1. Posting a rant on FT and $3 gets you a coffee at a major chain barista.

2. Constructive suggestions such as "check your itineraries" or hang up and dial back, are helpful. Whether they ought to be necessary in a perfect world is besides the point.

3. Roughly the same criticisms are leveled at AA (which had a 44% delay/cancellation rate last month) and DL. UA knows that. There's basically no competition. And what competition there is will be all the more less after AA is acquired.