Originally Posted by Adam1222

I don't believe NYC would ever have shown as an option for rebooking a flight to Richmond, nearly 400 miles away, either automatically or to an agent. That has never been a "nearby city." (In some other circumstances, a city 400 or more miles away may be the next closest airport. Here, Delta serves over a dozen airports closer to RIC.) If you called, they probably would have been willing to put you on a flight to ORF or WAS, but those flights would not have gotten you in that much earlier. The earliest would have been the DCA flight.

It seems like your scheduled flight was due to get you into Richmond after midnight even if you made your connection, so if you were planning to connect on separate tickets to NY this morning, that seems like it was a dangerous move.