Originally Posted by PRWeezer

For example: I recall a mid-morning flight ATL-DFW & our inbound plane arrived with a maintenance issue. They announced...we're either delayed until 1:00 or moving to another gate, stand by. About 5 minutes later they moved us to another gate where the same aircraft type was available that wasn't scheduled to depart for a couple of hours. It had the exact configuration so the computer/GA didn't even have to re-seat pax. They hedged their bets on getting the mtc issue fixed in time for the later flight, and they were willing to take the extra time to get bags, cargo, etc. moved to the new plane vs a 3+ hour delay on the earlier flight.