Timbob, your last day at UAL sounds like a carbon copy of my father's last flight in '03 - no fanfare, no certificate, nobody there to say "thanks", "good luck" or even the proverbial "piss off". Just the remainder of a $12 Safeway-brand cake in the Ops room and a few notes in his file regarding his security stuff. He didn't seem to care (or even notice), as this was by no means his only airline employer and he needed no further convincing that UA management didn't give a crap about him. I'd say the only real damage done was to his (one!)wife and four kids, watching the old coot unceremoniously dumped on his ass. It sure put a lot of those Christmas mornings he missed into perspective. I don't need to tell anybody here what happened to his pension in the following months, but that was the most visible of UA's many supportive moments. Kind of a formative experience for me and my views on company loyalty. Suffice it to say that I'm not the most determined "Legacy Kid" on the planet.
My most positive memory of the event: Before pushback, a cosmetic piece of plastic fell off of one of the bulkheads in the coach cabin. Thirty seconds later, Dad pops out of the cockpit with a roll of duct tape. Another UA flight departs the gate on time. It was good to see that neither age nor flying the 'bus had changed his M.O.