Originally Posted by
jgold
...If I change my roting a few times leading up to departure, do I need to pay a $125 re-routing fee every time I do so, or do I just pay a single $125 re-routing charge prior to departure?...
You pay the fee every time the ticket is reissued. In other words, every time the routing changes are made firm, final, and the airline actually issues another ticekt to replace your existing one.
...Second question: If I go with a paper ticket and want to make a routing changes (say, to snag hard-to-find availability on a segment that's NOT part of my current routing), can I actually do that over the phone (i.e., in real time)...
Usually, yes. You can phone the AA ATW desk, request the changes, make the new bookings, and tell them where you will be doing the reisssue. However, for you to hand over your old paper ticket, and receive the new one (or not, as the new one could be an eTicket) you need to go to a place where this type of transaction is possible.