Yes & no. Customer service is one thing, but allowing passengers to game the system is another. United cannot put themselves in the position of "the customer is always right" and accept that what they're saying is the truth. Unfortunately, bad apples aren't limited to corporate board rooms and the occasional surly front line folk. There are a lot of people out there who would have no issues whatsoever claiming something not true, in order to get something they haven't earned, don't deserve, whatever.

I deal with this frequently in my own business, and it's so darned easy to catch because we do have specific ways of doing business that differ from the norm, so when somebody tells me they came in last week and talked with the owner of the business and he said we'd sell this bike for x amount less than it says on the tag... and it doesn't occur to the "customer" that I might actually be that owner... this happens more often than you would believe.

My guess is that, out of every 100 customers, 95 are wonderful people. A high percentage in large part because our audience is somewhat preselected. But that leaves 5 that would do whatever possible to get the best of you. And of course you pay more attention to those 5 bad apples than you should! They are not the norm. It would be interesting to hear FastAir's take on things... how many are legit vs trying to game the system. However, this may not be the place for that degree of honesty. It could be so easily taken the wrong way and seen as United thinking all of their customers are petty thieves out to get them.

What United has to do is ensure that, when they screw up, they go above & beyond in making things right with the customer. Don't ever tell the customer they lied, just stick to the facts as they know them, give the customer the information they need to fill out a complaint, and deal with it quickly. And if it turns out United is in the wrong, then do something really nice for the customer.