Following up on my post above, I received a response from aa.com Customer Relations. To make a long story short, I got an email saying it was unfortunate that I had arrived at the gate less than 15 minutes prior to departure. So they confirmed the policy per the customer service plan, but somehow misinterpreted the facts at hand. I called the phone number at aa.com, and was able to speak to the representative who had composed the email response. After some ten minutes of checking, she indeed confirmed (as I knew all along) that my reservation had been cancelled way too early - 1:17 prior to departure time by her records. Once this was clarified, I was given denied boarding comp of $200. THANKS THANKS THANKS to the originator of this helpful post.