IIRC, I and an AA ExPlat friend were stuck in DEN during the December snowstorm. My friend was able to be protected on three flights each on first available flights out after the planned reopening of the airport. He was protected on one flight automatically but called and got himself assigned to two other flights including one on a recovery flight.

We both went to the airport around 0700 on the day the airport was planning on reopening at around 1100. He confirmed at the counter and checked in. AA flights were not looking good around 0900. We were monitoring Flightaware and found one AA flight enroute. We went to an AA gate, waited in a rather long line and he asked if he could be standby on this flight as well. The agent said he had too many flights and had to cancel one of them. Once they canceled one flight and placed him on standby on the current flight he trumped all others on the list because he was 1) ExPlat and 2) he had checked in earlier than all the other ExPlats on the list. He was able to get on this flight.

This seems like a great system, but maybe not to other top tier elites who got trumped. So I agree that CO should have some form of protection for elites.