Originally Posted by iamthehpt

I recently was on a Christmas Eve flight from DFW to SMF which was delayed (mechanical - one of the engines wouldn't start). I spent quite a bit of time talking to the FAs and learned that they were flying to SMF, then flying the return flight to DFW. The four hour delay meant that they would miss Christmas Eve evening with their families. Due to the delay, the crew would be legal "on paper only" to fly the return flight but technically had exceeded their legal flying time and would have been within their rights to refuse to fly.