So I was flying BOS-PHL on US the other day and made one of the worst decisions in my flying career. We were booked on the 4:30 and are sitting at the gate around 3:50 getting ready to board. On comes the P/A system and says that our flight is oversold and they need 5 people to go on on the delayed 2:30 flight that was leaving at 4pm. I asked the gate agent what the delay was for and they said weather and the flight would be leaving before the one I was booked on.

Fine, so we "volunteer" to go on the earlier flight (I didn't ask for compensation as this "bump" was supposedly going to help me). We get on the plane and the pilot says that there is a ground hold and our release time isn't for another hour. Imagine my surprise when I see the other plane (right next to us) taxi out! We would later learn that our original flight landed 3 hours earlier than we did (and we had a really fun time sitting on the tarmac for 3 hours).

Now, what do you think went on here? Does US decide what flight leaves? Both were RJ's. Maybe it was a positioning thing. Or maybe the 2:30 was already delayed so it was a lost cause and they wanted to get the 4pm out to make it "on time"? More international pax connecting?

I would think that air traffic control wold make it so the delayed flight goes out before later ones, but I guess not. Any insight here? Thanks!