Originally Posted by
mre5765
ORD has regular irregular ops. Even if there is a policy that UA cannot allow a switch-to or stand-by for a code share on different metal for non-irrops, given a destination or origin of ORD, how would anyone in UA corporate tell?
They could tell by doing an audit if/before the pertinent data is deleted. From past UA employee postings on FT it is apparent UA does audit flights to be sure procedures are followed by employees. An employee risks getting in trouble for doing things incorrectly like giving an unsupported upgrade for no operational reason, or in this case giving away UA's revenue to put a passenger on another airline when there was no operational reason to do so.
Not every flight is audited, so employees likely never know when it will happen.