travelbug189

I am trying to book an economy MileSAAver award ticket: AUS-JFK-LHR-FCO. AUS-JFK-LHR is on AA metal & LHR-FCO is on BA metal.
Current MileSAAver economy award availability on aa.com shows tickets only with a long layover (8hrs) at LHR. There are 3 earlier BA LHR-FCO flights that could work that make the layover shorter. Business award tickets are available for these earlier LHR-FCO flights but no economy award tickets.

Our travel date is not till May 2019 and we are looking for 4 award tickets together. So makes it more difficult.

2 newbie questions:

i) Should I just take what is available now and if an earlier LHR-FCO economy ticket becomes available later, can I make an award ticket change through AA for no charge?

ii) Assuming I stick with the current long LHR layover award ticket, will there be any opportunity to get on an earlier LHR-FCO flight, once I land at LHR, assuming seat availability is there on earlier BA flight? Will BA/AA allow it?

Thanks.