Originally Posted by
Peetah
She may not be able to get back into the terminal from D to take the Skylink to A. I'd plan on her taking an airport shuttle from D to A.
Whether she makes it to terminal A in time is debatable.
DFW allows you to clear security at any terminal with any valid boarding pass, no matter what the departure gate is. The Skylink is likely much quicker than the land-side terminal link bus, so re-clearing at D is the way to go.
Once back thru security, the maximum Skylink ride time to her gate's stop is 9 minutes, and maybe add up to 5 minutes to walk from there to the gate.
It's also worth noting that there's no reliable way to tell what terminal her DFW-TPA flight will use. It may have been A the last few days, but next week, it could be A or C or D. Domestic AA flights at DFW are not consistent.
All that said, if AA won't let her switch now, if she does miss her connection, she can just go standby on that same later flight anyway.
Good luck.