Wouldn't it have made sense to simply sell the seats they had available after seating the four extra crew members?  This will be one of the biggest PR disasters in the history of corp America. It also sheds light on how many of your rights you give up when you board a plane in this country. Mostly under the guise of providing "safety" for passengers in our post 9/11 world. I've personally witnessed a number of occasions where the airline personnel abused their power and this may be the defining event that forces some action in congress. The CEO needs to come to terms with reality that the actions of his people did a hell of a lot more then "re-accommodate " these passengers. We can only hope that this passenger follows the logical path and very publicly sues the stuffing out of United. By the time this is over United could have BOUGHT these four an airplane to fly to Louisville and come out ahead. Its important to keep in mind this could have been any of us.