ?
"Legally" is a pretty powerful word. Is it even legal to trade systemwides, or sponsor someone for consideration, when the AA terms don't allow bartering? It gets you into a pretty tangled area when AA forbids it yet they are consistently dealt off in public (places like Craigs List) and we have a forum here where they're regularly traded.
You can cancel the upgrade request up to departure as they're being sponsored from your account - ownership of those upgrades does not change. The only risk you have from the AA side, aside from having your account closed, would be that coach could be sold out in a downgrade situation and they might not be able to assign a seat.