Originally Posted by
Often1
2. When things go wrong, whether through bankruptcy or other, don't count on others to fix them. The second that Island Air stopped operating, was the time to call UA. If nothing else perhaps there were E+ seats at that point/
I agree with the first statement but not the second. People who called UA immediately after the news broke got uninformed and generally unhelpful agents. When there's a big event / route cancellation / etc., it's usually best to give UA a couple of days to formulate a communicate a policy before calling.
In this case, though, since travel was immediate, OP could have called UA as soon as the WP flight status was updated.