When you accept a new itinierary on rebooking which isn't in the same class of service, it pretty much closes out your options for a refund.
If you felt that the new routing doesn't represent fair value for the ticket you paid for, the appropriate solution is to ask for a refund. Of course, you'd then be stuck at BDL without a ticket.
You're asking for both a reaccomodation AND a refund, which is unrealistic.