Thanks all for the thoughtful responses - while I was obviously frustrated by the general [mess] that day, really I'm generally just looking for some general insights so that i can make better decisions (i.e. look at whether the inbound flight is delayed rather than "on-time" status of your flight as a predictor of an on-time departure).
To to OP: Did they end up canceling the flight or by some miracle did they find a crew?
They did find a crew, but we had to wait an additional 1.5 hours for an FA (the original FA told us he was timed out as well and was going home - when we told this to the gate agent she told us he had been recalled, we waited for 1.25 hours (while the new flight crew had been there for ~1 hr) and then were told the original FA was now off shift (which we had already told them) - and they were getting us a new one, who thankfully showed up fairly quickly)
Accordingly, CCO becomes the driving factor on whether or not we can operate that flight. If our CCO is 2204z, then we've got to be airborne at that time....period. If we can't get airborne by 2204z, we either don't leave the gate....or we have to taxi back to the gate and re-crew. It is really out of our hands on what happens at that point.....we either get the plane off by 2204z....or we don't.
This makes complete sense to me - what doesn't completely jive though is how a fairly minor delay to a short flight (that was coming back later that day with the same crew) could be allowed to timeout in IAH, either:
A. if the crew was that close to timing out in IAH, they would have definitely timed out in PBI on the return - one would have thought that replacing the crew proactively would have been the better solution ? (just figure there are more resources at IAH than PBI)
B. Option A Actually did happen and the crew just told us that they timed out in IAH when really operations wanted to swap them out so the plane didn't get stranded in PBI.
C. Some combination of other options - or just that perhaps the flights were scheduled in such a way that that it was impossible to complete within crew timelines?
I sometimes get aggravated that passengers think we're up the there ready to delay or cancel a flight as a bonus to us and to screw the passenger. If you look into the FAA regulations, you'll understand that there are literally thousands of things we must abide by and make sure we comply with that sometimes might inconvenient the passenger. But a lot of the times our license/career are at stake and that just isn't worth the risk. As a passenger today, one must accept the risk of a delay or cancellation as apart of modern air travel.
I'm sympathetic - I don't think pilot's, FA's, gate agents, etc. set out to screw anyone. however, they often get put in the difficult position where personal interest, regulatory issues, customer service, etc. conflict - and when that happens incentives and emotions are very powerful and shape decisions at the margin. Getting paid and getting to go home early, not losing your license, doing your job well, etc. are all motivating factors - i'm just trying to figure out what they are...
As to the "audit", it's not a lark, but part of the ability to use the jump seat rather than taking up a passenger seat.
Agreed, but not so awesome when you need to take time to add oxygen so that that person can use the jumpseat...