IMO your credit card's flight interruption insurance is your best option. You can also claim for meals and incidentals with receipts.

Console yourself with the knowledge that unless you are SE, your wife would not want to stay at the place AC offered. We had an overnight at YYZ and asked about staying at the Sheraton (utilizing their airline rate and my PLAT status!). No, I was told, that is reserved for SE's! Instead, we traveled 20 minutes in a blinding snowstorm with a limo driver who could not find the address and complained about having to accept AC compensation instead of a better cash fare. That hotel (south west of the airport) is not one you would want to stay at.