Cancelled Sector on Award Booking

[lobby]

Hi all, looking for a bit of advice as normally don't deal with QF.
I have a flight booked MSY - ORD - BNE - PER. Unfortunately the MSY - ORD has been cancelled by AA and I have been rebooked on another AA flight, which only leaves me with just over half an hour layover in ORD. It does meet MCT but I would like to have a little bit more of a layover to have a shower before jumping onto the flight.
There are many other flights available (with a connection) showing available on the QF website and I can go all the way to the payment page, but when speaking to the call centre (after a two hour wait), they cant see any of these flights. I am tempted to try and cancel the first leg and then rebook it, but that will cost me more points.
Just wondering why this is, and any advice on what I could/should do.
Thanks

 

[TheInsider]

Try and SMS them, or even use the Qantas app chat thing.

 

[MEL_Traveller]

Hi all, looking for a bit of advice as normally don't deal with QF.
I have a flight booked MSY - ORD - BNE - PER. Unfortunately the MSY - ORD has been cancelled by AA and I have been rebooked on another AA flight, which only leaves me with just over half an hour layover in ORD. It does meet MCT but I would like to have a little bit more of a layover to have a shower before jumping onto the flight.
There are many other flights available (with a connection) showing available on the QF website and I can go all the way to the payment page, but when speaking to the call centre (after a two hour wait), they cant see any of these flights. I am tempted to try and cancel the first leg and then rebook it, but that will cost me more points.
Just wondering why this is, and any advice on what I could/should do.
Thanks

What are you seeing, and what is the call centre looking for? MSY-ORD only, or MSY-ORD-BNE? AA does marry segments, so the MSY-ORD may not be visible as a standalone.

You could cancel the current MSY-ORD, that should be free of charge given it was an involuntary schedule change. You could then rebook with the connection... but it's going to be a separate ticket which may cause problems down the track with weather delays into ORD - I've had 6+ hour delays in summer with T-storms, and delays almost as long in winter with snow