Originally Posted by dylanks

There’s this odd American cultural thing where you don’t want to come across as doing their job for them. So the best way is to sort of gently guide the AA agent into discovering what you already know you want rather than directly telling them.

eg instead of giving a flight number, you might say something like “I think there’s a mid-morning flight between A and B, …” Obviously use this in the most sincere way and not to manipulate someone.