Variation on a theme....

What should happen when an ATC delay is cancelled, all passengers in the gate area have boarded, and it's now the original boarding time, BUT, several passengers aren't in the gate area?

Yesterday, GSO-EWR, EMB-145, scheduled departure 5:35pm. Received ATC delay notification at 2:08pm that the flight will now depart at 6:41pm. At 5:20pm the pilot comes out and tells the GA that they've just lifted the ATC delay and we can leave on-time if everyone boards right away. 5-10 minutes later everyone in the gate area had boarded. At about T+5, the pilot comes on the PA and announces that several checked-in passengers couldn't be located, so they had to wait. He said one factor in waiting was that UA didn't change the delayed departure time on the App/Website, and they felt that those passengers were relying on the online info. Several passengers started grumbling about their tight connections in EWR. Needless to say, when the 4 missing passengers showed up, they weren't exactly welcomed on. We backed away from the gate at 6:04pm, then lost our EWR slot & sat on the tarmac awhile. Ended up arriving 30 minutes late in EWR, and that was only because of a strong tail wind.

Did UA do the right thing? The rules say you have to be at the gate at the original departure time, but how many infrequent flyers know that? I'm guessing the late arriving passengers had timed their arrival at the airport to the delay time, since you can walk the length of the GSO airport in about 10 minutes and they would have heard the announcement that the flight was boarding. I would hate to think that any of the passengers who did board initially then missed their EWR connections.

Once again, shows how consideration to one group of passengers can adversely impact another group.