I was in one of those torture chambers for a flight from OMA to ATL (826 miles) back in 2011. We were on the runway when the captain announced ATC had just delayed our takeoff for 45 minutes.

I made it to my connecting gate in ATL in time to see my connecting flight to SRQ push back. I had already been rebooked on a later flight into SRQ that would have put me there 3 hours later than my original arrival time, which was fine.

However, they were short 1 flight attendant and it took over an hour for them to find a replacement. After we finally boarded over an hour late, the stress of the situation got to an older lady in the row ahead of mine and she suffered a spew attack. Getting her off the plane and cleaning up the mess delayed us another hour.

All worked out fine in the end. Although I got home 6+ hours later than I should have, a note to Delta got me 5,000 miles for my trouble that day.