I fly United a lot. I've generally had good experiences with them. The few times I have had bad experiences, it's generally been for circumstances beyond their control (like the ground controllers at DIA pushing every plane around to the other end of the runway after a major snowstorm). I'm sure there's more to the story. Munoz's email to the employees read like he was trying to keep morale in the company up -- it definitely wasn't intended for public release.

I hate the way they use the phrase "denied boarding" - yeah, that would be one thing if he was stopped FROM boarding but the guy was already seated. He wasn't "denied boarding", he was being deboarded involuntarily. Having said that, if the "staff" that they were trying to put on the flight were crew for follow-on flights, there would have been rolling impacts in not getting them down there that would have affected a lot more people so I understand the airline's urgency in trying to get them down there.

I suspect -- as with so many stories -- we'll find out more details later that make the whole thing less cut-and-dried.