Last night flying LGA to ORD I was originally ticketed on the 6:30pm. Boarded the 4:30pm as a standby passenger and sat on the plane with the door shut for 90 minutes waiting for a storm to pass.

At 6pm I got an automated call stating my 6:30 flight had been cancelled and I had been rebooked on the 6:55am flight the next morning.

When I called back to ask if I could fly out later that evening (hedging to try and get a confirmed seat on a later flight in case the 4:30 never left the airport, I was told byt the EXP agent that all flights for the rest of the night had been targetted for cancellation. He said they weren't cancelled but might be so he was unable to confirm me on any of the 3 or 4 flights later that evening.

So I guess I'm curious when the AA system would have registered that I boarded the 4:30 flight, whether I would have remained on the standby list and rolled over for any remaining flights if the 4:30 had not departed, and whether anyone has ever heard of flights being "targetted for cancellation."