Weird that you would even consider that as an option. United commuters don’t create United policy.
We have a choice on who we deadhead on. I spent well over $100k deadheading on United last year. It’s a free market. If they don’t want my money I’ll fly on someone else. But this isn’t the first time one of the legacy airlines has tried to treat FedEx pilots as second class citizens. They typically reconsider when it becomes apparent it will cost them money. Hopefully this will be another example of that.