I submitted this through the refunds portal and put details. Didn't get even an AI response, just an email with the refund. Will write to AA CR. The return posted as 535 + 910 = 1445 base miles. At 5 miles/$, that is $289 in fare. My expectation is the other half is refunded.
This was a single ticket. As the outbound was so delayed, AA allowed me to drop the outbound segments and keep the return.
40% now.
American now gives 40% of fare as compensation for downgrade
It's quite incredible as to how bad their operations are. 2 out of the last 14 flights have been on time. I like OWE as well, but it's getting harder and harder to keep showing up late places.
I'm 10k miles away from 1 million BIS, so aiming to hit that. Afterwards, need to look into a UA or WN status match. Going all the way around given that UA's Parker/Isom equivalent named Smisek is what chased me from CO/UA to AA in the first place.