I was booked to fly AY OSA-HEL in business class on an award ticket in October. The flight was cancelled and I managed to get AY to rebook me on JL OSA-TYO-HEL since there were award seats available on that connection. Departure 0730 in the morning with a short connection to the 1040-flight from Tokyo to Helsinki. Now JAL has changed their schedule with the TYO-HEL flight no longer departing at 1040 but instead at 2155. The 0730-0830 flight OSA-TYO still remains in my ticket though, meaning I get a 13h wait in Haneda. I would like to instead depart on an evening flight OSA-TYO to skip the long airport wait. Searching on both BA and QF websites, I see plenty of award seats in economy and a few in business on various departures for OSA-TYO, funny thing is that the AY website can't find any availability at all on the same route.

I called AY who told me that they can't find any availability for a later connecting flight to TYO and they could instead refund my ticket. I said I wish to be rerouted on the same day and suggested either that they rebook me in a "normal" booking class or in an award class in economy (1h in economy better than 13h wait in the airport). AY refused both suggestions and finally the call was ended. To get it in writing I made the same request over their chat who told me I need to contact JL for the change.

So I rang JL who told me since it is AY-ticket they can't do anything.

Adding to this story is that my wife is having the exact same itinerary but on another award ticket issued by BA. I called them for that ticket and was told that they can't find any seats either. So I'm guessing that my current JL-segments is causing issues with married segments, restricting availability.

I've been thinking if the EU passenger rights apply here or not.

• First: JL non-EU to EU country does not have to abide to the EU261, but I didn't buy that connection - I bought AY non-EU to EU where the EU261 does apply.
• Second: If EU261 applies, then it is the operating carrier's responsibility to fix the issue. But JL again (per first criteria above) isn't bound by EU261. And AY/BA don't want to help me.

So my options now:
1. Accept the 13h wait and early morning departure
2. Call again, and again, and again but likely same outcome
3. Buy my own ticket OSA-TYO and claim the cost from the airline later on. Problem is that if I miss the currently ticketed flight OSA-TYO then likely my TYO-HEL reservation will be cancelled.

Any advice here on what to do?