JTK

I was scheduled to take FLT 1100 LGA to DFW and then FLT 137 to HGK. Now as I am a paranoid flyer, I use FlightAware to track my plane on the inbound. The good news, the plane arrived the night before into LGA. I have 1:30 to make the connection, weather is good, my upgrade on 137 came through, life is good.

Arrive in LGA, weather good, flights leaving on time, arriving early into DFW. Get to the gate around 20 minutes to boarding, no plane. I just figured they had to tow it to the gate. At 10 minutes to boarding, flight delayed till 10. This will cause a misconnect.

On the phone in an instant to the Exp desk while walking back to Admirals club. Told them I would misconnect and there was a direct to Hong Kong on Cathay (know your options). He said I would have to book it in Y since that was the original booking. I said AA preserves the upgrade (thanks to FlyerTalk) and to see what he could do. It was around 8 and the next flight was at 10. Agent booked me on the direct HKG flight at 2:50, thinking I could not make the LGA/JFK in time, arriving 40 minutes later than original itinerary, and in J on Cathay.

Went to Admirals club where they were going to rebook me through ORD but I told them already booked on Cathay. They actually paged me when I got in to work this out. Nice. AAngel on phone, printed out new ITN for me, got a cab voucher (actually called a car service) and they pulled my bag out. I was on my way th JFK by 8:15.

Got to JFK, went to Cathay, they were able to switch me to the 10:00 flight and booked my in 11K. (First seat in mini-cabin.)

Because of FlyerTalk, I had my options already, keep my upgrade and did not have to panic. And AA came through for me without any hassle.