That's a good idea. I'll try to retro-claim with Asiana and see what happens. My original economy ticket would have earned me 100% miles. In the past with other airlines, I've been upgraded to business class for free and still earned the original economy miles. What bothers me the most is that I paid for the upgrade and still got screwed out of my miles. Copa Airlines has the same type of upgrade program as Avianca. About a year ago, my offer to Copa was accepted and I still earned miles for my trip. I assumed Avianca operated the same way, but to be sure and I decided to call them. Looking back on it, you're probably right that she misunderstood my question.