Originally Posted by
Ber2dca
Given that $1600 was likely considerably more than the amount the GA had to 'play with', it's not especially surprising (nor relevant) that it was rejected.
After the fact, sure, they'd have paid Dao whatever it takes to make it go away, but before the fact, staff won't just give away money they are not authorized to give away and shouldn't be blamed for it either.
Dao wasn't the passenger who wanted $1600 of UA's funny money.
GAs at UA had ways to play with $1600, but the GA would have to have it worked up to have it work and UA's corporate culture and operation isn't geared to deliver to customers on reasonable requests like this.