Actually, it wasn't the the pilots that did Frontier in, it was the company.

The company "offered" to take the Frontier operation over, but their pilots had to come to United on some sort of B-scale, the specifics I don't recall. Our MEC rejected the company's "offer", but stated they were willing to sit down and negotiate. I was not privy to the parameters given to the negotiating committee, as I was no longer on the MEC, having completed my term of office about a month prior.

The company flatly rejected any negotiations - they said it was a take it or leave it deal, after and not before the "offer". This method of negotiations was their tried and true tactic back then. They immediately announced the deal was off, "blaming" the pilots. Frontier shut down shortly thereafter.

United got just what they wanted, the Denver operation basically to themselves, and they got to blame the pilots to boot. Not a bad outcome for them.

So you can blame the United pilot group if you want, but the truth is that it was the company that killed the deal. The United MEC was indeed quite willing to negotiate.

Actually, I think the outcome was exactly what the company wanted from the get-go.

I do think the UAL-MEC was out-maneuvered by the company.