Well, for starters, you cannot begin in PHL. If there is any rule we have learned from married segments is that you can almost never find availability from a trans-Atlantic or trans-pacific gateway. But from there I found lots of great options, for me starting from the Pacific NW was the goal. We got SEA-PHL during the day but an overnight in PHL, then PHL-DBV the next day. We kept doing EF searches and low and behold a better connection popped up and now we leave Seattle at 8:15am and only have a brief layover in PHL before the DBV flight leaves at 6:20pm that evening.

Lastly, book something with a couple of connections, "enormous travel times" and sit back and wait for the schedule changes and call in the claim your prize (of a more direct routing). There is an entire thread on this trick, it works well if you book in September for the following summer.

Nothing is remotely free any more with AA, but there still are tricks and tips. I wouldnt be discouraged by bad connections or long travel time, you can fix those over the next 8 months.