If wintermom didn't have the extra 15K miles for the 35k Y award, then the $350 co-pay took the place of the price of the paid ticket minus the value of the 20k miles spent. It costs $375 to buy the 15K miles from AA. True miles can be obtained more cheaply through the CC bonus or MR's, but as there was only one award seat left, and as long as the paid ticket would have been $$$, then I don't think wintermom made a bad choice at all.

My point is that even though $350 vs. 15k miles is not a good deal, if you don't have the miles then that math doesn't quite apply.