well, if it makes y'all feel better, I did have an IRROPS "nightmare" on UA: last spring there was a massive DEN snowstorm, I think 3 feet in 12 hours. We landed on time but were stuck on the plane for 3 hours; my connection cancelled. They put me on the last flight out that night, and on a connection thru LAX as backup protection but in the end both of those flights cancelled. The phone agent also had protected me on an 8a nonstop to SFO in F.

At this point, there were huge linueps all over DEN, it was no trouble getting INTO the RCC, but the agents there were backed up too. There were no agents available, and, there wasn't much point to talking with one since by this point, all the airport-area hotel rooms were booked solid. in the end the solution was a hotel room in the city, non-comped by UA (no agents to do the paperwork) and that all worked out but it wasn't fun.

UA sent out an email the next day with a $250 ECert. That made up for the hotel cost, and unfortunately, there wasn't much they could do, it wasn't a MX issue where one or two planes were broken, the whole airport was hosed. The only thing I can think of that they could've/should've done is set up cots in the RCC for members :)

We haven't heard from Scott in quite awhile. Will "Insider" participation on FT continue post-merger?

I'm sure it will, but the question is in what capacity?

If they dump WE-CARE (or bring WE-CARE up to UA's standards), then maybe we won't need as much focus on day-to-day customer service interactions, and we'll only get major updates, event info, or news from the Insider (much like UA PR's role is today).