.... I worry whether the precarious financial condition could affect safety at UA. ...
This a debatable assumption.
Concern the precarious financial condition, UA earned money last year and is likely to earn money this year. UA is greatly underperformed but precarious -- not really.
The correlation of financial condition and safety of a couple decades ago somewhat flies in the face of the tremendous safety record of the domestic carries over the past few decades -- when there have been significant financial woes and bankruptcies.
I personally have zero safety concern with any of the legacy domestic carriers. The regulatory environment they operate in, the design redundancy of modern aircraft and the professionalism of the personnel is of great comfort to me.