Yep, no problem, I can answer any questions.

I noticed the cancellation the night before at about 7 or 8pm when I looked at the AA mobile app. The flight was the next morning at 6:20am, so that would be about 11 hours prior to departure. I did not get a robocall about the cancellation, but while I was on hold it's possible AA tried to call and I missed the call waiting beep or something.

At ORD I actually checked in at a kiosk. The reason I did that was this: when I called AA in the evening after learning about the cancellation, the automated recording gave me the standard "I see you're scheduled to depart..." followed by "I'm sorry, I see that flight is cancelled". BUT, when I called AA again the next morning, AFTER my CMI-ORD leg should have departed, the automated recording did not mention anything about the cancellation, it just gave me the starting leg as ORD-DTW. I figured this was a sign that my itinerary had not been cancelled and I should just try to check in. The lines at the regular check-in were crazy, but luckily the F/elite check-in section was not too busy so I figured what the heck, I'll just try the kiosk first and if I get directed to an agent, that's OK. But the check in at the kiosk was totally normal as if ORD-DTW were my starting leg.

It sounds like maybe there is no completely standard procedure in this situation? Is there any chance that my trip wasn't cancelled just because of PLT status? That seems weird but I don't know what kind of things can happen in irrops situations.

I guess I'll call AA about refunding my first leg then, thanks!