I'm not sure if US has a policy like this but I know some of the other legacy carriers have a "trip in vain" policy that allow you to refund the ticket if the trip is now pointless per se.

Example: You have a meeting in City Y so you plan a trip City X to City Y and return to City X on the same day right after the meeting is over. Due to circumstances your outbound flight is cancelled or delayed past when your meeting was happening, or even past your return flight time, you may be able to claim "trip in vain".

Worth a shot.