Long story short, was flying MEL-LAX, with a 4 hour layover in LAX before connecting to an AA LAX-STL flight. All booked on one ticket through Qantas.

I got an e-mail this morning that there's been a schedule change. The AA flight now leaves 4 hours later, leaving me with an 8 hour layover in LAX which, to me, is unacceptable. I found two possible alternates online, MEL-SYD-DFW-STL, or MEL-LAX-DFW-STL, which even with the extra leg, had reasonable connections and would still get me into STL earlier than the new LAX-STL flight. But I called Qantas and they're telling me that they can't do anything, and there would be change fees involved, even though they're the ones who made this change in the first place.

Are my options really take it or leave it? Southwest has a $177 LAX-STL flight leaving at 10:30. I'd buy a seat on that before paying Qantas change fees. It's probably cheaper and that's my last leg of the itinerary so I could skip it. But I already paid enough for this ticket, ideally I'd like to not pay any more.