I was a victim of the 4-hour maintenance delay on AC 109 (scheduled departure 10am) today. Stuff happens but considering the aircraft arrived at YYZ last night, posting the delay sooner would have left many more options to rebook. I was already at YYZ at ~7:45am when the delay appeared and all non-stop flights were already booked solid for the rest of the day.

Probably could have made it on an earlier YYZ YVR by hanging out at the gate and begging when no-shows are offloaded, but chose to route through YQR of all places (because I could get confirmed on it) and arrived "just" 1 hour late which was enough to make my appointment in Vancouver.

Oddly, check-in agent wouldn't rebook me. He consulted with a colleague who said "he booked a standard fare, no changes" (um, not when AC delays the flight I booked by 4 hours). After the problematic colleague walked away, he told me to just go airside and ask at that customer service desk and said something to the effect of "I couldn't do it with [other AC agent] here". Airside CS desk rebooked me no problem.