I believe this is exactly the kind of thing that will be resolved by the tools the market provides. If they wanted volunteers to fly the next flight instead of

I believe this is exactly the kind of thing that will be resolved by the tools the market provides. If they wanted volunteers to fly the next flight instead of this, they should have offered more than $400. Kind of like an auction: $500, $600, etc. and eventually enough people would have been incentivized to take the deal. The company failed at that and now their competitors will get their business and increase their market shares at United's expense. IANAL, but they might even be facing a very expensive lawsuit and will have to settle. The market will ultimately work things out, I don't think the FAA should intervene much.