A friend of mine with EXP is giving me some of her eVIP upgrades for my honeymoon coming up in November.

Between what the EXP desk told her and what the PLT desk told me, I don't know how to actually book my flight so she can transfer the upgrade.

EXP desk told her that I should book on my own, and then my friend should call the EXP desk with my PNR # to have the upgrade applied to my ticket. They further advised that I call in to make the initial booking to make sure there was sufficient inventory that the upgrades would actually clear.

I called the PLT desk to book today and they told me I needed my friend's AAdvantage number to book it, and they would automatically pull the upgrades from her account.

Who's correct here?

If the what the EXP desk told her is is correct, can I just grab an ExpertFlyer free trial account and look at the inventories for myself, then place the reservation and have my friend call in the upgrade? What inventory do the eVIPs book into?