Hello all...I enjoy using DL's schedule changes to my advantage as much as anyone, but I got one today that stinks pretty bad - looking for some advice on what to do from the wise folks here.

As I detailed in the RUC thread a while back, I booked myself DCA-JFK-SFO on a Saturday morning in October, and I was able to confirm the D1 upgrade on JFK-SFO.

The DCA flight left at 9a, arriving in JFK at 10:18, leaving me plenty of time to make my 11:50a JFK-SFO.

Due to a schedule change, DCA-JFK now leaves at 9:45, arriving in New York at 11:13, cutting my connection to less than 40 minutes.

I realize that this is enough time assuming everything goes right, and that on a Saturday morning, it should - more or less.

The problem is the D1 JFK-SFO seat is very important to me, and I do not want to miss this flight and be bumped from sitting up front. I chose this routing specifically because I wanted to use my RUC on this product.

As I see it I have a couple of options. Both DCA and IAD have similar schedules for this Saturday as of now...a 6a flight and a 945a flight. I live relatively equidistant to DCA and IAD, so it doesn't matter to me which airport I depart from. All things being equal for an early morning flight, I typically would lean to DCA because you can go from curb to gate in 2-4 minutes, (with precheck) while IAD takes more like 15.

I could switch to either flight leaving at 6a and leave myself a 4+ hour layover in JFK, but that isn't appealing because a.) it means leaving at 4-4:30a to begin what is going to be a full day on the west coast (meaning 1:30a pacific time) b.) a 4 hour layover in JFK, or I stick it out with the tight connection and hope it all works out for the best.

What say you?