Please pardon my ignorance plus I didn't get any hits on a forum search...

I'm traveling later this week from AUS-ATL and then catching a flight from ATL-SRQ with my wife. My thought is that even though I live about an hour from ATL and its my "home" airport, I'm in transit on DL while making my connection in ATL and should be treated just the same as any other passenger who misses a connecting flight.

The PM agent told me that if my flight from AUS is delayed and I miss the SRQ flight, not only will I have an irate wife but that I will have to pay a change fee for rebooking on another flight to SRQ because the flights are on differnt reservations. I had to book the tickets separately since one is for biz travel and the other is personal.

Can anyone offer any clarification on what my rights may be if this situation occurs?