This may be elementary for the more experienced forum users, but thought I'd share in case anyone found it useful.

I had a booking from London to NY on AA in coach. My last booking of 2016, so (despite many reservations) booked 4 legs on the outbound, ensuring I would hit EXP when I landed back in London.

First leg was to ORD. Woke up in the morning to find out flight was delayed. The knock on effect messed up my entire itinerary.

Looking at the other available flights that day, I worked out that if I flew to NY via LAX instead, I would still hit EXP, as long as they reiussed my ticket in Y and EQMs posted to my account accordingly. (I recently had a missed connection on an AA ticket, which was BA's fault, so they put me on the next AA flight, crucially, using Y fare.)

So I did and they did.

Not only did I fly 2 legs instead of 4 (yay! ^ ) but I actually made EXP upon landing in NY, by a hair's breadth.

Anyway, not sure if it was a gamble that paid off, or it's standard policy for agents to rebook in Y, but if you're ever faced with the option of a last minute rebooking and you need the extra points, it's worth considering.

Not that it's of any value, but I'm BA Gold and EXP for the next few weeks.