alamedaguy,

You should tell the board what connections you had for better answers? Only once on AA has my bag ever been delayed and it was connecting DFW-YVR. I made the connection, my bag did not. Got it the next day and I went to the airport myself to retreive it knowing when the next flight was arriving.

You won't get any compensation. If you write a letter to CS, they may give you 3000 AAdvantage miles and a "have a nice day", but even that is not completely probable. FEDEX wedding dresses or make them as the carry-on for an event for domestic US travel.