After posting this, I spent another hour on the phone. Tried talking to the new CSR line, called and tried to speak to the rate desk, and even tried calling HQ all without any success. Finally, I got a supervisor in international reservations.
He did a couple of amazing things (not just for UA) he LISTENED, understood the problem, and did not assume that I travel once a year. He admitted that even though it was technically not allowed, UA originally issued the ticket for that routing and he will allow it for the subsequent change.
For those that asked the original sections were NRT-ORD-MKE-ORD-YYZ which is what was ticketed. The change I made was NRT-LAX-ORD-MKE-ORD-YYZ. They disallowed the ORD-MKE-ORD portion the second time around saying it was backtracking even though I was only connecting in ORD (even though that was exactly what was originally ticketed). The supervisor simply reinstated it with his authorization.
Now if I can only figure out how to get back to this person for future reservations! Since as of late it has been so rare getting people of this calibre - I will be writing a complimentary letter to UA about him.
Gotta recognize the good ones!
[This message has been edited by MikeFly (edited 01-15-2001).]