American Airlines Standby/Flight Change Question

Am using frequent flyer miles to book my flights for an upcoming South American trip; for 60,000 miles per/person can book what would cost about $2,700 per/person if buying the tickets - so seems like a great use of the miles. The flights from ORD to SCL for the start of the cruise that are available with miles are perfect. For EZE to ORD at the end of the cruise, the flights that are available are less than ideal unless we use an extra 45,000 miles each. Since it seems like a great deal I am OK with poor flights on the back end.

The flight on the back end leaves EZE in the morning on December 23rd (day after the ship arrives to Buenos Aires, so no issue with not getting to the airport in time), connects in MIA, arriving late afternoon December 23rd, but the MIA to ORD leg is not until the morning of December 24th (so we'll have to stay at a MIA hotel that evening). There are two MIA to ORD flights that leave the same evening we arrive in MIA - December 23rd (the flights that are many more frequent flyer miles to book).

According to AA's website one can do same day flight-change and standy complimentary when the flights were booked with miles. My question has to do with the issue of an overnight connection; when we check into the airport at EZE - if the more favorable evening flights from MIA to ORD leg are still available, would we be able to change to these - or because those flights are the next calendar day (even though booked as part of the same ticket as the EZE to MIA leg) would this not be an option. If no (or if the more favorable flights are not available when we check into EZE) once we arrive in MIA can we fly standy that same evening (December 23rd) for one of the MIA to ORD flights? If so,any issues with the luggage being ticketed on a different connecting flight?

Hope this makes sense; thanks for any help anybody is able to provide.

Do you have status with AA? They show on the website:

There's no charge for all elite members to standby for a different flight on the same day of travel when flying to/from:

United States and the U.S. Virgin Islands

Puerto Rico

Canada

Caribbean (select destinations)

Executive Platinum members also receive complimentary same day flight changes on American.

Notice South America is not listed? However, I am not sure if they break the MIA-ORD segment down as a domestic flight. So I don't think you would be able to select that at EZE, but may be able to when you get to MIA. However, then that would not be a same day standby and this wouldn't apply if the MIA-ORD segment was broken down. You may check the AA forum on FlyerTalk, most of them are experts at these types of situations.

Oh, I didn't notice that South America is excluded; thanks for pointing that out.

My wife will be Gold Elite status at the time the tickets are booked (she had this status throughout 2016 and it automatically carries over until February 28, 2017), but not at the time the flight actually occurs (she was a couple thousands miles short of renewing the status for all of 2017).

I can't help with the standby question, but unless things have changed with the new round of Aadvantage program changes, AA doesn't charge for a change in award tickets if the originating and destination cities remain the same. I believe that you can also change the routing, but am not certain about that point.

You can set up alerts at a service such as ExpertFlyer, which will notify you if award space becomes available on your preferred flights.