So, the person who occupied 21H was not the FAM, but rather a sweet young girl and her mother (who was in 21J). Apparently, while they were on their vacation (along with husband/father who is a MM flyer) to Rome, United cancelled the wife's reservation and then put the daughter (she was like 11) alone in row 30ish. Needless to say, the MM flyer called and was quite irate the itinerary had been cancelled and changed. In that time I had reserved 21H which caused the reason for me to get a CR-1 from UA.

The wife was very sweet, and she was glad to meet me, and said "My husband told me that they had to give you something REALLY good for this." I told her that even though I would have loved an upgrade to C, the CR-1 was still excellent all things considered.

I'd be curious if the MM flyer was a FT member...