Originally Posted by vballny23

I took your advice and called and got incredibly lucky with my agent. Told her I was booked for 4 seats in Economy Y at 27,500 miles, but saw AA released 4 Business Saaver seats for 25,000 miles. She looked, saw the inventory, and then said typically there is a $150 fee to reinstate miles and rebook, but since I am upgrading to business (despite going to from Y fare to U fare), she will have them waive the fee.

So, not only was there no close-in booking fee of $75/ticket, but she waived the $150+ to reinstate miles fee. Clearly, this is opposite of what most people reported was going to/should have happened, so as always, YMMV.

The kicker is when i booked the 4 tickets in Feb16, the taxes and fees came to $276. For some reason, the new ticket fees came to $205, so I managed to get a refund of $70 to boot.

All in all, I am incredibly pleased (and surprised) with outcome.

Thanks all!!!