Thanks 869, the idea of booking a refundable fare to get home and then transferring that to the rebook when you finally get through to an agent is the best idea I've heard yet. That may have helped immensely as I am sure rebook inventory dwindled immensely as I waited on hold.
Regarding your questions: I was not at the airport. I hadn't left my origination city yet when American informed me via txt that the flight was cancelled and their automatic rebook system failed to rebook me. The 5 hours on hold was over 3 calls, two of which the line went dead while waiting. Their phone system (or maybe the land line phone company?) booted me off 2 hrs in on one call, and after 50 mins on the other. The callback system (that would have let me not wait on hold) wasn't working. It just seems in this day and age waiting on a telephone on hold is not the best way to handle this problem... They could be soooo much better....
It does help to hear from the cool heads that you seasoned travelers have. Yet it still bothers me that what's good for American (fully utilized planes, massive profits) is bad for the passengers (little available space for rebooking). They win. We lose. At some point people will balk... when it takes several days to recover and get everyone home after a line of thunderstorms goes through DFW, which BTW happens all the time, something's very very wrong...