Hey guys, thanks for all the replies! I'll see if I can clarify:

The plane was scheduled to depart at 9:28AM. We boarded, sat at the gate for a bit. The pilot announced that there was an electrical issue that they were looking at. Eventually (I'm not sure of the exact time), we taxiied away from the gate. We sat on the tarmac for a while. At 10:29 AM the pilot announced that they were going to head back to the gate to have the problems looked at in more detail and we could use our cell phones again. I emailed my wife at this time to let her know what was happening. At 10:48 I emailed her again "We've been sitting out here for more than 90 minutes now." The pilot announced that all the gates were occupied so we had to sit and wait for one to open up. At 11:24 I emailed her to say "We're back inside the terminal now." Everybody who needed to make a connection at LAX lined up for a customer service agent to make alternate plans. At 11:44 they announced that they were getting a new plane which would be towed to the next gate over, at which point it would be cleaned, and they would re-board and shoot for departure around 12:20 or 12:30pm.

At 11:58 they were still waiting for the new plane to be brought to the gate. I decided at that point to give up. Clearly it wasn't going to leave at 12:30 and I would miss too much of the conference to make it worthwhile.

@cordelli:
In my original request to United I simply checked the "flight was delayed or cancelled" checkbox. There wasn't a place to write a detailed explanation, nor did I think one would be required! Clearly the flight was delayed for more than 3 hours and clearly I didn't take it.

@nerd
Thanks for the tip - I found the flight record:
http://flightaware.com/live/flight/U...628Z/KSFO/KLAX

As you can see, it was scheduled to depart at 9:28AM, but didn't leave until 1:12PM. Clearly outside the 120 minute window. I don't know why they would claim it left at 10:00AM!


@TA
Hopefully my longer explanation cleared it up. I doubt ATC was involved, from what I could gather from the Captain's announcements it was an electrical issue with the plane.

Apart from my disbelief that United would claim the flight departed at 10:00, when it clearly didn't, I am further annoyed that every time I email them they say "it will take up to 14 business days to respond to you." And they certainly take their sweet time. The clock is ticking on me getting my credit card company involved. I guess I could call them and explain the situation.

I'm also annoyed because I have been a Mileage Plus member for years, and my company does tons of travel through United. I am definitely going to mention this to our frequent fliers here at work! It's only a measly $140 ticket, but it's the principal of the thing.