Plato90s and benoit, could you point me in the direction of the rules, if there are any, regarding this issue since your actual experience has been so different from what AA is telling me.

I very recently attempted to change an F award DFW-LAX-HKG (no stopovers) to DFW-YVR-HKG on the same date. Two different agents said it would cost $100. When I took up the matter of free changes the second agent said the rules were clear that time and date changes ONLY were free. All other changes would incur a fee. She said changing the gateway city was not a date and time change but a routing change and was not exempt.

I certainly like your interpretation better than what AA is telling me and would like to try one more time. But it would be nice to have a little ammunition to bolster the argument that routing changes are free as long as the destination does not change as has been your experience.

They certainly may have been wrong but the agents I talked with were not going to allow me to change without collecting $100.

Is it possible the rules have changed with the arrival of the "simplified" awards?