I had a curious experience yesterday as a result of the Chicago blizzard and was wondering if someone could comment on whether what happened to me is the norm or whether it's because I encountered a particularly helpful CSR.

I found out my original flight (on Virgin America) from SFO to ORD was cancelled. I didn't have time to deal with their customer service, so I just booked a one-way on the next non-cancelled flight out that I could find. This happened to be a United flight. I bought a one-way fare 3 hours before departure (A class -- it cost a fortune). I have no status whatsoever on United -- just a generic member with a seldom used ff number.

This flight took off on time but got diverted to MSP. At MSP, the flight was cancelled. There were a couple of 1K's I sat next to on my flight who said they were rebooked on a delta flight to Chicago leaving in an hour. I raced to a nearby gate that hadn't yet been crowded with people trying to rebook and was able to get on that same delta flight.

Now here's the weird part. When picking up my ticket, the delta agent told me that there were 50 open seats on that flight. By the time we boarded (after another half hour delay), there were still 40 open seats!

There must have been at least 200 people trying to get to Chicago from the various diverted United flights that ended up in MSP. Why weren't more of them on my flight? Did they not think to ask to get put on the Delta flight? Does United have a policy of only rebooking certain fare classes? Was the gate agent I talked to just plain awesome?

I ask because if there is some unwritten rule that full fare first class gets rebooked for weather-related cancellations whereas economy doesn't, it will strongly incentivize me to book first class tickets if I suspect weather might be an issue.