This problem is not just LGA. JFK can be a nighmare as well.

Case in point last night. I was at JFK. I was on a JFK-DCA flight schedule for 8:47. As I was heading to the airport it was delayed until 9:50. All do to late equipment. This was mainly due to congestion over NYC and ground delays at JFK.

9:50 comes and goes and our inbound plane is circling over Long Island due to congestion at JFK and LGA. The flight lands around 10ish. The crew sat and didn't allow the gate agents to board the flight and at 11:15ish the crew timed out and they cancelled the flight.

I immediately called the medallion line and got rebooked on the 5:45am shuttle from LGA to DCA. At around 11:30-11:45pm they announce the flight's back on! Half the passengers had already started to make flight changes so no ones boarding pass was working.

Once we boarded we found out Pinnacle put a new crew on the plane to "ferry" it to DCA. That's when the pilot said why don't we take these people along. Long story short, we left JFK around 12:15am and got into DCA around 1:15am.