I'm somewhere in between on this. I don't think one-off incidents overly affect UA's financial situation, delicate as it may be. While this seems to be out of the ordinary and doesn't make financial sense, I say congrats to the OP for the fact that it worked out so well.

And if I had been in the same situation, I probably would have requested to have been put on an AF flight, although I know that would have been a long shot...