I'm not sure I understand the distinction? The net result was the same. The cost of my First ticket was the same had I purchased it on aa.com - i.e. the price of the economy fare via Expedia plus the $155 that I paid on my personal CC was the same as the published first class fare on aa.com for the same flights. It wasn't an in-app upgrade which, incidentally, also sees the booking also move into J and, for the few times I have done it, credits my BAEC correctly with the Tier Points and Avios for the higher cabin.

Then I think you've gotten lucky as, if you were crediting to AA, you would not get LPs for an upgrade but would for an upfare. My understanding is all in-app "upgrades" are actually upgrades and not upfares, even if the cost to upgrade is the differential between Y and F.

For people crediting to BA, upgrades always used to credit at the full J rate which was pretty sweet. However now that BA has moved to a revenue based program for Avios earning, I would expect upgrades to stop earning any additional Avios at all. They should still earn Tier Points for the upgraded flight.

The only other trouble I've had with upgrades vs upfares is during irrops. The automatic re-booking function seems to keep you in J after an upfare which is good, but AA staff see your ticket as being in Y. I had to push hard at the AC for a rebooking into J.

Your initial reply said you were "offered an upgrade to First for $150 round trip", but then you said in your next reply that it wasn't an in-app upgrade. How was the offer presented to you? Did you get LP's based on your original fare + the $150 upgrade offer you paid for?

He didn't get any LPs at all as he was crediting to BA. And as pointed out by a previous response, even for those crediting to BA, is no longer any such thing as getting Avios for a "higher fare class" since Avios are now based on fare, and an upgrade doesn't change the fare (but an upfare does).

To the OP: all the other advice here is good but note that the $50 charge to take over the ticket from a TA is waived if you are EXP.

So just to add some colour to my previous post...

The upgrade offer was presented on aa.com when I logged into my booking, I don't know whether I'd have been shown the same offer in the AA app - I didn't check as I was working on my notebook and it didn't seem necessary. For $64.50 one way and $94.00 the other it seemed like a good deal and so I stumped up the cash. The receipt I received from AA stated "Paid Upgrade" and it was $60.00 airfare and $4.50 taxes for one segment, and $87.44 and $6.56 respectively for the other. This was before the BA changes to Avios earnings kicked in, so I earned 40 TPs and 1750 Avios for each flight.

Had it been under the new rules then the original base fare for the coach ticket was $272.20 and the upgrade fare component was $151.44 so that totals $423.64 which is what BA would have used to calculate the Avios. Using Oanda for the exchange rate (as opposed to the IATA one as I can't be bothered looking it up) that gives roughly GBP 346 so multiply that by 9 (as I am a GCH) gets you 3118 Avios. So under the new rules of the game I'd have been 382 Avios short compared to the old system.

In terms of whether I have been "lucky" or not and how this would have impacted me if I was crediting to AA, well, I can't comment as I was crediting to BA and I got the TPs for the upgraded cabin.

In terms of the OP's initial question and based on a fair number of flights I have taken my experience has been that accepting the in-app offer or the website offer leads to the booking code moving to J and - so far as it applies to the BAEC - crediting Tier Points at the rate applicable to the higher cabin. As is often the case on here YMMV.

Is that written anywhere? I’ve always been asked to pay it and I’ve been EXP for many years.

AFAIK it's unwritten but I've always read here that it's waived for EXP. I think I've only had to do it once... I don't quite remember the details but I know I didn't pay it. Maybe others with more experience can chime in here.

Has anyone been able to have AA take over a CTA issued ticket recently?

I had a couple where AA Meeting Services told me that it was no longer permitted post-Covid.

I frequently upfare tickets booked using our CTA by calling in to AA, and I have never had to pay the $50 charge to upfare (which is fortunate since our CTA simply won’t do it). I have never seen anything written or stated that being EXP is what gets the fee waived; I was under the impression (mainly from FT posts) that it depended more on the relationship between the particular CTA and AA. I recall never having to pay a $50 fee when I was PLAT but that was many years ago.

I've been charged several times as an EP. It shows on the receipts AA sends. I also asked Customer Service about it, and they indicated there's no waiver and to use my CTA if I want to avoid the $50 charge. It seems to be agent-by-agent, which isn't unusual.

Booked on a flight to KIN next month and want to upgrade from Economy to First/Business.

Called in to upgrade using miles and got transferred to another desk and was eventually told they could not upgrade with miles because it was a corporate ticket. I have never heard this before.

I checked EF for AA 1400 on the day I am leaving and the current line availability is C4 J6 R1 D3 I0 Y7 B7 H7 K7 M7 L7 G7 V7 S0 N0 Q0 O0

Should I HUCA or is this correct? I'm going to have to pay hundreds more to upgrade if I go the cash route, otherwise take my chances with the complimentary upgrade. I'm currently AA Platinum Pro.

I've had some success by applying a SWU first, which forces AA to take over and re-ticket, and then making the change. But this has somewhat limited applications due to SWU space being quite limited.

that seems silly, definitely HUCA, not even an upfare, should be similar process to applying swu which ive done on many corp rickets recently

So I HUCA and the new answer is it is not available, but I provided a credit card number and now I am "on the waitlist" whatever that means.