Pres;
I'm trying to keep up and understand here; is it your position that you were rejected on "most direct routing" type thing? Or, is there any possibility that there another trip-wire in your itin.?
One thing I was thinking; maybe something about the fact that you could arrive in ORD at a time that makes taking a later flight LAX-JFK (which then necessitates your overnight before taking LGA-ORD the next day.)
So, is there any possibility that they see it as a transit->stopover violation when those factors are combined? (Yes, I'm totally grasping at straws here.)
In any case, we'll get an answer of there are new rules.