Originally Posted by
JJeffrey
For sure, that's sort of what I was getting at above, even the rate desk agents that process these upgrades seem to have no clear set process or rules and just go with whatever they think or with what little training they've had; Sometimes they try to charge the YQ increase for the whole journey, sometimes just the upgraded segment, sometimes nothing at all, etc. etc. Complete crapshoot.
This has been my experience as well. in the care of
ryanbriar , I can imagine the Y-->J-->F causing an already incompetent process to absolutely break.
My most recent ( mid 2025) SWU on BA experience was interesting; I had shared/asked for opinions here. Cleared the SWU months before, but when I called for something unrelated, they told me I never paid YQ, which no one ever asked me to pay and my flight was ticketed. AA said my flight was invalid as I never paid the YQ (that they never asked for). BA didn't say a word and I flew event-free.
The weird part is that this continues to be so ridiculously variable when AA has supposedly clamped down extensively on the "whatever goes" GA era with SABRE. Of course, in classic AA fashion, they've neutered the good, while leaving the mess.