Maybe it's recency bias, but the past few times I've called AA I either get told "wtf are you talking about" or "oh yes, no problem!"

We are traveling to Europe to visit family this summer but different members of my family are coming back at a different time. I am coming back early summer, my daughter is coming back mid-summer with the grandparents, and my wife and son are coming back at the end of summer. I get it, pretty complicated reservation I had to make over the phone. I told the agent I felt sorry for them.

First agent tells me "that's too complicated to do, you should just book 6 separate one-way flights" and "there's no way to guarantee we'd be together on the outbound flights".

OK...I call back 20 minutes later, get a different agent, who tells me it won't be an issue. Puts us all together, answers my questions, etc.

I call back yesterday as my status has changed since I booked the flights, wondering if I can move us all to MCE on flights we're together despite being on different reservations. First agent tells me "I've never heard of that, that's not even possible to do" and "You'll have to ask gate agent if you can all board together".

Call back again today, "Oh yes, sure thing." Done in 5 minutes.

Do they all just get wildly different training?