I was told that once your credits are conferred into a degree, and you enroll at another school to earn a higher level degree, they look at those credits "as a block" and not as individual credits. This doesn't seem right....

Example: If I confer an associates degree with university X, and then enroll at TESC or EC for my bachelors, but my associates degree included 18 upper level credits, can I get those upper level credits to count towards my UL requirements for my Bachelors, and just test out of LL credits to fill in the gaps ensuring I have enough credits total for the BA? OR will the Associates degree count for only LL, no matter what classes were taken?

I have seen this used as an advantage more than a disadvantage- but I guess it depends on the college.
For example, my culinary students earn an associates of applied science degree in culinary arts. The "problem" with their degree, is that they only earn 15 gen ed classes. The remaining are specific culinary courses. To go into a bachelor program- for say business- generally, would mean only a hand full of courses courses would transfer AND they would have a boat load of pre-reqs. Enter Kaplan College. They accept any associates degree as a "block" like in your example. (pre reqs still required) but they award 60 credits.
My husband's college (New England Culinary) did the same thing- he needed an associates degree for admission, and it didn't matter the distribution.
I could give you at least 3 more examples. In all of my examples, however, these are what I would call programs non-traditional. As to a simple AA to BA....that's a good question.
If I had to roll the dice, I would wager heavily that TESC will break up your associates and redistribute credits according to the bachelor degree plan you are in. I would also guess that your upper level/lower level assignments will be rearranged beyond recognition because they will put classes in their own levels. Intro classes will certainly stay at 100 level, but anything else is up for grabs.

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Jennifer
ALM, Psychology, Harvard University, in progress
AA & BA, Social Sciences, Thomas Edison State College, 2008
AOS, Culinary Arts, Culinary Institute of America, 1990

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I would like to confer an AS degree, however I don't want to do it if it will make more work towards my Bachelors at TESC or EC.....