Change fee to up-fare to higher cabin?
 

Does AA enforce the change fee if the only change you make is to upgrade to a higher class of service? In other words, if you purchase a coach ticket, and then change it to a business or first class ticket on the exact same flights, do they waive the change fee? I know that Delta does in this circumstance.

I ask because my employer will only reimburse coach, but AA has some great F fares and I'd like to pay the difference out of pocket, but a $400 change fee sort of takes the appeal out of it ;)

Unfortunately, no, you have to pay the change fee.

Will your company allow you to add choice essential for $34 each way? It removes all change fees and you can use the entire credit (including the $34) towards a new ticket.

This was actually discussed a short time ago this evening
http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/ameri...challenge.html

Good idea, but this is an international ticket.

I was able to upfare (Y-J) on a flight to the Carribean last year without a fee, but it took some work (called 3 or 4 times until an agent was willing to waive the fee).

One can often find exceptions if one looks hard enough. But the rule, stupid as it is, is that one has to pay a change fee if one wants to give them more money. Unfortunately, the "I got an exception" stories don't really inform the main question all that well.

Cheers.

I have upfared without having to pay any fee a couple of times recently, but it has never been made easy; you have to plead your case to the agent.

I have done this four or five times, and everytime I have had success, however, it wasn't without some persistance. On one of the times, I had an agent note in my file that I had asked the question, she told me no, that a later agent saw, but ultimately waived the fee. So to answer your question, does AA enforce the rule, all depends on the agent you get.

If it's important enough to you where you can keep calling back if you don't get the answer you want, chances are you will get an agent who will waive it as a "one time favor."

EDIT: Apparently, it is in writing
Refer to post #!!

Actually, they do, but thanks for moderating.

Cheers.

Is it listed in the fare rules explicitly?

The FB posted a few months back where agents should look to find the waiver of the change fee on up cabin -- agents seem to be very surprised that this exists.

The policy can be found in file Ticket Change under Revenue Tickets and sub-category Date Change.

It reads as follows:
Effective December 19, 2012, AA will waive the ticket change charge if customer purchases into a higher cabin (business or first), regardless of booking inventory, on the same routing/same day. For example, no changes to origin/destination except the change to cabin/flight time is allowed with no ticket change charge. Customer would be responsible for paying the difference in fares. The non-refundable portion of the ticket remains non-refundable and would be handled internally by Refunds when necessary.

I've been able to upgrade award tickets with no fee.

That is interesting.

This was my experience as well, albeit for domestic tickets (I know the OP said it's an int'l itin). Sometimes the agents are unaware of this but this is now the rule. I believe it changed when change fees went away for all domestic F tickets.

I remember my GF needing to change a coach ticket which cost something like $450 and my figuring out that it was actually cheaper to upfare to F, which was about $565, then change for free, rather than pay another $150 only to stay in coach. Perhaps the best deal I've ever located ;).