Using a Schedule Change for a Free Flight Change
Last night my wife and I were sitting at one of our usual happy hour bar spots and ended up listening to this guy ramble on and on to his date (had to be first couple of dates) about maximizing travel points and status. He focused in on his AMEX Plat Pro and AA Exec, with most of his time spent explaining One World benefits and his EP with AA. Part of this conversation was how he frequently books flights with multiple long legs to Asia 6+ months in advance. A big point he made was they regularly change his flight schedules, and claimed to call AA to say "the new schedule doesn't work for me, and I'd like to be on this direct/one stop flight" over even minor flight changes. We both felt he was embellishing just about everything, but I am now curious...is there a line in the sand for AA agents where you can change your flight for free based on the schedule change time? Assuming 20 minutes is too little, but is 1 hour? 2 hours? Apologies if this is common knowledge.