This may be a long story, so bear with me...

I was on a 2:00 PM flight out of JFK a little while back. We actually "boarded" on time, without any real hassle. Everyone got on the plane, we pushed back, and it looked like things were good to go. But then, in the middle of nowhere, we stopped. We sat around for what was at least 30 minutes before the captain came over the PA and said they were having engine problems or something like that, and that a mechanic was on his way to check it out.

An hour later, we hadn't received any kind of update and the pax were getting rather annoyed. FYI, this was a regional jet so there was no real food on board and everyone started to feel really cramped. The captain finally came on and said they were still looking at things to see if it could be fixed there on the ground. Again, we waited, this time for another hour and a half.

At this time, the FA announced we would be de-planing and heading back to the terminal. After another 45 minutes or so, buses finally arrived to take us back. We were not offered vouchers or meal tickets or anything. In fact, when we got back in the terminal no one even knew what we were doing. The gate that the bus dropped us off at had no GA. No one even knew where to go. I assumed the flight had been canceled.

I headed outside of the terminal because I knew everyone would be going to the agents inside, and I assumed the Medallion check-in area would be less busy. It wasn't. There was a long line, but once I did get to an agent, she couldn't do anything for me because the flight was still showing as active. In fact, it still said the flight was departing in 30 minutes.

So I asked her to print me another boarding pass so I could run back through security to re-board. But because I was in the system as having boarded, she couldn't. She called her supervisor (I'm assuming), and it seemed like she didn't believe I could be "boarded" and standing at check-in at the same time. Finally, she decided to just print out a Gate Pass, or whatever they're called.

I rushed that to TSA, they looked at it and asked, "Who are you accompanying?" The Gate Pass had a note that said "accompanying pax." I explained my situation but to no avail. I quickly dashed back to check-in, but by the time I went through the line again, the flight had departed. By now, it was too late to catch another flight so I asked her to put me on the first flight the next day. However, once I got back home I decided to just cancel my trip altogether. When I called Delta, they would not cancel and refund my ticket, so I ended up taking the next-day flight anyway. This was just a quick trip to visit my family back home, and I was able to get Delta to extend my itinerary by one day at no extra charge.

But I'm still wondering if I should have been able to get my refund. Also, shouldn't we have received compensation for waiting 4+ hours on the runway? Isn't there a federal regulation about stuff like that?