Bbmatt,

Were you successful in taking the earlier flight?

I have a similar situation right now. I booked jfk hkg mnl using AA miles in 1st before the devaluation. I just changed my flight from Feb 2017 to today. The only flight with 1st availability from HKG to Mnl is at 4:30 pm and my flight into HKG arrives at 6am. There is a 730 and a 930 am flight but no 1st available and AA wouldn't allow me to downgrade to business on a segment.

I am hoping I can just fly standby and downgrade to Business class and fly right away. Otherwise there are worse places to have a 10 hour layover. I hear Sunday AM in Wanchai is quite the party.

I'll let everyone know if I am successful.