Why would a reissue fee not be applicable to a reissue?

Dave

Correct. Once I used a VIP to upgrade to F NRT-ORD, flew a bunch of segments in NA, and then used the same VIP six months later to upgrade BOS-LHR.

An xONEx reissue is presumably what happens when the passenger wants to change routing and it presumably is worth $125 because the rate desk has to scratch their non-computerized collective heads for a long time to calculate the price of the new ticket. That didn't sound like what needed to be done in this case.

I expected AA to charge a fee nonetheless because one time they wanted $125 - which they assured me was NOT a reissue free - because I wanted to fly LAX-LHR on AA instead of BA, and I was holding an ONE coupon on BA stock that had a BA flight number written on it. Fortunately this was at LAX so I simply walked next door to the BA ticket counter (imagine that - a real ticket counter!) who politely stickered the coupon.

Regardless of whether you take the opportunity to make any other changes, if they have to reissue a ticket, then the reissue fee applies. The $125 is an amount that they have decided to charge ( plus in some cases service fees on top of that )

Dave