Think about this logically folks:
1. The DOT rules are *VERY* clear on this. If you spend the time to read them you will see that United really has no choice. The are legally bound to honor any confirmed tickets or pay a penalty far, far higher than what they would have lost in YQ.
2. Whomever is ultimate exposed here (United, Wideroe, Amadeus) as the one at fault will have to just work it out with the other two. It will likely be handled behind the scenes, and everyone will fly on their tickets without impact.
3. The fact that UA allowed all those people to fly from the mainland to Hawaii and elsewhere back in September of this year on tickets costing less than $10 should be an indication that everyone is safe. In that instance, UA *might* have had a way to worm out of it since the tickets were basically given away as opposed to sold, but they chose to let it go. As reported on FT, some people bought upwards 15 RT tix, and still UA will honor every single one of them.
4. The PR exposure would be a nightmare, especially for an airline that doesn't need any more bad PR after just substantially devaluing their FF program. If you notice, while the issue was reported in the Norwegian press, it was not reported by any major media outlets here in the U.S. While it's the hot topic here on FT, 99.9% of Americans think Wideroe is what happens when someone's husband passes away. Why on early would UA want to call attention to this? It's far cheaper to let me and everyone else here winter in DXB, BOM and MXP.
