i cross post this from the US forum, since the issue is regarding fare rules as well
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my corporate agent issued me this ticket for BOS-LAX-PHL-BOS (our policy for this trip is full fare + upgrade since it is not client travel).
the ticket comes in 2 portions (included taxes) $2470 on AA BOS-LAX-ORD(x)-PHL; $472 on US PHL-BOS. I would upgrade AA portion with purchased e-upgrade cert and US is comp upgrade since it is full fare Y. so the total cost is $2942 + 320 (AA upg cert for PLt mmember: 10 certs, bos-lax, lax-phl) = $3262 which i think is extremely expensive for a Y tkt.
here are the questions:
couldn't i just do this with ONE IATA full Y ticket? could this just eliminate the $470? (or my tkt is not full Y?)
what the agent told me is you can only upgrade US if it is full Y (issued with US?). I am a US GOLD DivM member, i thought they said preferred member could upgrade with some restricted Y tkt. wouldn't a $2400 tkt already be some sort of Y?

how much does a FULL IATA Y ticket cost for BOS-LAX RT? i search most site they never quote higher than $2500.

the company pays for the ticket anyway. but i am interested in the mechanism and also don't think that kind of pricing is usual.

appreciate your comments.
(i recently relocated back to US and am not too familiar with the rules here)
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I think US has certain tix called "A4Y" or something like that, that allow you to upgrade based upon requirements
1. only certain city pairs qualify
2. inventory limitations

you don't have to be preferred or anything to buy these. This has nothing to do with upgrading using certs or miles, and they are confirmed when you purchase the ticket.

It may be the routing that you want does not qualify for this fare type?

so it is the city-pair which forces the separet purchase of ticket?

the city pairs would be BOS and LAX if you don't care about where your connections are in between. In this case I don't understand such an expensive ticket.