Originally Posted by VegasGambler

The extra $5.60 is dependent on your connection time. This is a government (tax) thing, not an AA thing. Basically if your connection is short they don't charge you the $5.60 TSA fee at your connecting point but if it's long, they do. Presumably they assume that you are more likely to leave the secure area and come back on longer connections. Overall I don't think that trying to avoid a $5.60 fee is a good use of time (though, looking for a shorter connection to save your time might be)

As for finding agents that can book it, I don't know. All I can tell you is that I've never had an issue. It might be because EXP agents are that much better, or it might be that I'm just lucky. I will say that if they go down the road of entering your connecting city at the beginning it's probably going to price as 2 awards. That's why I always give origin, final destination, and date first. Then if they don't offer me what I'm looking for I'll start talking about routings, but only once they have their search results up.

As for your NRT-MNL issue, when you say that you can't find an agent who can find it ... is there award space? If you search for just that one segment, does it show up? Obviously if JL isn't offering the space there's not much you can do other than keep checking and hoping it eventually opens up.