Three years ago I flew a red eye from Lihue into LAX with a connecting flight to Chicago and on to Columbus. This was on United. When I got to LAX, the flight had simply been cancelled wich meant that I would arrive in Columbus at midnight (the way they wanted to send me). I basically knew about Rule 240 and mentioned it. They then switched me to an AA flight to Chicago that allowed me to connect with the UAL flight down to Columbus.

Sure saved me a lot of hours in the airport!