Bourne, I've applied your teachings:

Lesson No. 1

Found a fare on the AA website. ($208 - 11/9–11/11 on AA1010 LGB–DFW-JFK - AA105 JFK-DFW-LGB) It’s a webfare but, to see a valid routing example, I went to Expedia, found the exact same flight, at $70 more, went down and clicked on “See an overview of all the rules and restrictions applicable for this fare.” Clicked on the link, then, I went down to the very bottom and this is what it showed:

PFCS MAY VARY BY RTG
ROUTING
521 *** TRAVEL MUST BE VIA DFW ***
521 FROM-TO LGB-AA-DFW-AA-NYC*

Of course, I get “must be via DFW,” but I didn’t get the second line, like if that meant it was the only routing allowed or what. So, I called the AA 800 no. For other reasons, I got transferred to AA.com, their website cust svc, and I asked the guy there, besides having to go through DFW, what was the allowed routing? I think I said it wrong because he hesitated, but this is what he finally told me:

National, Chicago, Dallas, St.Louis and Washington

And, I didn’t know if I would need it but I got some addt’l info:

Fare Basis: LB14WEBN

AA Website Seg Booking Max: 8 (only 4 boxes but some segs will have connections within them)

Seg Tax: $11 (4 segs 2.75 ea)

Airport Facility Charge $9 ($3 DFW - $3 JFK – $3 DFW) (ORD is the worst – every airport does their own thing, for ex: JFK only charges on in or out)

Anyway, this is where I get stopped. Couldn’t find the timetable I am supposed to pick on Expedia. Will go to the airlines website to check for a timetable and post how far my neophyte brain takes me from there.

Um, could I have just asked the AA guy to give me a routing with the most segs possible, please? Will they do that?