Which AWS Support category gets faster response on Basic (free) plan for a cross-account CloudFront CNAME conflict?

Question

I'm on the Basic (free) support plan and have a legitimate cross account  CloudFront CNAME conflict that I can't resolve myself. Hoping someone who has navigated AWS Support categories successfully can point me toward the right one, since I know Basic plan cases can otherwise sit for weeks.

The issue: I own and registered my domain through Route 53 (verified in my  account under Registered Domains). When I try to add it as an Alternate Domain Name on my own CloudFront distribution, I get:

"One or more of the CNAMEs you provided are already associated with a different resource." (Error Code: CNAMEAlreadyExists)

I confirmed via the CLI that the conflicting distribution belongs to a different AWS account (masked Distribution ID and Account ID in the response), almost certainly a leftover from a previous owner of this domain:

aws cloudfront list-conflicting-aliases --distribution-id E216BHMAGKK3FV --alias mydomain.example

{
    "ConflictingAliasesList": {
        "MaxItems": 100,
        "Quantity": 1,
        "Items": [
            {
                "Alias": "mydomain.example",
                "DistributionId": "******9XRUJLU",
                "AccountId": "******171576"
            }
        ]
    }
}

I also confirmed via openssl that the domain is currently serving someone else's expired ACM cert (issued by Amazon, expired 8/4/2024), clearly a stale, abandoned resource, not something I'm misconfiguring on my end.

I know this needs AWS Support to release the CNAME on their side since I have no access to the other account.

When creating the case, "General question" was the only severity option available to me on the Basic plan, and the closest category I could find was "Domain registration issue" even though this isn't really a registration

re:Post Agent · Answer

On the Basic (free) support plan, you unfortunately won't get faster response times regardless of which category you select. The Basic plan provides access to customer service and communities for account and billing questions only, with 24-hour response times for those specific topics. Technical support questions, including issues like cross-account CloudFront CNAME conflicts, are not covered under the Basic plan.

For your specific situation—where you need AWS to intervene and release a CNAME that's associated with another account's CloudFront distribution—you would need at least a Developer support plan or higher to receive technical support. The Developer plan provides business hours access to Cloud Support Associates with response times starting at 12-24 hours depending on severity.

If upgrading your support plan isn't immediately feasible, you can try posting in the AWS re:Post community (the public AWS forum) where AWS employees and community experts sometimes provide guidance, though this doesn't guarantee resolution of issues requiring internal AWS action.

For cases that require AWS to take action on resources in other accounts (like releasing a CNAME), having a paid support plan is really the most reliable path forward, as these situations typically require verification of domain ownership and coordination between AWS teams that Basic plan support doesn't cover.

I'd recommend reviewing your AWS Support plan options at the AWS Support Center to determine if upgrading would be worthwhile for resolving this issue and any future technical needs.

Which AWS Support category gets faster response on Basic (free) plan for a cross-account CloudFront CNAME conflict?

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