Hi!
Hoping someone might be able to help.
I have a trip booked with American Airlines miles as follows: SYD-MEL-DOH-BCN
Sydney Australia to Melbourne Australia is with Qantas
Melbourne to Doha to Barcelona is with Qatar.
I am trying to edit the reservation from DOH-BCN to DOH-ATH.
When i search AA.com it shows 2 seats on DOH-ATH on the date I need, but the AA staff are saying when they search (within my reservation) they cannot see it, but when they search outside my reservation they can.
I know it can be done and is allowed to be done, but I don't know what to tell the AAgent to do in order for them to do it. Every agent I speak to says it cannot be done, but I know it can because I have already done it once on this ticket.
Is someone able to help me explain to the agent what to do? I've HUCA 3 times now...

Married segment logic at work, perhaps?

Possibly, but I booked MEL-DOH first, then added DOH-BCN, so unless it was married after?

Okay. I definitely feel your pain, as I have also resorted to multiple phone calls when confronted with similar road blocks. I have usually managed to break the impasse by the third call, however, by learning/noting where the snags might lie and making minor adjustments to my goals (i.e. acceptable target dates/cities). Important caveat: be sure they don't start down the "rebuild it from scratch" path unless you are certain the flights you already have locked up still have award inventory. This seems like it should be common sense for both us and AA people, but we've seen many accounts of lost award tickets on here, as a result of them accidentally cancelling (and the cancelled seats not being returned to award inventory).

Welcome to FT, pab2025!
When you search AA.com on the date you need, does it show award seats SYD-MEL-DOH-ATH at the same price in miles that you paid when you booked your SYD-MEL-DOH-BCN ticket? If not, that could be the source of your difficulty in changing your flight plans.

Not sure what you mean by "can be done". If AA doesn't show availability MEL-ATH it's not possible to change. If it does they can.

That shouldn't matter. The only segment that needs to have award space available is the segment the OP is trying to insert into their reservation.

Having current availability for the entire journey often matters A LOT. While there are workarounds that occasionally bear fruit, it's an arduous process, and one that can put your already booked itinerary at risk of getting accidentally deleted.

Seems like you would need to search MEL-ATH award space for Qatar, rather than DOH-ATH. I imagine it is some sort of married segment logic, unless you have a stopover in DOH?