Originally Posted by
ltoolio
In January, I booked a flight on AA from ORD->DEN from 7:30A-9:50A, coming up this Sunday (March 24th), for myself, my wife and my 2 kids. We were all sitting in the same row, and I paid for the tickets via $$$ rather than via Points.
I received notice yesterday from AA that my flight has changed to 3:10P->4:50P, so a 7 hour difference. And we are not sitting together any longer.
There are connecting flights that get into DEN closer to 1, which works better for us, but some of the available seats are in first class, and AA support is telling me they can't explore moving me to the connecting flight until the 72 hour window for Exec Plats clears. By that time, the other seats in coach may be gone.
Welcome to FT. Not sure what the person you spoke with talking about re: you can't change until 72 hrs before, but that is complete nonsense. Maybe they were trying to say that if you waited until 72 hrs before, when some upgrades might clear, there would be more seats in economy free'd up that you could switch to? Who knows.
Take a look at aa.com (or Google Flights etc.) and find any connecting or nonstop itineraries that arrive within your desired window with coach seats available. Then call AA back, tell them there was a schedule change and the new flight times do not work, and ask specifically to be moved to the flights you find online. For a paid ticket in coach this should be a very easy change, however if you happen to get any resistance or another bad agent just HUCA.