OP shows SJD as one of his "Locations" in his profile. Pretty hard to imagine that he doesn't know what has happened down there and the impact on commercial air travel. Nonetheless, he schlepped to ORD without checking online or by phone to see if his flight was ontime.

Sure it would be nice if AA did a better job of notification, but the fact is that notification is pretty sketchy for most carriers because they've figured out that in the modern era most people have smartphones and proactively check.

This will ultimately join the thousands of threads about the conspiracies launched against consumers by the "new DL" and the "new UA". Over time, if history repeats itself, those will come to include:
- Degradation of the paper used to print BP's
- Thread count in the hot towels
- Imprint on the pat of butter

OP's trauma was easily avoided, particularly under the specific circumstances of SJD, and it is resolveable.