Originally Posted by
Peoriaman1
Not a totally unrelated observation: You know how people here love to complain about boarding number issues with Southwest? Imagine the chaos and complaints if they have to offload and not everyone (or anyone at all) gets their original numbers back to re-load.
I do suspect that this wouldn't be so bad now with digital boarding passes and the new policy of GAs handing you back your paper boarding pass. (But agreed that in most cases sitting on the plane will get you out sooner than going back to the gate).
Haven't seen this mentioned yet, but unexpected events like this are why I always make sure I have some water and a granola bar or something similar in my bag. (It's been helpful on flights where drink/snack service has been cancelled due to turbulence). If the OP's son hasn't been doing anything like that before, maybe it'd be a good takeaway from this experience.