schedule change leaving enough connection time at ORD?
I have award tix in J MCI-FUK for Oct. 1. The first leg UA 2174 MCI-ORD was changed to arrive 11:57, connecting to UA 881 ORD-NRT at 12:45pm. Original arrival at ORD was 11:47am, an hour. Now there are only 48 minutes to connect to an international flight at ORD. Is this enough time? I doubt the luggage would make it. There are earlier MCI-ORD flights available but I cannot get through to UA to make the change. They are not responding to tweets, they are not answering the phones today after being on hold over an hour, something is going on with UA today. I am willing to take the earlier flight UA 1787 arrives ORD 10:25 to be sure I don't miss the flight to Japan but should not have to pay any change fees since UA is the one who changed the schedule. What should I do?