I had good luck about a year ago on an ORD-DFW-NRT-SJC-DFW-ORD MR. My ORD flight left late due to mech causing me to miss the one and only NRT flight out of DFW. I was suppose to have 1 night in NRT... I explained the ticket agent I was doing the trip for miles and she routed me from DFW-MIA, spent the night in MIA (on AA's dime) had a night out in South Beach, then went on MIA-NRT (which stops in ORD).
Got about another 2,500 EQM's out of the mis-fortune and didn't have to spend a dime on hotels, I almost missed my return trip NRT-SJC ... it was difficult trying to explain the Japanese AA agents at flight connections that I needed to re-connect directly back to AA flight. I can only imagine the "stupid american" thoughts going through their head.