Originally Posted by
SeattleDavid
I don't believe them at all - I upgrade W fares all the time and have never encountered any request for more than 15000 miles.
There are indeed different varieties of W fare - some refundable and some not - but the upgrade table does not distinguish between these, it simply distinguishes Discount PE in P and Full-fare PE in W.
I think that whatever they tell you on the phone you should ask them to request a check from the upgrade audit team - these are the folks who can return SWUs when the wrong one is used, and they can go back in time 18-24 months. I've never heard of this being done for Miles Upgrade, but the same principle should apply.
Will do. They've actually blocked my AAdvantage account now. According to CS in the UK call center (I'm still in Italy), AA had tried to charge the $350 copay and there was a problem with the CC on file, so rather than, say, sending an e-mail, they blocked the account. I used the CC on file two weeks ago to purchase a few sticker upgrades, and a week ago to pay the taxes on an award reservation, and according to the card company everything is fine. I'll have to try US-based CS when they come back online. It seems that when something goes wrong during your international travel, AA's first resort is to lock you out of your account.
Edited to add:
The supervisor at the US-based AAdvantage Customer Service was able to fix this. There should be no copay on upgrades to C from W, and only 15k miles each way, not 25k. It took some research on their end, but the final resolution is that the 25k transaction is being reversed, my account will be unlocked, and no copay is required. I did have to repeat "That's not what the published award chart states" a few times before being transferred to the supervisor. My travel plans were not affected; the upgrade for the return had already cleared and I'd checked in online this morning. It sounds like the W fare was (incorrectly?) flagged as 'discount' because the original economy fare was discount.