Originally Posted by JonNYC

By usual, general, AA schedule change guidelines/rules, and to my understanding, no-- there has to be a defined delay brought on by the change -- 90 minutes I believe.

In fact, AA's schedule change file specifically and explicitly does not consider a change to booking class a schedule change, IIRC.

ALL THAT SAID, this is a highly unique situation and I wouldn't find it hard to believe that they might become aware of the issue (my personal bet is that they are not, presently, just my personal speculation) and make such accommodations for these reasons. But, again, to my understanding, definitely not under current rules.