In case you ever do fly American again, a couple of notes that may help regarding schedule changes:
- A four hour schedule change entitles you to change your flight (for free) to a flight that better fits your schedule. Alternatively, it entitles you to a full refund.
- AA normally does not notify of schedule changes until about 30 days prior to departure (which is not ideal). It pays to monitor your reservations periodically. (This by no means puts blame on you, just an FYI to help you in the future since AA is not very proactive in notification of changes).
- Any reservation booked more than a 2-3 months in advance is highly likely to have a schedule change of some sort, maybe minor, maybe major.
- AA's IT has a habit of changing seat assignments sometimes when schedule changes happen. Another reason to monitor for schedule changes.