By the time I got word of this at work, ~just under an hour after the announcement, the UA site was crashing and a phone agent told me I may have missed it by "just minutes."
This literally brought me to tears (yep, I teared up and got the sniffles and have been kicking myself all afternoon). This flight would have a lot of sentimental meaning to me that words cannot even begin to describe; and of course be a once in a lifetime opportunity. Even in the very middle seat of the very last row - I know as a lowly silver I'm not a hardcore business traveler or VIP in UA's eyes, just a big aviation enthusiast. I missed getting booked on the ORD-SFO final flight and was really hoping another, special domestic retirement flight. Apparently this was my last chance that I missed - and boy is it a stomach punch.
Guess the best I can do is keep searching for 24 hour cancellations tomorrow. If ANYONE at all can't go or needs to cancel, I'd really, truly appreciate if you could let me know. Don't know what good it might do but I would love to find some way of locking in or transferring a ticket. I was fully prepared to purchase a full fare ticket and/or drop every single mile I have in my account. International isn't really in the cards for me right now.
Best I'm looking at now is maybe a mileage run from DEN to SFO just to watch the festivities from the gate.
Thanks.