I had a similar experience trying to upgrade an unattached 7N Cat 1-5 cert from a travel package to a Cat 9 to attach to a future reservation. Called late in the evening ET and after 10 min of hold, got an agent who insisted (after going back on hold to "check something") that the upgrade required 165k points, not 120k points. That's what she claimed the system required and it applied to any 7N cert upgrade to Cat 9, regardless of the original category of the certificate, which obviously makes no sense. After it was clear this agent had no idea what she was talking about, I hung up and called back the next day in the middle of the day. Got some agent who seemed experienced who put me on hold for 40 min while she processed the upgrade for 120k points and attached to my reservation. In the past, I seem to recall the cert upgrade only taking a few minutes.