Hi everyone -

I have a somewhat urgent problem that I need help with, and I was hoping I might take advantage of your experience on the boards to find someone with the ability to assist. I'm on the phone with an agent now (I believe she's an EXP agent because she said my name when I called - I hung up twice before I got that to happen). This is my situation:

I have two tickets with this EXACT same scenario (one to Russia/one to India) that I believed I'd purchased this weekend. Each of the two trips (Russia and India) is currently on one RECLOC (total of 2 RECLOCs). I was just waiting for the tickets to process, but then I received an email from AA today to call re: one of the RECLOC. Here is the situation:

1. I purchased a RT coach ticket LAX/LHR on AA (both metal and ops - NO codeshare)
2. I booked additional flts leaving from LHR to my final destination and back to LHR on my return date using full mileage awards on OW partners
3. My flights for my RT LAX/LHR coach tickets had SWU space available so my upgrades were confirmed when I spoke with the agents who helped me (TWO separate agents - one for Russia trip - one for India trip)

The agents I spoke to tonite are telling me they since my SWUs were processed on the purchased fare before they ticketed the entire trip (including the mileage awards) on the same RECLOC, the ticket cannot be processed and they are giving me two choices:

A. Split the purchased RT LAX/LHR ticket into a separate RECLOC from the award travel (so I would have two separate RECLOCs for EACH trip - 4 in total) OR
B. Release my SWUs (and risk losing them - their words - not mine) until the purchased LAX/LHR trip can be ticketed in coach WITH the award travel (no estimate on how long that will take) and then IF the SWUs are still available, process the upgrades.

I don't want to split my RECLOCs in case of travel disruptions, baggage checking, etc. (I know they are SUPPOSED to treat me as a through passenger, but I really want to avoid the risk all together of checking in St. Petersburg and being told I have to claim and re-check luggage at LHR in order to get home.) I can complicate this story further by saying I already have a separate ticket from St. Petersburg to Helsinki because no award ticket was available to support my time requirements, and splitting the Record would result in THREE separate reservations to get home - but perhaps it's best to ignore that for now...



(I've been on the phone with the agent for about 45 mins and she just told me she has an idea and is going to call me back in about 20 mins.)

I expressed my dissatisfaction with both of the options presented to me. I said that SOMEONE at AA controls the SWU availability, and if the solution is to release the SWUs while the award travel is ticketed with the coach fare, then that SOMEONE should be able to protect my SWUs from another person grabbing them in the meantime.

Can any of you offer suggestions on how to proceed? (I am keeping in mind the possibility that she may be working it successfully, but I am trying to cover all bases.)

Thank you in advance for your help.

EDIT - She just called back and said she thinks she can try to process TWO tickets on one PNR (i.e RECLOC), however, now we're having trouble with the taxes...