It's not a rumor, it's indeed true, effective Jan 1, according to the inflight briefing provided to me by a friend:
Pacific market
All United Economy beer, wine, sparkling wine and sake in the Pacific market will no longer be complimentary. We are confident that our overall product remains competitive in this market.
Wow, just wow. Bolding mine, I got a huge laugh at that. If anyone doubted the race to the bottom through 1,000 cuts, here is your proof. I guess that $2b in cuts has to come from somewhere...
Oh, and btw in the same inflight briefing UA announced they are reducing the amount of seat recline across the fleet (and it's not just Y) in order to make it 'uniform' to the entire fleet, whatever that means.