"United" could have gone to a $1,000,000 for that seat,.....in hindsight.   

In order for the employee to have been able to increase the passenger comp even a relatively modest amount though, they probably would have needed their boss' approval two or three levels up.   Had the employee for United in this situation paid a passenger, say, $2000 without a required approval, then the employee might have been fired, and there would have been no article in the paper about it.   Even if it had made the paper, a lot of people would probably have concluded that the EMPLOYEE was out of line (because there would have been no incident with the doctor to see on video,....and nobody would have been able to imagine it.)

What large company do you know where the average front-line  employee can exercise discretion on the spot with respect to cash outlays?  There aren't many, that's for sure.