Allowing a passenger to act like they're law enforcement, by using the authority of the flight attendants who bought the story to call real law enforcement, is just another example of how UA instantly reacts in the most negative way that is at hand. In the air? Just boot the woman to coach, too bad old woman. Hope you suffer (and did for weeks). On the ground? Call the cops. In some sense this nonsense is actually worse than a strike. At least with a strike, you can make alternative plans. Here we have abuse that happens to people at random. That will scare away people even if your ontime percentage is 100%. Who cares about arriving on time if you have to put up with abuse -- usually verbal but now they're getting physical -- along the way?