A lot of times phone agents (csrs) have leeway during weather that they don't have at other times, unless they're on a very top tier desk (then they almost always have a lot of leeway). In particularly bad weather I know that AA at least will let you go into or out of another city within a certain range of miles. As far as calling one desk above which you are entitled to that's a personal decision but I know that at AA the ExecPlt desk is restricted to Exec Plats and the agents there have to transfer anyone else that calls in..those ExecPlat phones have to be answered in a certain amount of seconds and AA is really adamant about not handling anyone but Exec Plat. If you want fun in the air industry during weather, try being a csr when there's weather in three major US cities. DFW,ORD,JFK like there was last week. Our top tier members or 99 and nine tenths percent of them understand but there's always a certain few that think that calling us names and cussing at us is going to help. It always helps to remember when you're on the phone that right now there are two people trying to help you...you and me...and I'm losing interest fast. Believe it or not we really care about our passengers and most of us do our level best to help out. Sorry about longwinded..just want you to understand our side of the fence.