No, the guy wasn't unfriendly, but he was pretty determined to get his $35. Actually, I am flying MSP-IAH-LGW on a Y fare. MSP-IAH was supposed to upgrade for free since I am NW elite (and eventually was upgraded to AU). Upgrading the long-haul using NW miles was not an option since we were already in waitlist mode. So my friend ponied up 20k of his miles to get me on the waitlist.

When I called to de-waitlist, I was initially told that the 20k miles only covered the IAH-LGW segments (which I didn't know and was surprised to hear, but didn't care since I figured that my domestic segs were fine. But later this same guy told me that if he de-waitlisted me, that that would punt me to the back of the plane on the domestic and international segments.

I asked him, didn't you just tell me that the 20k only upgrades the international flights? To which he said yes, but pulling will un-upgrade all flights. I asked how that made sense esp since the Y fare guarantees an upgrade on the domestic segments, and he just basically kept saying the same thing.

I'm not that big, so Y on all flights was not a big deal. But luckily, once the upgrade was de-waitlisted, I was still in F on the short-hauls.

Same questions apply though -- did I pay the $35 mistakenly? is there a way to prove that I wasn't supposed to pay the $35? and can I get the $35 back or should I just kiss it (like my BF seat) goodbye?

thanks (yet) again!