Summary:

I booked a ticket through Orbitz, PEN-HKG-LAX-SFO-YVR. Every layover was important (HKG so I could get CX F, LAX so I could meet someone, SFO so I could swap dirty for clean clothes, YVR because the fare ended there, but it was timed to work reasonably well).
It's ticketed by AA.
The schedule change is the final segment, SFO-YVR, operated by AC.

They cancelled the 0610am flight and rebooked me on the 1045am.

Details:

The original plan (if I couldn't get Orbitz to allow a SFO stopover) was to fly SFO-YVR, get a full day of work in YVR, have dinner in YVR, stay the night in YVR, then fly back first flight the next day to SFO, and make it to work.

There is no longer any flight operating tomorrow (April 27) that allows me to do my work and have dinner.

Thursday/Friday/Saturday/etc. don't work because the dinner guests are unavailable.

The next available date that meets my schedule and theirs is June.

Orbitz said it had to be within 2-3 days.
AA said the same thing.
AC said the same thing, but they couldn't even touch it because it's not their ticket.

They all said a "partial refund" might be possible, but I suspect that will be distance based (or worse), and come nowhere near the cost of booking a new one-way ticket.

AA actually suggested at one point that I simply forfeit the last segment and book a new ticket for $600, but that was when I was trying to use "fare rules" (full fare, flexible) rather than "schedule change" to make this happen. I've been quoted $1500 to do the "change".

Am I completely out of luck because nothing within 3 days works for me?

Or is this an issue of "TA + ticketing airline + operating airline = can't do anything" nonsense?

Provided you booked the J/F premium fare deal from PEN, you have a fully flexible ticket... . THE CATCH is that you must fly the first segment before date/time changes are made.

If it were me, I'd probably use points, or find a decent price on the last segment SFO-YVR.. Then move the last segment out as far as 364 days from your pek-hkg segment. Then you have a J ticket, with last seat availability, at your disposal, if you want to fly last minute, on a holiday, etc.

The SFO-YVR is in D class. PEN-HKG was J, HKG-LAX-SFO was F. The ticket has no change fees.

I've already flown PEN-HKG-LAX-SFO. I first called in LAX, where I was quoted $1500 to move it out. All fare difference, no change fee.

And we're talking a schedule change here, not a "voluntary" change. I mean I wanted to change it anyway, but the original schedule "worked". The new one does not.

Now we're running into an issue where my Tuesday is running on hour 38, and I'm passing out on the phone as they keep putting me on hold.

The rebooked flight, that I can't possibly make, is in 12 hours.

I place the value of a SFO-YVR ticket at under $300, because I'm already on my second flight pass of 2016 for that route. And that's about as flexible as you can get. Having to deal with Orbitz is not flexible

Since it's ticketed by aa this sounds like it needs to be moved to that forum.

What's wrong with AC1879 dep 07:20 arr 10:13?

(edit: oh, you're going SFO, not LAX)

Yes, you're out of luck. UA codes aren't permitted on your cheapo fare, and the CoC doesn't guarantee schedule, so you have nothing to complain about.

And I'm sure someone in that forum would say "it's an AC flight within 24 hours of departure, it should be moved there".

AC codeshares all the non-stops SFO-YVR. Nothing else works for my schedule.

I was on the phone for probably 2-2.5 hours yesterday, and they couldn't offer anything other than canceling and submitting for a partial refund.