No, "we" have not recognized any such thing. My statement said merely that following policy explicitly and without deviation is not always the "correct" thing to do; I did not state whether or not, in this case, policy was followed. All that I stated or implied in the previous post was that following policy to the letter is not necessarily the right thing to do, irrespective of whether or not policy was followed in your particular case. Gate agents are given leeway to deviate from standard operating procedure when they deem it necessary or beneficial; they are given such leeway for a reason. That leeway is granted by policy which supersedes other policy, so....

As I answered the first time around, none. Even if policy was not followed (and I am not stating that it wasn't), you did not lose anything to which you were guaranteed or entitled; you flew on your originally-ticketed itinerary, which was delayed due to circumstances outside of UA's control. Hence, "fair" compensation would be: nothing. IMHO.