Sometimes it’s better not to know the rules, or at least not to show that you do.

I have a last minute trip MSY-PHX. When I booked, I was offered a one-way fare of $498 or 15k miles in Y, or 25k miles in J. Given the price and that I was gonna be stuck in middle seats if I booked Y, I decided to use miles to book J, albeit flying MSY-DFW-TUS-PHX. The extra stop rather than flying in middle seats seemed worth it to me.

When I arrived at MSY just now, I checked EF to see the flight situation and saw that a single J seat had opened up on a non-stop DFW-PHX connection. I guessed, however, that whatever inventory I had “purchased” was not the same as the inventory for that last seat, and that if I called AA the best they could do is put me on the waitlist.

Nonetheless, I decided to go to the gate agent (not the ticket agent) at MSY and play dumb. (Turns out playing dumb is easy for me.) “Good morning. When I booked my connection to PHX, the only thing I was offered was an additional connection through TUS. I see that a seat has just opened up on a DFW-PHX non-stop. Could you see if you could grab it for me?” The agent typed a few hundred keys and, with a smile on her face, said “this is your lucky day.”

I don’t know if she knowingly bent the rules. Or perhaps the rules happened to work in my favor, although I suspect not. But I’m now on the flight I wanted.