Originally Posted by
jsloan
I would have asked for a million dollars. We'd both have gotten a 'no.'
OP had the option of being returned to JAC, in which case it would have been a Trip in Vain and a full refund would have been allowed.
If your method worked, UA would suddenly have infinite demand for flights like XXX-SFO-MRY and XXX-SFO-SMF in the hopes that people could get free transportation to SFO because "they didn't get [me] where was going."
I agree that as a general matter, that would be an issue. That's why I think it's highly relevant whether OP asked for and was rejected for an OA routing that would have avoided the overnight.