Kyle,

I have never had your specific situation at EWR, but I would sadly say that your experience is fairly close (if a little more extreme) than par for the course at EWR.

On the whole, I find the CO ground staff exceedingly grumpy, grouchy, rude, dismissive, etc.

As you write, the irony is that UA is the official airline of the USOC and all the affiliated NGB's (of which USA Bobsled & Skeleton is one, obviously) have an arrangement with UA that allows athletes to bring in their equipment, usually at no charge whatsoever.

Even though the two airlines have "merged," CO is obviously not playing by UA's rules yet.

Next time I would suggest flying UA...soon enough there won't be any CO any more anyway.