Would have been better to just say we have a technical issue with the plane, and the company will be looking into a replacement plane or re-accomodation. You do have to say something, although I guess if you really wanted to you could make the CSA come down and do an announcement in the cabin.

I did that exactly once. Long flight, late in the evening, crew was in danger of timing out due to previous delays. Gate was aware of that but she was screwing around with announcements and trying to change people's seats around, familes sitting together blah blah. I reminded her that we really needed to just get them boarded and go, and she snapped at me about letting her do her job and that timing out was my problem. When the inevitable happened I made her come back down and break the bad news to the folks.

As I walked past the angry mob at the gate enroute to the hotel, I think she realized who's problem it really was.

 

Same problem with a different circumstance. We were waiting for misconnects and baggage due to Wx delays. Situation was explained, but they again insisted they were in charge of the boarding gate. Well long story short we timed out, after notification to Ops, OCC sent us back to the hotel. I called the gate agent to demonstrate their leadership and make the cheerful announcement to the passengers. Walking past the gate agent, I remarked "Remember.... tuition comes at a high price".

 

I refused a plane going to HNL without a potable water system! The CP called me and tried to convince me there would be trouble. The plane had been flying back and forth that way for a week. I called the FDA, and the inspector told me I could be fined and well as the crew for serving food and not having running water for anyone to wash. After telling the company I would take the jet, but no food or beverage, service, they pulled it.