The father seems a bit paranoid if he actually believes United set up a buffer zone around them so they would not talk to the other passengers about their experience with AA.
Vanderhorst said they were seated in the last row of the plane and noticed that the immediate rows in front of them and next to them were empty.
"We were put in the back seat of the bus and there was a buffer zone around us," he said. "I don’t think the airlines wanted us chatting with our fellow passengers about what had just happened at American Airlines."
I believe there's probably way more to the story than he is saying.