On UA 574 today, SFO-IAD, and it shows that pmUAs culture isn't entirely gone.
We pushed back on time (6am), and headed to the departure runway. Before we got there, we stopped, and the captain came on to tell us not to worry, but that we soon see fire trucks alongside, due to overheating brakes on the right bogey. Sure enough, San Francisco's finest were quickly on scene. After inspecting the assembly, we were given the go-ahead for a tow back to another gate. We were back at the gate by 7:15, and once we deplaned, there was a supervisor and two CSRs on hand to handle rebookings for people with connections. 20 minutes after we arrived at the gate, we were told to go to another gate where a different aircraft was awaiting. All the luggage was removed and reloaded, and we pushed back on the new bird at 8:30.
I stopped by the FD to chat with the pilots upon reboarding to thank them for putting safety first, and the captain told me had we taken off, we'd likely have experienced a fire, as while on taxi, the right bogey was 350 degrees F.
The icing on the cake was the purser. The previously full F cabin now had 3 empty seats. The supervisor (wearing a pmCO red coat) wanted to push back without upgrading those on the upgrade list, and the purser firmly insisted that the supervisor print her a copy of the UG list so she could fill the empty seats.
Thank goodness the front line employees still care about their valued customers.