Typically alaska airlines award flights are fully refundable (in that the miles get redposited and the $5.60 back to credit card).

What if on such an award flight (alaska miles, alaska metal, simple domestic one-way) you pay the $50 or so for the premium class seat. What's the policy about that money?

I had such an award flight I wanted to cancel and wasn't able to do this online, and the agent got a system error putting the $50 money back in my wallet, and then "made an exception" to refund me the money. This worked out but what is the actual policy so I don't need to hope for exceptions in the future. And can this be done online in any way (changes/cancel to an award ticket for which you paid premium class in cash)