When I book with SuperShuttle, I have to provide airline flight information, including actual flight number. This is whether I schedule online or over the phone. Then I'm told what the available pickup windows are. They are very very generous in their time estimates and frankly, sometimes it's irritating that I get stuck waiting 2+ hours at the gate because they allow so much time. You don't get to tell them when you want the pickup.

I think they build in such an enormous time cushion precisely because they don't want to be held accountable if someone misses a flight because of unexpected traffic delays or pax pickup delays. The driver will know pax flight times, and he must have counted on not hitting traffic or encountering any other pax pickup delays.

Why is everyone piling on the OP?
While I absolutely detest being kept waiting, he made it abundantly clear what his situation was.

It really rests with the driver - and his desire to milk the situation.

The driver certainly would have been within SOP to just leave the OP and the OP even expected it.

I do take SuperShuttle occasionally and they are on the only shuttle I am willing to use locally. I find their service to generally be prompt, reasonable and efficient. Their drivers seem to be well-connected to dispatch and it doesn't feel cheesey and scammy like most of the other services.

IME, they always want to pick me up a ridiculous amount of time in advance - i suppose to plan for such contingencies. It sounds like the driver was taking a calculated risk to be able to pick-up the downstream passengers within the allotted time frame and still extort money from the OP.

Actually, I don't blame the OP, who could arguably have expected the driver to leave (although he could also have told the driver to do so). I would blame the driver, and not just for ripping off the OP.

I take shared vans, know that they build in a cushion, and fully understand why. But if a pax is out there ready for a pickup scheduled for 7:00 to 7:15 and has to wait until 7:45, in the meantime the pax won't know (without calling) if the van is a little late, very late, or has forgotten about the pickup altogether. It can be a bit nerve-wracking. Of course, if they originally gave the pax a 45-minute window for the pickup, then the pax is on notice that the cushion's built in there. Maybe they did that here; I don't know.

Actually, I've noticed that in recent months in my area, Shuttle Express is building in an extra 20-minute cushion.

They used to say 'Driver will be there at 4:30'. Driver was always exactly on time.

Now they say 'Driver will be there between 4:10 and 4:30'. Pickup time on the reservation is definitely shown at 4:10. If you get nervous (based on past punctuality) and call at 4:25, just to make sure there's no problem, dispatch will say "it's not 4:30 yet", and sure enough, the driver gets there by 4:30.

I think the extra 20 minutes is to be certain you've checked all the doors, bags zipped and outside, hat and coat on...so you're actually ready to go, not ready to start getting things together to go.

I had a similar extortion from an LAX Super Shuttle. I was ready at the hotel, on-time (actually ahead of time... driver wanted to leave early... probably would have if I wasn't ready early).

When I got to the shuttle I gave him my prepaid printout. He called his manager and talked for about 10 minutes. Eventually told me that my prepaid fare was only worth ~$30 (I had paid ~$40 for it). He told me my options were to pay the difference (I think it was another $40) or get a cab. His "manager" on the phone told me the same thing.

Since it was 40 miles to the airport, I figured paying for the difference with my Amex was the best answer.

I later complained to Super Shuttle. Their new answer was that my prepaid fare was not good from that zone. Turns out that I was actually a zone closer than I had paid for (it was unclear where the exact boundaries were, so I selected the farther zone).

Luckily, Amex saw this as an extortion and I got my money back.

Its crazy to me that everyone is railing on the OP. I'm the LEAST patient person when it comes to waiting, but the OP got screwed in this situation. SuperShuttle is in the business of scheduling passenger pickups at a prescribed time and then delivering said passengers to an airport. Even if a passenger demands the driver wait (which the OP did not - he clearly stated he was having an issue, and he was expecting the driver to leave), I am sure there are company policies re: how long the driver may wait. Just like you wouldn't call up the pilot of your flight to give him permission to leave or demand he stay if you're running late, how is it the OPs obligation to direct the driver to stay or leave if the OP is late? To me, sounds like the driver wanted to extort money from the OP, so decided to stay, so he could charge the $100 "late fee".

Anyways, that is BS. I would have FLIPPED MY .... had I been asked for $100 above what I had already prepaid. And had I felt that I was actually in danger (which is UNACCEPTABLE), I probably would've called the police once at the airport.

I'm really glad you got the refund, and I hope that driver loses his job and can't get hired anywhere else, for lack of a reference from his previous employer. That driver would've gotten no compassion from me.