as219

Are you kidding? Your comparisons make no sense at all. The chance that (a) a given UA employee doesn't understand the rules, (b) won't relent even when presented with a printout of the rules, and (c) a SD can be found who does know the rules and is willing to apply them correctly before one's flight leaves is immeasurably greater than being hit by an asteriod, being mistakenly arrested as a terrorist, or any other fanciful scenario you can concoct. Whenever one relies on other human beings to behave in a certain way within the confines of a specific time window one is rolling the dice.

Clearly you are less risk-averse than some -- armed with your research, a computer printout, a very good knowledge of how UA works, you took a chance by flying a same-day turn to DME without a visa. Yes, the rules appeared to be clearly on your side. Yes, you did you homework. But in the absence of a TR from someone else actually reporting that it worked, you had no way to know with any significant degree of certainty (a) that you'd be allowed to board and (b) that things would pan out at DME. This isn't to say you weren't at all sure -- you did your homework, to the benefit of yourself and all of us on FT (^). But come on, your risk of being denied boarding and/or being hassled at DME was surely greater than being hit by an asteriod, and definitely more difficult to measure ahead of time. I mean, who knows what some bonehead here or there would have done at T-30 minutes to departure?

I salute your pioneering spirit, and again, I think you've done a great service for the FT community by going out on a limb and reporting back. But in light of what happened to our friend at BOS, I think it's simply inaccurate to say that "there is absolutely no cause to" worry about things going wrong.