Last one was actually right before covid in March of 2020.

No, they are being paid. They are paid to do a job, some of which is at the gate.

that’s a simplification. Flight pay is from doors close to doors open and is much higher than duty pay.

This happened to me in SLC once with Delta. I had a 767-300 take me from LAX to SLC. The plane that was supposed to take me to MCI went tech and the flight was cancelled. I was routed on the same 763 to DEN where I changed to a UA 737-500 to head to MCI. What a trip.

I also flew from DTW to GRR on a DC-9-50 with Delta. A return later the same day put me back on that same plane, which then headed to MCI. Jokingly, the crew accused me of stalking them. I will never forget the registration number on the aircraft: N671MC.

I had flown every single one of Ethiopian Airlines' 787-8s except ET-ATI. In the last 2 weeks, I have had that exact aircraft on 3 consecutive flights including a random connection with last minute aircraft substitution. And I was assigned the exact same seat on all 3 flights as well. Go figure.

I have had that at least once, more or less. Even had the same FA crew on both flights. The more or less is because I was doing a MR and the flight was an out and back. So it turned around and returned to its base. I cannot remember if I had the same seat but one FA recognized me when I got back on and asked about my return. I thought about making up a fanciful story that I was transporting a million dollars worth of diamonds to a jeweler but just admitted making a MR. It was also at the end of the year so I was burning expiring drink coupons and ordering doubles time when the FA passed through the cabin during the service. I did admit to the person next to me who was a bit concerned when the forth bottle came that I was not drinking them just using the soon to expire coupons.

I had this exact scenario in Sep 2007 with a Delta 757 (N677DL, ATL-ONT-ATL)

also had the same DL 757 N681DL on both legs of my MCO-LAX-SEA connection in Jan 1994

going waaaaaaay back, on an Allegheny Airlines (USAir/US Airways predecessor) “Liberty Fare” trip in Jan 1976, I took a BAC 1-11 JFK-ALB and a DHC-6 Twin Otter ALB-SYR before continuing SYR-ROC-PIT and PIT-BAL … both the later flights were the same jet as the first flight (N1126J)

if I dig thru my log I’m sure I can find a dozen or so other occurrences

I’ve had this happen a couple of times in fairly recent memory (last three years)

FAI-ANC-PDX on AS
PDX-SLC-SAT on DL

There might be a few other examples that are slipping my mind. In general I would say it’s likely to happen from time to time to any frequent flier.

Edit: found another one from 2021, PDX-SEA-FAI on AS

Last few ones i can recall straight out would be:

DPS - KUL - MAA on Malaysian Airlines - July 2023
MAA - CMB - SIN on SriLankan Airlines - Multiple times over 2024

Cut and paste from a post I made regarding my situation in 2017:

Very frustrating scenario this morning, but I do not blame Delta.
My flight from LAN to DTW was delayed to due dense fog at DTW. Originally scheduled to depart LAN at 5:35am, it was announced there was a delay until 8:00. Passengers boarded around 7:40, then we had to de-ice, then sat for about 45 minutes. Captain announced that we could not leave because of the continued dense fog situation at DTW, so we went back to the gate and deplaned.
It was then announced the fog problem was gone, and most everyone then boarded again. Flight ended up leaving a little around 10:30, and arrived at DTW at 10:56.
The very unusual thing for me was that it was the exact same plane that was scheduled to go to RDU from DTW, which meant that flight also was continuously delayed for the same amount of time as the LAN-DTW flight.
The flight from DTW to RDU consisted of two passengers, me included. The other person had originated in LAN also.
I fly semi frequently, but I have never experienced both situations of the same plane going to the final destination and only two passengers on the plane.
Luckily, I did not have any critical meetings that morning, and I could reschedule for the afternoon.
Just thought I'd share.

LAX - DTW - XXX. Northwest. Same aircraft on both segments. When I got to my final destination, my bag was still in Detroit. They took it off the plane in Detroit and didn't reload it.

Now that's just rude. Sheesh!

I believe that this has happened to me twice times, from a smaller number of flights than the typical flyertalker. But, I'm not going to list the flights as I'm not 100% sure. It's not the kind of thing I've been taking notice of.

The only time I'm absolutely sure this sort of thing happened to me is Auckland, New Zealand, through Istanbul, Turkey, to ... pretty sure it was Manchester in the UK. We actually stayed on the plane for an hour or more. I remember walking to the open door of the plane so that I could look out and see Turkey. Which I didn't visit until decades later. Turkey looked like a runway covered in snow. (Might not have been an actual runway I was looking at.) But, this doesn't qualify as we didn't get to a gate.

I think that maybe it happened to me on Scoot Airlines in Bangkok in a flight which was London through Bangkok to Singapore. But, even though it was only a couple of years ago I'm struggling to remember if we were taken off the plane or not. I think we stayed on. Maybe.

Now that I know this is a point of interest on Flyertalk I'll take more interest.

Only one on British Airways that happened to me.

On Delta recently, a 737-900ER was to be used on my flight, originating from a Delta hub. The pilot was sick so they delayed the flight to the next morning. They moved the plane to a different gate but used the plane originally planned for the flight.