With a negative PNR things get tricky. Have you been talking to the AA ATW desk? if not I suggest you do. If it is the ATW desk the one you managed to get on the wrong side of then I can only suggest you try to speak to a supervisor. By the way, are you sure your ticket was issued before the surface segment rule was introduced? Maybe there is a misunderstanding regarding dates. Or is AA firmly saying that the new rule applies to all tickets, irrespective of date of issue?

Edited to add: I suggest you take a look at the entire thread about surface segments, and this post in particular: http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/showp...8&postcount=97