FWIW, not only were refusals a long-standing historical procedure at LUAL where they were considered normal, prior to the merger management actually made refusals a REQUIRED step to get an aircraft fixed.

They then used the "spike" in refusals as a data point in the injunction against the pilots. "Look here, Judge, refusals are WAAAY up!"

The point being that refusals have a far different history at UAL vs other legacy airlines. It's apples and oranges.