It ended up being interesting,very busy day with lots of cancellations at JFK leading to chaos at LGA. I ended up going standby on one flight earlier that was delayed two hours but still earlier than my confirmed flight which was 2 hours delayed. I ended up getting on the earlier flight and they gave me an exit middle. While in my seat, ready to take off they requested 15 volunteers to deboard due to weight - I did that and got back on my original confirmed flight with an exit aisle (this time non-reclining but still good) and a $500 AMEX gift card for volunteering to deplane the flight which I was standby on... and on awards ticket mo less

One thing I should have tried with the gate agent was to get Delta Comfort instead of exit - that is probably better when the gate agents are being generous with seats due to needed to rebook passengers last minute