That's what the GA at BHM told me when she gave me the meal voucher I had requested after my flight's posted departure delay pushed past 3 hours due to a mechanical and the subsequent search for a replacement CRJ.

I kept it pretty quiet—I told only the young woman I was chatting with during the delay. With my encouragement, about ten minutes later, she (no status) asked the same GA for a meal voucher and was denied with the explanation that the delay was weather related.

Was the GA simply doing me (a 1K) a favor, or is a 3+ hour mechanical delay grounds for distributing meal vouchers to everyone?

As it turned out, the $15 voucher was enough to buy us both lunch at BHM.