Flying yesterday out of EWR. Pop up storm cells in the Northeast slowed operations to a crawl, especially departures (2nd day in a row).

We taxied out after a delay due to weather, but returned to gate just prior to the 3 hr limit due to airspace congestion. EWR is vulnerable in that regard, I am used to it, as it is one of my home airports, unfortunately.

Upon returning to gate, I asked the gate agent to cancel my reservation, as the return flight is tomorrow, and I already missed my appointment at destination. 15 minutes after his acknowledgment, the reservation still appeared in the app. The gate agent removed the return segment, but not the outbound - I was marked as "deplaned". Luckily I was still at the airport, went back, and confronted him. He admitted he didn't process in full, and "cancelled" my reservation, or so I thought.

I was still having doubts, with phone lines jammed, I opened a chat session in the app. The agent on the chat confirmed the reservation was never cancelled. Within 5 minutes, he cancelled my reservation, and I got an email confirmation for the refund request.

Luckily the outbound flight ended up being cancelled. Otherwise, I would have been marked as no show, and lost the paid fare.