I have only had a perfect experience leaving Chicago O’Hare once. Every other time I have been delayed. Normally I fly to Buffalo, NY which saves hundreds of dollars over flying to Rochester, NY.
Yesterday I drove my roommate to the airport a bit early for his flight so I had some time to kill. Unfortunately I had deleted all my good movies from my computer and my books were buried deep in my bag, so I began to watch some Star Wars Episode III (yes, I know, I skipped a lot of it). My flight was delayed further and further from 4:44 to 5:55 eventually, and around 5:30 I walked up to the gate to board and it was already closed! I had missed my flight by 5 minutes and I was sitting not 100 yards away. The lady at the United counter definitely made me feel like it was my fault (since when do planes leave early though?) At customer service though they were much nicer and actually booked me on a flight to Rochester at no additional charge at 7:15. I ran into John Charles at McDonalds, and when I boarded the plane I found out my seat was in an exit row in Economy Plus which gave me enough space to stretch out my legs (ordinarily this costs $30 to upgrade). There were a lot of people on standby for the flight too, so Providence was certainly good to me.