Exactly. OP basically had to abandon his ticket mid-trip due to AA snafu and AA could not get him to his destination in time. That's classic trip-in-vein, and what usually happens is the airline flies you back to your origin and fully refunds the ticket. My point is the fact that OP got himself to his destination separately on his own dime shouldn't have any bearing; AA doesn't even really need to know. And the return one-way ticket SFO-ATL also need not have any bearing (if that's even on AA).