That was when UAL's stock was trading around $80-100, I believe. The call centers were also severely overstaffed. UA had a policy of keeping average wait times low, around 30 seconds or so. It made sense back then because this was still before internet booking really took off, so most people still bought over the phone (except for those of us who used United Connection on dial-up and never looked back ). Almost on a daily basis, the managers would send the agents home early. Many agents loved it because they could usually count on working just 1-2 hours a day (or less, if they had enough seniority) while receiving full-time benefits for themselves and their family. It was a gravy train that you knew was wrong, but with business going so well, why question the execs who obviously understood the business better than we? But in hindsight, it's not surprising at all why most of those jobs went to India.