Originally Posted by ani90

Unfortunately, the terms and conditions of carriage are such that this is almost always the case. The passenger is wrong the airline is right. Everything is at the airlines discretion, the GA discretion, the FA discretion, the pilots discretion. They can even chose not to fly you even if the plane is not delayed - and they will be right (even if this happened because the GA said you were walking strangely). And some airlines like United follow this to the rule and keep frustrating their passengers, whereas many airlines strive to keep their customers satisfied as opposed to imposing this 'agent's discretion' at any possible opportunity. Remember United was also right when they dragged that poor fellow off the plane on video and even the CEO came out in defence of the actions of his staff - of course they were right (before public backlash forced him to change tune).

Saying the OP was wrong and the airline was right does not change the fact that UA greatly disappoints numerous passengers in this similar fashion to what the OP experienced on an almost daily basis and if we had a true market choice none of us would spend our money to tolerate such disregard and abuse by the people we are paying for a service. As others have stated the airline can do more in delay scenarios to avert the situation and certainly could have done better in avoiding or deflating the conflict with the OP but they didn't and they won't because 1) they don't care and 2) as you state correctly, they are always 'right'.