It's a bit disturbing and amazing to see so many people here taking the airline's side in this. No wonder things are the way they are - the general public supports it.
Uh, there are like 9 comments right now (12:54am PST) and literally none of them support the airline. What are you talking about?
There were no faults in the way he handled it. The airline was completely to blame, severely inconvenienced him, falsely accused him, and cost him money. Outrageous behavior against any passenger. That he is a 950,000 mile traveler on the airline and often writes articles recommending them to others (at a time when United is well known for being among the worst of the carriers) makes it completely idiotic from a business standpoint as well.