It’s ridiculous that they would resort to that when they could have just had the computer pick the passengers to IDB and pay them their comp. That would of course suck for the passengers but it is what it is.
it would appear from multiple experiences this year that UA is not wanting to do that but instead try to intimidate passengers into taking offers maxing out in the 2-4K range - which is far less than delta is willing to pay fir example.