I was on a KUL DXB MAN routing and the inbound to KUL was severely delayed so I knew I would miss my connection. At the time I had no status but I did have forward thinking. The next flight was going to mean 8 hour delay with a short hotel stay with little chance of sleep. The next but one flight meant a 15 hour delay which meant a decent night sleep in the hotel. While still in KUL I requested that I be put on the next but one flight so by the time we arrived in DXB I was all sorted with the best option whereas most of the other passengers had to start their rebook in process. If you know you'll miss the connection then sort it as soon as you can (this only works for longer delays where there's no chance you might make it).