An important point that Mr. Tilton hopefully hasn't missed is that Southwest Airlines is profitable and United is not.
There is little benefit to serving markets once covered by the essential air service act, and UAL recently lost the Air Mail contract (due to poor on time performance) so aside from bragging rights what is the point of serving every market on the planet?
From a shareholder's viewpoint, a CEO should return value on the [shareholders] investment, that's his job. I think the recent history, and the balance sheets, speak for themselves - I'd take a SWA management team over Glen Tilton any day.