a few quick comments:

1) we were the only 2 people that were on our late flight from SEA-LAX that was going LAX-PVR. as soon as the 2 of us got onboard, the plane to PVR took off. i.e., it wasn't a situation where there were 50 of us in a big group going to PVR and we were all delayed.

2) there is only one flight per day from LAX-PVR on alaska. if we would have missed it, alaska would have had to book us on the next flight to PVR on another airline if they would send us that day or if they only would book us on alaska, we would have had to wait until the next day. of course there's no guarantee that there are empty seats on the next day's flight.

3) we were nervous because our vacation was pretty short (only 3 nights) so eating 1 night would be a big chunk of our vacation.

4) i guess it makes sense for alaska to hold the plane a little bit (maybe 5-20 minutes?) but not hours. if it's hours, i'd hope they would book us on another airline's flight but wasn't sure if they'd do that. i did do some research while waiting during the delay and saw a few other airlines with flights later that day but of course the price was really high.

i'm glad i didn't have to find out but i asked mainly because i'm planning another trip to mexico next winter and knowing what happens would give me some peace of mind.