What United risks losing the most may not be so much elites, or once every few years "kettles", but those of us who fly cross country or more 4-5 times a year, often with our families. We fly enough to make collecting miles worthwhile, (often just below elite levels), but not enough to be worth collecting miles on multiple airlines.

Generally my family ends up on United because the fares and schedules work out (although the reductions on SMF-ORD make that less so).

My biggest fear is under IRROPs with our small children -- waiting in hours long lines for something that should take 5 minutes, being delayed/missing school for multiple days, losing carefully chosen (E-) seat assignments, having to raise my voice to get an "exception" that should be the rule, being booked on separate flights, are all major issues.

We've had a few flights cancelled/disrupted in the past on UA; in almost all cases the handling was as seamless as it could be (automatically rebooked on the next flight, just select seat at kiosk and print out the new BP; protected on the next connection without losing the original flight that we ended up making, and put on AA once with a call to reservations). None were completely convenient, but none as bad as *many* stories here.

This will make us seriously consider what airline to give our business to; perhaps it's better to try somone else for the next year or so to see how "United" settles in...