Hi
Hoping for advice from AA experts here as it's the first time I've had to make a change to an AA tix.

I jumped on a discounted I fare business class tix (MAD-SEA, YVR-FCO - on BA metal via LHR, but AA codeshare) earlier this year. I flew the MAD-SEA segment July 2023 and had booked the YVR-FCO flight for January 2024 but now need to change the YVR-FCO segment to July 2024.

When I called AA for the change today, the first agent told me there were no "I" fares available in July for my family of 5 and after speaking to ticketing, told me that booking me on the next fare class for my requested date in July would cost me more than $3K for the fare difference per person. He also told me that as long as I could find "I" fare availability (eg. if I was willing to split my family up on different travel dates), the only price difference I would pay would be ancillary fees like airport taxes (e.g if I routed through a different airport).

I used Expertflyer and found a couple of other options in July that had "I" fare availability but when I called AA again, the second agent told me that I would have to pay an additional $2K+ per person even though those were in "I" class. She said that it is because the new date is in July which is peak summer season. I asked if the historical fare was used because that's in the fare rules, and she said yes.

Both agents were friendly and seemed helpful, but I'm not sure who is correct. It also doesn't give me much comfort when the agent tells me that these fare differences are being calculated manually by their ticketing colleagues as that makes me think there's more room for error and interpretation.

I understand that July tends to be a busy period for Europe but the fare difference seems quite significant here (I paid under 2K per person for the original ticket). Is it possible that changing dates can result in such a large fare increase even when there's "I" class availability on the new dates? If it makes any difference, my fare basis according to my ticket is INX9C1S4 and INN1C5S4.

Any advice on the above would be much appreciated!!