Originally Posted by
flyingeph12
It seems the problem may not be so much that AA is not willing to open award inventory, but that there are only two flights a day from JAX to ORD: one in morning that OP is currently booked on, and one in the evening, which OP seems not to want to take since it is the last flight out. The only other alternative I can think of that would keep OP in first on the transatlantic is to go through MIA or DFW, and OP should ask to see if AA will open inventory on those flights.
If AA won't open inventory, I see two seats in business on the refurbished 772 from JFK-LHR on 8/9 (AA 106, the 20:10 departure). The seats are not as great as F but are lie-flat. There also appear to be two seats in first SAV-CLT-JFK, departing at 10:50am and arriving JFK at 3:19pm for a roughly 5hr layover. I would hope AA would refund the difference in miles without too much fuss.
This really describes the situation succinctly. There isn't a lot of schedule choice out of Jax and OP needs to balance seats in first vs layover time and work from there to determine their best option. Much as we don't like it, we can't manufacture new schedules, and we play in AA sandbox, and have to work with what's available.