When I read this story and these comments I was frankly too livid to post any of my own. But now here on the 7th page of stupidly off-point comments mixed in with genuine outrage I have to make an observation.

This is just the HouCrew's United.

• This is the United Airlines that will outsource any formerly well-run service regardless of the quality the customer sees
• This is the United Airlines that hates its employees so much that they have stripped them of any power to do the right thing. In fact, so much so that the parents here had to remind the agents that they were also parents before they would even consider waking-up and breaking out of the Craptinantal customer service mode.
• This is the United Airlines that would rather do ANYTHING than help a customer. Some of us aren’t 10 year old girls and will push back at surly and indifferent GAs and FAs when they ignore us.
• This is the United Airlines that just doesn't give a damn about any of its passengers. They'll just as soon strand them in a foreign country for days or shirk their contracted responsibility to act as their temporary guardian
• This is the United Airlines that is quick to sell you an additional service for a fee (UM, Insurance, Codeshare, etc.) but then doesn't take ANY responsibility for it once they’ve collected their fee (“you have to call the people fulfilling the service, not us”)
• This is the United Airlines being run by lawyers and bean counters instead of people who understand the airline industry, running a business or customer service in general.
• This is the United Airlines that short sighted, ignorant, greedy, lying Continental management created.

Smisek and his cronies should be punished for what they have done to the workers and customers of this company. Frankly, for this incident they should be jailed. If it were my child I’d press charges of fraud. It's no different than any local day-care worker promising supervision and failing to deliver it, putting my child in danger. They should not be permitted to offer the service again - lose their license. In this context, it should mean being barred from running an airline that flies live people.