As far as I know, there's no official designation for how long a delay can be.
Looks like the OP got caught in DL's never-ending rolling delay of death. Sad to hear, but that's the type of service you might receive with DL. Cancellations aren't always the worst thing.
Originally Posted by
Often1
So, OP's post is missing the one critical detail, e.g., why was the flight delayed? The rest is all a red herring.
It was a late inbound almost certainly caused by a significant mechanical delay. The 763 (no A330s on HNL-LAX) scheduled for LAX-HNL arrived in LAX the evening before.