Originally Posted by
AAdamE
Called AA, they said there is no inventory on the following flight, AA2193. Yet I can see the first class cabin has all 16 seats available. I get that seat availability and inventory are not the same but the cabin is completely open, not one of 16 seats are taken... They said there is no way to even pay for first class, and to call back in a few days as inventory changes.
Just look on the website and see what the price of buying a first class ticket on the flight you're already booked on. If nothing is showing up for sale on the website, the agent probably isn't going to be able to do anything either. If there is availability, as
Dave Noble says you should just be able to pay the fare difference with no change fee. That's likely a better deal than miles+copay.
If all else fails, you can waitlist your upgrade request. I don't fly this route enough to say what your odds would be of clearing the waitlist.
Looking back, you probably should have just cancelled your ticket right away when the upgrade inventory you expected wasn't there. That way you'd be able to explore other options without having to worry about being locked into a nonrefundable ticket on a specific flight. That obviously doesn't help you at this point, but is hopefully useful for next time.