Sadly, after her dithering around (it took over 45 minutes for her to check us in) we were too rushed to note her name; a younger Chinese-American woman. We did get the supervisor but he only helped her do the checkin vs handling the luggage. And, of course, it was very early, we were uncaffeinated, and we did not anticipate such a royal screw up. We have considered that this was malice vs incompetence - but try not to go there...
All this was documented to United's "support" people - they are all Indian call center outsourced people with no stake or ability to really do anything.
I am still wondering how best to handle this NOW. Anyone else have ideas?