After we boarded the plane, the captain and the crew announced the real reason for the delay. It did have to partially do with weight and balance but primarily the issue was that one of the 8 emergency exit doors was inoperable so they had to reseat everyone in front of that exit and behind it. It was the left emergency exit door rear of the wing (so door 3 if counting from the front of the plane on the left side or door 2 if counting from the rear of the plane on the left side).

I am still a little confused as to how we were able to fly with 7 of 8 emergency exit doors operating since I thought passengers had to have doors in front and behind them within so many feet of each seat in case the other exit was blocked during the emergency but I guess this is not the case.

In addition, the plane I believe may have had other mechanical issues since the plane was really having issues during the final 20 minutes of decent including shaking left and right, pitching up and down, flying speeds that seemed to be slower than normal during the decent. We were only going 160 mph when we were at 10,000 feet which when I have always flown into PHL on an A330 in the past we are usually going about 200 mph - 240 mph at that point. In addition, when we landed the onscreen display said our altitude was 110 feet high while it usually says 0 or within a few feet of zero.

A very interesting experience to say the least including a passenger throwing up 10 minutes after takeoff. I prefer less eventful flights whenever possible but realize that is not always possible. The flight attendants were great and took all of these things in stride.