Originally Posted by
fly18725
The reality is that management of any corporation have a fiduciary responsibility to manage profitability.
Airlines are burdened by high fixed costs, a high proportion of uncontrollable costs (fuel), and volatile revenue. With 80,000 employees and over 100 million passengers per year, United can't afford to make exceptional gestures during the course of normal business. It is realistic to expect friendly, reliable, and respectful service: in this case, I don't think it is missing.
That's not an excuse to refuse to put up people in a hotel because of a mechanical problem.
If UA wants to be Spirit Airlines with a different paintjob (which they are heading for with their worse-than-Spirit method of charging for seat assignments and overhead bin space known as "Basic Economy"), then just do it, instead of halfassing it where you might get a hotel room and you might not.