Still trying to sort it out. I suppose that AA's call centers are not well staffed on Sundays.
First of all I must state that this is part of one of those mistake fares out of RGN. So I'm not sure whether some red light starts flashing whenever I call! However, I finally found an agent that was willing to change my ORD-MIA onto an earlier flight but she wanted to take me off my NRT-ORD since she said that both legs were coupled. I refused since I have been wanting to try the JALsuites on their 777s. So, I was put on hold again... only to have the phone line go dead after 45 minutes on the phone!!
Will try again tomorrow.... (btw. will only have carry on luggage)