Got a biz class award ticket from BOS to Europe. No probs on outbound flight but plenty of problems with inbound portion or as soon as Finnair took charge of things.

My return portion was to start from HEL on 20th at around 7am with a flight to CDG connecting to AA flight to BOS.

The problem lies with the 20 minute connecting flight that I had to take to HEL to connect to my Paris flight and which was not an award but a full fare 'Y' flight. On the ticket it said that I had to check in 35 minutes prior to the flight which left at 6.20am. When I arrived at the airport at 5.40 there was an unexpected substantial queue at biz check-in counter. Reached the counter at 6am, agent looks at the ticket and starts the check-in. Then I ask if I could check my luggage in all the way through to Boston, agent stops, looks at my onward tickets and says "Oh, an award flight...". Then he says that the flight is closed and I better go to the ticket counter and find an alternative flight.

To cut the long story short, I ended up taking the ferry to HEL and missing my flight to Paris and Boston. Finnair made me buy a full fare $1500 one way ticket to JFK and from there a Delta coach flight to BOS. The flight to JFK in the front cabin was half-empty, so I doubt that there were any issues with award seating.

AA has offered me to refund 40,000 miles but I'd rather get my $1500 back. Any suggestions apart from taking the miles and be happy?