Over the holidays, Keri Wilmot’s 14-year-old son was flying home alone from his Massachusetts boarding school to Texas when mechanical issues caused a delay that dragged on long enough that the flight crew timed out. Falling squarely at the height of one of the busiest travel periods of the year, flights were of course oversold, meaning his best option was to wait through the 12-hour delay. Since American Airlines’ rules for unaccompanied minors required a guardian (in his case, a school chaperone) to get a gate pass and stay with him at the gate until the flight took off, he was never left alone—and his dad picked him up safely in Dallas at 1:30 a.m.