Would it be worthwhile to see if I could downgrade MLE-AUH and LAX-JFK on my current reservation?

There is N (saver economy) availability on MLE-AUH, and there is Saver Economy available LAX-JFK (and also business on a later leg)?

But then I guess I wouldn't be able to re-upgrade them if inventory did show up, assuming that's even possible? It's looking like I made the mistake of booking as soon as inventory opened up. If I had waited, I don't think I would be in this issue.

EY does allow MLE-CMB-AUH-JFK, routing 30 shows that from EF. Not sure if that's going to help though.

In addition to paying a change fee, i'd also be eating the $80 booking fee I had to pay, so this would be a costly mistake.

I would call AA and see if the agent can add an extra segment, such as MLE-CMB-AUH-JFK and if so, if that would permit upgrading AUH-JFK to F. Your core issue is that EY marries MLE-AUH-JFK for availability, and isn't making AUH-JFK available in F when booked as a connection from MLE. Another option is to add a stopover in AUH; you'd pay an extra award but AUH-JFK would no longer be a connection.

If you have flexibility, you could also see if you can find availability on a different day for MLE-AUH-JFK, checking for both business and first, and seeing if you can see MLE-AUH in J and AUH-JFK in F. Or ask an agent who sees your desired AUH-JFK as available to try end-to-end on different days.

If you can find an agent to work with you on that task, sure give it a try. Call one of the In’tl numbers and ask them to check if AUH>JFK is avail in F, when they say Yes, give them your record locator and say you’d like to pay the mileage diff and upgrade ... at which point (as you already know) you’ll be told they no longer see the F space lol. Sidebar....you can ask them if they can try to sort this out for you with their helpdesk since the availability is there for a new reservation (unlikely that would yield a meaningful result but hey).

Anyway, when they tell you they no longer see F as avail when searching on your existing reservation, ask them to try searching with the MLE>AUH leg in Economy and AUH>JFK in F. It sounds odd so you’d need a cooperative and understanding agent. I have done it but it’s not easy as it goes against ‘logic’.

Your JFK>LAX leg isn’t the issue, you don’t need to tell them to rebook that into Y. I was only suggesting that (for your new booking) with the assumption that your JFK>LAX flight doesn’t have any more Saver award space left in J.

Keeping in mind Dave Noble 's comment then, would it maybe make sense to push out MLE-AUH-JFK a day (or bring it in one day early), and then see if MLE-AUH gets J again on my date, and then move back to my original dates? Maybe that would get around the redeposit fee. I'd have to move JFK-LAX around since I can't create a stopover as well.

As I mentioned above, there is availability in Economy from MLE-AUH, would requesting a downgrade be an option?

Does it show that MLE-UL-CMB-UL-AUH-JFK is permitted by EY's routings or just MLE-CMB-AUH-JFK? I doubt that EY's routing permits travel on UL

With married segment availability, playing around at changing dates out n back will almost cetainly not make any difference

It sounds that CMB-JFK via AUH has no availability for AUH-JFK in 1st class. If you really want 1st class on AUH-JFK, perhaps buy CMB-AUH separately and just have a 1st award for AUH-JFK

I was only suggesting starting in CMB as it's easy to get to from MLE (where I will be starting and am booked from), and there is business availability on EY from CMB-AUH. The routing rules do not show UL in it, but oddly enough, searching for MLE-JFK on aa.com and selecting Saver First shows the exact flights (albeit it doesn't book, but then again nothing ever books with EY flights I feel like).

So I was able to get a VERY helpful agent on the Austrialia number. Went through the script as planned, with a couple different options, no dice.
-If I tried adding in CMB as as stop, AUH-JFK showed Y only,
-If I tried downgrading MLE-AUH to economy, no result AUH-JFK
-However, if I did that a day earlier, it would work. But I'm not clear if this was breaking the rules (forcing a stopover, so really looking at two awards), or if that was just as one award with both segments moved up 24 hours.

Also if I were to call and try to rebuild my itinerary separate, would AA's computer freak out when I have overlapping reservations (even though one is on hold) when I try to do this? And back to the married segments - how can I tell if what I'm looking at is married or not? How could I check the day before or after without calling in - is the core of my issue that my current MLE-AUH flight does not have J?

Here's my update for today:

Spoke to a very helpful Australian agent (I really recommend calling these guys first, they are great).

I was able to place CMB-AUH-JFK on hold, with CMB-AUH in biz no problem, and AUH-JFK in First no issue.

Here's what I don't get though:

When I first booked this, I booked MLE-AUH-JFK in Biz. I then called AA to add JFK-LAX - was there no checking married segments there? Because sholuldn't there have been two seats available on the same flights then for that leg to be added? If I call the US location back now to add it, they aren't going to check again?

I feel like I'm playing one of those games where you have to turn all the lights out - hit one button, all the other options open up or close out. I'm not sure how good of an idea starting out in CMB is. The EY flight is at 935pm, so I would have time to hop over, although I'd have to clear immigration and all to re-check my bags.

What I might do is cancel my current booking, see if that inventory reopens, and if it does see if I can switch back to MLE-AUH (or is that going to be a problem since there won't be any first class availability now from AUH-JFK since I have those two seats??)...

Congratulations, I'm glad to hear it. It sounds like perhaps EY is not marrying CMB-AUH-JFK they way they marry MLE-AUH-JFK, or else they are married but they have award availability when married.

Married segments apply to connecting flights marketed by the same airline, so in your case, EY can marry MLE-AUH and AUH-JFK if they wish, and by doing so they are able to have different inventory on MLE-AUH, AUH-JFK, and MLE-JFK. AA flights can be married to other AA flights, not to EY flights.

Can you add MLE-CMB to your booking?

Cancelling what you have is risky.

So CMB-AUH-JFK is on hold on a different reservation. I’d have to cancel to get my miles back so I could afford to ticket that reservation. My current reservation is intact.

If I could add MLE-CMB to my new reservation, wouldn’t that suggest that it wasn’t married after all? I wanted to try and turn my current reservation into that by adding a connection in CMB, but agents weren’t able.

It's possible that EY marries MLE-AUH-JFK but not CMB-AUH-JFK, in which case adding CMB-AUH might be married to CMB-AUH but probably won't be married to AUH-JFK. It's also possible that CMB-AUH-JFK is married but EY has released award inventory for these segments as married.

I was able to add MLE-CMB. Guess it's a call to try and add LAX and I've basically reconstructed my entire itinerary.

Edit: and now it's added.

Very glad to hear it. (And sorry for typing "QR" above when obviously it should have been "EY" -- I had QR on the brain as I was just making seat assignments on five or six QR flights upcoming.)

No worries there.

If anyone cares, availability returned immediately (or I guess within 10 minutes, that's when I looked) for my original MLE-AUH flight. I'm going to call back and see if I can get back on that now.

Edit: I wasn't able to get on the nonstop, despite there being availability. I'm perfectly happy with the routing I have now, the only downside is if being in economy on the first leg of this award ticket is going to impact my baggage allowance(s).

So now I have booked:
MLE - CMB - Sri Lankan Economy
CMB - AUH - Etihad Business
AUH - JFK - Etihad First Class
JFK - LAX - AA Business

So since EY is the overwater carrier, am I subject to their baggage allowance?

Here's my last update on this as I believe I have full resolution.

I called last night to cancel my current award and have the miles redeposited. The agent said it would take about 2 hours to get my miles back, and the cost was as expected $150 + 25 USD to get my miles back.

I called in to AA (USA) this afternoon to check the status, as I wasn't charged, and saw no movement. I told the agent my situation, what I was trying to do (I need the miles for a new reservation I had to put on hold)...she came back a couple minutes later letting me know that AA would waive the redeposit fee since I was moving up a class of service. I was stunned. I also was not charged for (another) booking fee since I paid that on the now-cancelled reservation. My only charge was the award taxes, which at $166 USD, seems like a bargain.

It's going to be on request for a couple days I would imagine, but assuming this tickets, this is just one big item I don't have to worry about anymore. Thanks to anabolism , CodeAdam10 , and Dave Noble for the thoughts on the previous couple days.

Also, my original AA flight just showed back up (so about 12 hours from when I cancelled, not instantly), so I was able to get placed back on that too.

Hopefully this experience helps out people in a similar situation!

An excellent outcome! Congrats.