I'm not, either, which is why I said "assuming the passenger's story is true." One of the worst aspects of FT is the knee-jerk reflex of so many posters to blame naive pax, unless its the FT poster who is complaining, at which time the rest will say, "I don't believe it."

Personally, I've never had any trouble at all with UA, either PMUA or Unitenental. However, I'd add that I am religious about showing up at the gate early, and I consider it a great flight with excellent service if I'm just left alone, except for bringing me a drink every now and then. I have, however, on very rare occasions, and over a period of decades, run into incredibly hostile and aggressive GAs and FAs on other carriers, including PMCO. The article cited a few other instances in which United had damaged expensive musical instruments. I googled them and discovered that they had actually occurred (there were pictures of the instruments) and were the result of either not following its own procedures or out of sheer negligence. I'm not willing to simply dismiss the allegations out of hand.