Here are a few responses to your posts:
With regard to getting the Passport here:
- USPS doesn't seem to have a next day guarantee, and DHL/FedEX/UPS all have same-day service but it seems to require some hoops to set up which I couldn't understand
- I did try signing up for Southwest's cargo service but I got a response that my application to join will take 5-7 days
- The Delta Cargo service looks promising, but when I tried to request a quote for tomorrow, it gave me an error and said to try again later
With regard to trying to check-in anyway:
- The AA agent seemed to think this would be impossible
- There are so many bad experiences posted here (granted not with AA) of people being properly denied boarding, it seemed like a big risk
- Even if the BNA staff on 1/2 thought it would be OK, I just would not be confident that it would be on 1/3
- Once I found the web special on that flight for 18k, I wanted to jump on that.
Cheers