Great response. Now we’ll get this behavior from so many more, and prices for air fare should go up since the Airlines will not eat the cost of not overbooking.
You have excellent, excellent qualifications for the Democratic Party.
What cost? Unless you are a VIP flyer, the tickets are generally not refundable. And besides, this was not an overbooking situation.
UA could have offered $1000 cash + re-booking and this would never had happened.