Originally Posted by
sydneyracquelle
I buy the flight I want immediately. Then I call in and ask for a refund and the booked flight as an even exchange.
I just did the same thing; I was booked HNL-MSP-LGA in full paid J this past Friday and woke up the morning of departure that MSP-LGA was cancelled and I had been auto-rebooked HNL-SLC-DTW-LGA in F. After finding no acceptable routings using the rebooking tool, I was able to find a multi-city HNL-MSP-JFK with a nine hour layover at MSP and booked that while on hold for the PM line (90 min). The agent exchanged the new booking into my old PNR and cancelled the one I bought. The only negative thing was the rebooked HNL-MSP leg booked into C and not J so I lost a bit of MQM; I will ping Customer Relations and ask for them back.
On a side note, I booked a room at the Intercontinental MSP Airport for my layover and was able to get a shower and a nice nap. I also missed a bump on the MSP-JFK flight as they wouldn't protect me in F on the rebook. It's going to be a fun summer...