Still probably better than ATL. It was a cluster last night. It took the poor GA ~ an hour to load the 757 to MCO because the ticket reader broke down and there were ~ 100 extra pax in the gate area waiting on standby (2 earlier flights were canceled).

SkyTeam777's flight from ELP-ATL was diverted to BHM and then the windshield of their CR9 broke.. they got bussed to ATL and got there a bit after midnight (original arrival was scheduled around 3pm-ish).

I'm presuming that from an operational standpoint, each flight is treated as it's own entity, with no swapping around. I'd imagine that if you wanted flight #1 to take over flight #2's spot, there might be a requirement to change flight plans, etc.

Not logical to a pax stuck on the first flight, yet operations isn't sometimes logical. Would be really cool if someone with intimate knowledge of airline operations could put out a word on this one.

It was quite the adventure, but the BHM agents were a dream...they had 8 diversions on the ground (albeit only half deplaned), the others remained on board. No intl birds on the ground though. Since it was a mechanical for us, DL put us up in hotels in ATL and gave meal vouchers. It was truly a case study in how things should really work. The pax were quite cooperative (except for the nonrev who sat behind me in FC with her two screaming toddlers who were not happy to be so delayed, I felt bad for her, but it gave me a headache...didnt think nonrevs could have young kids in FC).

ATL was a mess the next morning too, but most people seemed to take it well.