It's 2014. It should be possible to plan a lunch meeting with little lead time, little cushion, and proper recourse when it doesn't work out. After all, our time is valuable, and DL has been doing this a long time. When delays happen, for whatever reason, it should be possible to be told there are delays, the likely extent of the delays, and plan accordingly i.e., cancel the trip and proceed directly home, as the OP stated he wanted to do. Is this really too much to ask, instead of being led on a merry-go-round of lies and incompetence that stranded OP instead of getting him back to NYC?