Lots of opinions posted, so I'll add my part.

It seems Mr. Donohue owed at least a phone call himself to iluv2fly, which is not a lot to ask. An personal and direct apology and explanation probably would have helped a bit. Perhaps promising Mr iluv2fly an empty middle seat in a bulkhead row (which Mr. Donohue COULD guarantee) might have been the right way to go. In fact, that and other ideas should be considered for TED to retain some current frequent flyers. Something that shows that TED doesn't consider full fare / 1K flyers anymore valuable than once a year tourists. It is unfortunately indicative of how few employees are willing to go the extra mile to serve customers who keep these folks in their jobs. Given today's developments, and United's overall condition, you would think they would be bending over backward to satisfy their revenue sources.