Originally Posted by
3Cforme
There have been IATA processes for involuntary reroutes (that cover award tickets) going back at least twenty years. I would have found the most senior (age, not rank) staff at the Delta counter and been confident they would know how to do it.

guessing you didn't notice "Got to Hawaiian flight in LAX as it was boarding" in OP's story? this was real-time IROPS; probably -- hell, certainly -- not enough time to hunt down the senior DL staff in a different terminal