I put a friend on an award ticket this afternoon, from SFO to YYZ. The scheduled departure time was 12:35 but the flight was delayed. I kept checking the flight status on the AC web site and several on-line flight trackers. All of them showed the actual departure as 13:40.

But checking the AC web site again this evening the flight status indicates a departure time of 13:00, some 40 minutes earlier than previously stated. All of the flight tracking sites also indicated the flight was still on the ground during the period of 13:00-13:40.

So what gives? Is there some "slop" in the system, is there some sort of hanky-panky going on?

{The reason it's an issue is that the delay caused a missed connection. There should have been time to catch the next flight (the last of the day) but there were "baggage delays" of about 1 hour for the bags to appear on the customs hall carousel. My friend is now stranded in YYZ.}