Originally Posted by
CitySlacker
What's the points difference of just booking the LAX-WAS sector separately? If it's on a separate PNR there is no MCT check.
You would lose your protection in the event of misconnect, but AA is usually pretty good at separate PNR protection for oneworld partners.
You would not lose the misconnect protection but it would cost an add'l 25k miles IF you could find sAAver space on the LAX-DCA nonstop in F, which is unlikely.
Honestly a lot of these suggestions about spending more for a separate ticket or trying to get AA to reroute you half way around the world in the opposite direction are just silly IMO. This is a simple issue, just pick one of the many easy/normal/almost-as-quick LA to DC routings through ORD or DFW etc., call AA and be done with it.