...One flight a few months ago we were put on a Boeing small enough (one aisle, no galley space) that it didn't have enough fuel to hold at Philadelphia and we had to stop at Boston to fuel up, delaying us by a couple of hours.
That is hardly unprecedented - Laker Airways DC-10-10s were marginal on westbound range LGW-JFK. They had to file to Bangor, Maine, and then if all was favorable (winds, traffic ...) they could re-file while enroute to go direct to JFK. 90+% of the time, they didn't need the Bangor stop; but when they did stop, they cleared customs at Bangor and thus came to JFK as a domestic arrival, so little time was lost overall.