Originally Posted by anabolism

Qantas, as your ticketing carrier, can and should accommodate your preference in how to deal with the schedule change. There's no fear of repricing, because the change will be coded as involuntary, as it resulted from a schedule change rather than you calling up and asking for a change. There's no need to wait until after flying your first flight. However, it's best to ask for an option where L inventory is available. You can verify L space on your desired flight using a tool such as ExpertFlyer, or by calling and asking. If L isn't available, QF might book you in another inventory, but that might be a more difficult fight. Your option 2 requires an extra segment (a surface segment EZE-AEP), which QF should be able to handle, but if that pushes you over 16 segments might require that QF either issue you a paper ticket or delete some segments and note in the PNR that they are to be re-added after you've flown a few.