Based on my initial hunch that something resulting from all the ALTERS was making PostgreSQL planner end up with bad plans, I tried a pg_dump and pg_restore. Now the 'bad' query comes back in 70 seconds (compared to 20 minutes earlier) and the rewritten query still comes back in 2 seconds. So we will stick with the re-written query. -- View this message in context: http://postgresql.1045698.n5.nabble.com/Query-performance-issue-tp4753453p4773061.html Sent from the PostgreSQL - performance mailing list archive at Nabble.com. -- Sent via pgsql-performance mailing list (pgsql-performance@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx) To make changes to your subscription: http://www.postgresql.org/mailpref/pgsql-performance