I got all that. I've upfare'd many itineraries booked through a travel agent over the past two years, and this is the first time I was charged this fee. Amex will refund the $50.00, so I'm more curious what the official policy is on charging this fee for upfares.

Also, can a travel agent do an upfare?

Why will American Express refund the fee? I thought that the waiver of fee when upgrading is available for travel agents

My Amex Platinum comes with $200 per year in airline fee credits.

Oh, so it isn't refunding it, you are just using some of your airline credit to cover the cost

How does upfaring work if AA is now selling domestic first (fare code I) for less than was paid for an economy ticket (fare code M)?

Call and try. You might get a voucher for the fare difference (assuming a non-refundable tix), or you might get to upgrade for effectively free. Its worth a shot.

Just got of the phone with reservations. He initially tried to charge me the $200 change fee in addition to the fare difference for Econ > First. I asked him to check with the fare desk, as upfares should not carry a change fee. He then corrected himself on the premise that since I had bought the ticket within 24 hours, that no change fee should apply. Seemed kind of bass-ackwards, but I got what I wanted in the end. Would have HUCA if he didnt wave it, per all the DP's here. Stay vigilant FT!!

Self Upgrading after buying main cabin ticket (Upfaring, to merge)
 

Hi - I'm wondering if I have an option with AA to buy a main cabin ticket on my corporate account then upgrade at my own expense by paying the difference in fare? Sort of like the BA POUG system. I'm looking to generate BAEC Tier Points from a PHL to BOS flight, but I want to expense the economy fare. I'm self booking, no problems with TA etc.

You should be able to. After you book the ticket call the reservations line and ask them to pay the fare difference.

Yes, have them reference "sell up" to make sure they don't try and charge change fee:

The colloqialism on FT is usually "upfaring" (but see the edit below) and consists of paying the fare difference. In my experience the change fee is waived as well, though I'm not 100% sure if AA internal policy requires it. You should have no problems doing so.

Edit: Thanks to JonNYC for finding the relevant documents, and correcting my term - you want "sell up."

"Self-upgrading" is often used to refer to someone who buys a Y seat and then decides to sit in a higher class of service on their own prerogative. As that's not you, best of luck with your TP collection.

Thanks all - yes, if I'd thought about it I wouldn't have used the term self upgrading :/

I'll give it a go when I book anyway.

Just out of curiosity, when you say self-booking do you mean you're buying it through AA instead of online with a tool from a corporate travel agency? The reason I ask is that if anyone but AA issues the ticket, they do (rightly) charge $50 (last time I did it) to take control of the ticket and reissue another agency's ticket. For the most part they make it pretty painless and keep the corporate contract/discount (to your benefit), but that's one case where there is a fee to doing a personal upfare of a company ticket, so I just thought I'd add that.

I'm buying it direct from AA.COM. We do use a corporate TA but for the level of fare involved here - about $65 - it adds a major % to the cost so it's not worthwhile so I book direct.

Thanks for the advice everyone, I appreciate it.

Absolutely. You can modify your own ticket out of pocket after your company paid the base fare. I do this all the time on airlines I am not a frequent flier on if they are not part of an alliance I belong to.