Well, I guess chock it up to experience. We weren’t offered to be placed on standby, which of course wouldn't be ideal (cat waiting to be picked from the kennel, my wife wanted to work today).
The flight options offered weren’t very accommodating as basically they were offering no flights for at least 2 days after, and no discount on the business fare we ended up buying. Is it possible we might be offered some miles back by United since the return leg wasn’t used?