Last week, flying HNL to the East Coast (not on Delta), we took at three-hour delay because someone -- I'm assuming a flight attendant -- managed to deploy the emergency evacuation slide upon arrival of the inbound flight. The flight was on the verge of cancelling until one of the carrier's gate agents called her brother, a maintenance supervisor at HNL for another airline, who found a spare emergency slide (kid you not). It took about two hours to install it and inspect the installation, but, lo and behold, it worked.

Most irritating delay: PHL-SFO. After a roughly one-hour delay for whatever reason, we board the plane. Another 25 minutes pass as the pilots complete paperwork. Then, we push pack. About three minutes later, as we're sitting on the ramp waiting to enter the taxiway, a passenger rings her call button: She was told she wouldn't have to fly if the flight was delayed, she tells the flight attendants who answers, and if she takes this flight she thinks she'll miss her connection to Vegas. Instead, she wants to get off the plane, drive to Newark, and attempt to make an EWR-LAS nonstop -- a nonstop that was, I believe, scheduled to depart less than three hours from that moment.

The FA tries to talk her down. Another FA tries to talk her down. She is insistent.

The captain comes on the PA with what even I considered a surprisingly contemptuous tone and explains that since somebody has decided at this moment that she doesn't want to fly, we're all going to have to return to the gate and take another 45-60-minute delay. The passenger, who already seemed fairly charged, is now outraged and tearful. Upon return to the gate, she walks off the plane as passengers audibly criticize her to her face.

And then, after another 25-30 minutes, or or two other passengers decide to leave since they'll misconnect. Finally, the pilot comes on again to give something of an ultimatum ("leave now or forever hold...," in essence). The rest of us sit, we push, and we land in SFO about 2.5 hours late.