Originally Posted by
TravelerMSY
Contact customer service and ask for a refund. Be sure to mention that you did not accept a voluntary downgrade.
Whether the downgrade was voluntary or not seems irrelevant-- the terms I linked to in my post above indicate that the customer would be due a refund for the unused DODU because it was due to a missed connection. This is not an ambiguous situation. The OP can and should simply ask AA for a refund-- no details needed other than missed connection caused the OP not to be able to use the upgrade.