When I called the agent offered to waive the fee but after I agreed to $319 upcharge to change it to First (he said Business; it's a domestic route) he had to put me on hold to get someone to OK the waiver of the change fee. He originally didn't seem to know what I meant by "buy up to First Class from Coach"; he thought I wanted to use miles..I had bought a First Class ticket for my wife on the same flights over the weekend and I didn't expect my requested upgrade with 500-milers was going to clear; the current F fare was about $75 less than what I had paid to buy her F ticket.. And now after my F reservation was ticketed it has jumped $150 for F on those flights.

Glad it worked out...the above is why you should just say "Upfare." It's an actual term/re-ticketing process that means something to them with respect to SABRE.

If you want to "upfare" and pay for an upgrade on only one segment of a 2-segment trip, is the minimum upfare charge equal to the fare difference between first class and coach on both segments of the trip?

I have a 2-segment trip coming up soon.
On the first segment, it's a coach ticket, and I am in coach. The price for that segment (if booked one-way) is about $150, but first class is about $230.
On the second segment, it's a coach ticket, and I've already been upgraded (due to being elite or whatever). The price for both segments together is about $250, but first class on both segments together is $450.

So I need to upfare/upgrade only the first segment.

I called AA to upfare/upgrade, but was going to be charged the fare difference for both segments, even though I only needed to upgrade/upfare one of them.

Is this the correct outcome? Seems like AA would sell fewer upfares/upgrades that way, although the number of lost sales might be smaller than the hassle of the IT changes needed to process upfares for 1 segment only on a 2+ segment trip.

I called today to upfare from basic economy to premium economy. The agent told me I had to pay the change fee. I asked if there was a way to waive the change fee since it was the same flight and she said no.

I did not use the word "upfare" so maybe that was the issue. My flight is not for a few days so I will keep trying.

Update: Called back and a different agent was able to get us in Premium Economy for only the difference in fare (and no change fee). I used "upfare" this time and it seems to have worked.

Interesting, I thought BE was no changes, period.

Nope. That's what this entire thread is about...

Was that in reply to me? If so, I know what the thread is about, but I thought the whole point of BE is that there were no changes/cancelations/upgrades for any amount of money.

Purchased a ticket via my company's Concur portal and called AA to request an upfare but was told that only my company could make this change. I specifically mentioned upfare since she originally thought I was requesting an upgrade. Any tips or should I HUCA?

I actually just did this not too long ago. Call "meeting services" (at least that's what the phone agent said it was called) and ask them. They should be able to make the change for you.

Their number is 1-800-433-1790

Funny enough, it was cheaper to buy into first than to buy the 500-mile upgrades for the flights in question.

It took over 10 minutes but they were able to do it after charging the difference in fare and $50 fee for handling an external reservation. I booked two one-way flts and wonder if I would have only had to pay the $50 fee once if it had been round trip. Thank you so much gradboozer! You've made my life as LT GLD better much better on work trips.

I wasn't charged any extra fee other than the difference in fare. Not sure if it has to do with which travel agency your Concur portal uses? PLT line is the one who sent me to meeting services and the meeting services agent is the one who gave me the phone number to do these changes again in the future.

Any time I call the travel agency linked to our Concur setup they want to charge a fee but not the other way around.

CHANGE FEE when Buying UP in Fare Class
 

Does this sound right? Used our corporate booking agency with company policy coach seat. Immediately called AA to use cash to then pay the fare difference to upgrade to first class ($199) to which agent then says there is a CHANGE FEE of $200 on top of that???????????? Really I said even though I'm paying into a higher fare class? She said unless I was concierge key or Exec Platinum there was a change fee. For sure Delta hasn't done this to me ever, nor has Alaska!

As long as it is the same flight then there is no changed fee to upfare. HUACA. If you want to upfare to F and also change flights then they will charge you the change fee.