Apologies if I'm repeating anything upthread, but I'm really not interested in reading 127 pages, and you can ignore my comments as well.

While I don't disagree that sometimes airlines, and their agents, behave egregiously, please take the following FACTS into consideration.

UA was paying $800. ORD to SDF by car is 5 hours (okay, it's Google Maps, but we can consider it a reasonable estimate). For a 1-way car rental I'm getting a quote of $175 from carrentals.com.

My calculus would be, carry on like a child and risk bodily harm (and detainment by the "authorities"), or take the $600 net and a couple of hours inconvenience (with the potential to go back to UA to get some additional compensation) and, as an adult, figure lemons...lemonade.

Unless, of course, becoming a social-media thing with your 15 minutes (or less) of fame is on your bucket list.

Possibly the greatest irony is that this wasn't a UA-operated flight - it was UX, operated by Republic. Doesn't excuse any of this, but I do find it of some amusement that the two latest and greatest dust-ups for UA involve a) violations of express dress codes in conjunction with "buddy passes" (the leggings bit), and b) a flight that UA markets but doesn't operate. For all of the critics out there, especially the ones who will never ever give UA any more business, please enlighten us as to your experience at the level of complexity of operations of a major airline, and how you were perfect.

I am neither an employee of, nor an apologist for UA or any other airline, just a long-time traveler, and citizen of the world who understands that sometimes, {things} happens, and it stinks, and, if the worst thing that ever happens to me is losing a couple of hours during travel, I consider myself extremely fortunate.