It is always smart to do the research in advance. To agents, those places are just 3-letter codes.

If you propose something, you are more likely to get it than if you ask what the carrier proposes to do. Rarely, if ever, will the carrier's proposal be what you really want. And, then you are fighting a rearguard action.

BA need not acommodate your whim, but if what you want is doable, there is no reason you won't have it.