American Airlines AA False advertising / Taking advantage of the customer situation Nationwide

On just about every airline when you buy a discounted fare ticket these come with "restrictions".  These restrictions have to do with the cost of changing/cancelling your flight.  Now, the first thing you are asking is why don't they sell "UNRESTRICTED" tickets.  They do, but those are on average 2-3 times higher than the discounted fare.  Which is why if you don't know if you have a Restricted or Unrestricted ticket...you have an Restricted fare because you have to specifically ask for the Unrestricted fare.

Now, with a Restricted Fare ticket if you want to change your flight you are charged a change fee.  This fee can vary from about $50-$300 depending on the exact fare type, airline, and route you are flying.  Just to let you know there is only one airline(that I am aware of) that will not charge a Change fee.  That is Southwest Airlines but they do not fly to Brazil. 

The final piece in this is how airlines price their seats.  They will always release the cheapest seats first, and then as those sell out release the next highest fare seats...and so on.  Now, when you change your itinerary in addition to this change fee, you are also responsible for the difference in fares(for this one it is EVERY airline).

So if we keep the math simple in your case..and figure you had a $100 Change fee(as an example).  That means that 5 days ago the new adjusted fare was $131 higher giving you a total of $231.  But now 5 Days later the difference in the fare is $505.

So you basically have a couple of choices if you did not already purchase them.  The first is to just go on your original date.  The second is to pay the new fare and be done with it.  The third is to hold off, continually call back every day(or check their web site) and if by chance they have a fare drop purchase it then.  The fourth is one you may also need to consider.  Search for a totally new ticket that will be cheaper than the change fee of the AA ticket, then see if you can cancel the AA ticket and use any remaining funds as a credit in the next year.

After calling them another time and telling all the complaints that I had done online, they found a deal one day later for only $200. That means, for me, that the complaints worked and I recommend other people that have the same problem to complain.