Presumptuous GAs aside, the OP did not get "busted" because he didn't do anything wrong (he didn't even fly). He/she should request a refund on account of the departure delay if he's willing to "rock the boat" a little more and not worry about what the AAgent wrote in his PNR. IMHO, OP should just have politely stuck to the "I want the routing I paid for" story on grounds that he was meeting a companion at LAX. I've done this numerous times at DFW when going from domestic to international. This is very common.
When my layover time is ample, I will say that I have a meeting in Admirals Club of the connecting city (sometimes a true story). People pay to fly specific routes and avoid specific airports for a number of legitimate reasons, and most airline staff understand and respect that.
Originally Posted by
aztimm
A few years ago, I was doing a mileage run, MCO-PHL-BOS-PHX, and there was a flight cancel or something that happened for the PHL-BOS leg. They tried to route me back on PHL-PHX, but I told them I had planned to meet a friend at BOS, and had 2 hours or so there. So they booked me on another PHL-BOS, and on my original BOS-PHX (just a few minutes had gone by so I managed to keep my seat for BOS-PHX).
I've had good luck getting favorable rebookings when stating that I'm on a mileage run. LOL, I've never needed an excuse! It's almost like it's fun to some AAgents to come up with convoluted routings. Was recently flying MSY-DFW-LAS to catch another MR when a VDB offer came up, and I took it. I told the AAgent that I was on an MR and he laughed. "Let's see what we can do," he said as he booked me going MSY-CLT-LAX-LAS.