As annoyed as I usually get with the typical AA changes and the frequent cancellation of my booked flights I usually find them to.be much as the OP suggested when there’s a true emergency necessitating airline assistance.

We had flown from Stewart Newburgh in NY to Charleston, SC due to a medical emergency with my Dad, and the morning of the day we were to fly home we got a call that DH’s Dad had a heart attack in FL and his situation was iffy at best. I tried to book something on AA to Tampa but they had no flights to get us there that day so we ended up using Delta to the tune of $500.00 each one way to Tampa, and more than twice what we paid for our r/t tix to SC.

After several days there and the situation improving we headed to the AA ticket counter at Tampa International in an attempt to salvage the return portion of our original AA SC tickets. We got to the airport and I was able to deal with a ticketing supervisor there who was wonderful. Having had a somewhat similar situation years before, I had obtained letters from both family doctors regarding the serious health situations of both parents and showed them to the agent. She just shook her head, commented about our week and then voided our original AA tickets home from Charleston to NY. She reissued us direct tickets from Tampa. AT NO ADDITIONAL CHARGE to us. No change fee, no cancellation fee and no up-charge for the fare difference plus she commented about wishing both sets of parents well with their health issues. I offered my credit card and her comment was I think you’ve already paid enough for this Trip! When we boarded we discovered the row five seats she booked us in were actually first class seats home.

They can be wonderful when they want to be, or at least they could be a few years ago. My situations have been positive for the most part so as frustrated as they sometimes make me, I try to remember those things, too