Originally Posted by cmd320

Data points...

I had MEL-AUH-BOM booked in December, all A380 at the time of booking. Obviously since then EY has downgraded MEL-AUH and AUH-BOM to 77Ws. Not wanting to endure the 77W for 14+ hours, I called AA in the US to see if I could just switch to SYD-AUH-BOM as there was GF available for the same day. AAgent saw the availability and said she was able to book it, however wanted to charge the $150 change/redeposit fee due to change of departure city. As I was uninterested in paying the redeposit fee, I thanked her, said I would do a bit more research, and hung up.

To avoid the $150 fee but still get back on A380 equipment for the intercontinental segment, I decided to just add a domestic QF flight in from MEL-SYD and then onward on EY SYD-AUH-BOM. Called the US number back, however this AAgent could not see the F availability on the SYD-AUH EY flight that the AAgent 15 minutes earlier could, interesting. Again, I thanked her for her help and hung up.

For my third try I decided to call NZ and ask for the same thing. QF from MEL-SYD and then EY SYD-AUH-BOM. NZ AAgent was able to see the availability on all legs and change the ticket, plus the additional taxes which ended up being roughly $16.

I guess the moral of the story is just keep calling and eventually you'll likely figure out some kind of a desirable outcome.