We're looking to purchase some F tickets 8 months out for vacation travel via Chase UR points. Almost every trip we've purchased this far out has had schedule changes that are often undesirable and going back through UR can be a pain and/or expensive in that the only option often is to get a refund of the points and repurchase the better itinerary often at a much higher price and still with not assurances that the schedule won't change again. Because it is a leisure trip and the accommodation dates are inflexible, the flight itinerary needs to fit to our schedule.

So, my thought was to get ticketed through UR, then pay AA to take control of the tickets to allow more rescheduling options when/if they alter the schedule on their end.

What is the process to get this done and are my thoughts correct that this would be advantageous? Would I actually be achieving my goals?

Happy to receive any and all advice as I never knew you could possibly do this until reading here. Thanks!