was supposed to be on the DCA-STL flight today at 12:25.

Started to get the eerie feeling something wasn't right when they didn't start boarding and the clock slowly ticked to 12:25 and they hadn't opened the door yet. Gate agent comes on the mic and says "there's a maintenance issue and we'll let you know when we have an update".

Concern begins when i overhear the two gate agents talking with each other about maintenance, and, to paraphrase, the conversation appeared to go something like this:
"Has maintenance looked at it yet?"
"I don't think so - they know that they're supposed to come out and look, right?"
"I think so. Yeah, they should be coming out, shouldn't they?"
etc. etc.

Lo and behold awhile later the pilot comes up to the counter and it turns out no one actually seemed to TELL maintenance there was an issue so now they finally seem to get someone to come out and look at the tire* and after another 30 min of delay they finally come back on the mic and say:

"It appears we need to replace a tire on the plane. Which means the plane will have to be towed to the hangar for the repair. Unfortunately, we don't have that tire here, so we have to have one brought in from Dulles, which is an hour away. We'll have another update after that has arrived."

So of course i make the immediate trip to the service counter, get rebooked on a connection to Cincinnati, and end up home 3 hours later than planned. Given that weekends are normally the only time i spend time with my family (including 18 month old twins) because my job has me on the road most weekdays, this was supremely frustrating.

But honestly, what really gets me is the conversation between the agents. If either of them had simply had the simple intellectual horsepower to pick up the f**king phone and call maintenance when the tire issue was first told to them by the captain (an hour before our departure) rather than simply speculating - as if between the two of them some sort of socratic debate would discern the "truth" of the maintenance situation - then there wouldn't have been so many frustrated passengers standing around.

</rant>

I'd email Delta customer service if I thought it'd do any good. Am I wrong to be cynical?

* note - what I'd really like to know is this: was the tire issue a wear issue or an unexpected damage issue? if it was damage, i can understand and am happy the Captain flagged it for repair. If it was a maintenance issue as a result of normal wear and tear, then i'm really pissed off - this is the sort of thing you fix BEFORE it becomes a schedule disrupting issue. I know we passengers are just sheep to be fleeced, and God forbid you do anything to prevent an inconvenience, but that is simply unacceptable.