Originally Posted by VegasGambler

In my experience AA is good at rebooking you no matter what. A few months ago I slept in and missed the bag drop deadline for my flight (I was flying BUR-PHX after spending a couple of days in LA after returning from Japan, so I had a big bag that had to be checked) and the agent at BUR just rebooked me out of LAX with no questions asked (it was the last flight of the day out of BUR... "slept in" was well into the afternoon due to jetlag). And it was a web special award, so no changes allowed. She could have just said "too bad" and had me cancel and rebook at current prices (that's technically the rule, after all -- no changes to web specials) but that's not what happened.

Admittedly I have status but this was not the EXP desk; it was a random agent at the check-in desk at BUR. I get the idea that that was SOP for anyone who was too late to make the flight.