Thanks for your suggestion. If they let me do this, then I'm in business! But the one agent I asked said he didn't think this was possible. He was the one who recommended that I book a refundable flight because he thought it would extend the expiry once cancelled. I will try again with another agent. I'm just not confident that it will work... The policy does exist in writing in the depths of the AA site, and it seems that they will likely say the system won't allow it. If it doesn't work, I have to try something else.

The plan is to fly somewhere in May, and try to use up a piece of this expensive domestic AA ticket. I cancelled several months in advance, and as this was a sold-out flight 6 months before takeoff, they happily re-sold my ticket. So I don't think I am doing anything wrong by trying to get this thing used up one way or the other, especially when the AA agent encouraged trying everything to do so. With that goal in mind, I'm soliciting opinions on how to get the ball rolling on this.

I don't have a specific flight I want to travel on at the moment, but I've narrowed it down to a few options and I'll know soon. This information is not relevant (yet) if I have to use one of the above options and book a dummy reservation first. In this case, I have to get the credit extended before I can book my real flight.

But I'll call in this week with a hypothetical flight past the expiry and see what they say about just straight booking it. Because that would be ideal.