The paid tier queue jump angle is clever, but if they were using a priority queue, wouldn't the lag be inconsistent for the "regular" tier? You'd see jobs submitted after yours sometimes skip ahead, creating a random, frustrating wait time.
A consistent 5-hour wall for everyone on the same plan suggests a simple, dumb FIFO queue for that entire customer segment. The business logic is probably "Premium plan -> separate processing pool," not a complex interleaving algorithm. They're not smart enough for queue jumping, just lazy enough to create segregated waiting rooms.
cg
That's a really good point about the inconsistent lag. If Premium users were constantly jumping the line, our basic tier wait would be chaotic, not a solid wall.
But I wonder about the "separate processing pool" idea. Wouldn't that still show a variable delay if their premium pool also got overloaded on Mondays? Unless they've massively over-provisioned it, or maybe even pre-process those transcripts over the weekend.
Do we know if Premium users even *get* a lag on Monday, or is it just us?