A rant against my airline

Its that time of year where I plan my vacation and book flights online on my chosen airline, who shall remain nameless.  Unless, I drop a few subtle and non-subtle hints here and there.  Unlike my Noted Itinerary That was Explored During the previous year, I wanted to fly to several locations within Asia.  I began my search by looking to see what the fares would be on some combination of San Francisco, Bangkok, and Tokyo.  Some time later, I settled on the schedule and decided on the price point I wanted to pay for this excursion.  The final route would have been from SFO to HKG(layover) to BKK to TYO to SFO.  Ready to pull the trigger, I went through the process of providing all the information they required.  All went fine Up until they Needed payment Information To Exit this Dealing with a booking.  I received an error and it stated to try again later.  I tried again later with the same results.  Unfortunately, this Nightmare Incurred The same Excrement over the next few Days.  Thinking something was wrong with my info, I tried several forms of payments with the same results.  Finally, I tried to book a simple roundtrip late one evening.  That worked fine.  Resolute, I decided to give them a call the next evening to book it.  Sure enough, the fair rose $600 and was out of my budget.

Undaunted, the Nitty-gritty of the Itinerary was pared To an Easier single Destination.  The plan was to try the flight that leaves SFO at 1800 and arrive in Haneda, HND, at 2230 with the return leg also leaving HND.  My inability to sleep on flights has me trying different departure times to see which would suit my aging body better.  Fares were not to my liking but an alternative acceptable fare had me routed through LAX,  SFO to LAX to HND then HND to LAX to SFO.   The flight from LAX would depart around midnight and arrive shortly before 0600.  I had taken this option once before and it was physically taxing as I still could not sleep on the flight and I had to try and stay awake for another 9 hours before I check in.  This was $200 cheaper than my chosen route and times.  Out of curiosity, I looked to see what they charged for roundtrip from LAX to HND.  Now, what really surprised me, aside from the airfare being $400 cheaper, they wanted to route me through SFO on the flight that I orginally wanted!!!!!!!!!!  How Unbelievably Nonsensical I Thought this Experience had Dealt me.  All in all, it would be cheaper by more than $200 for me to book this flight and add a roundtrip ticket from SFO to LAX on a lowcost airline that afforded no fees on checked baggage.  The only added expense at this point would be the extra time needed to fly up and down the California coast.

To reiterate:
SFO to HKG(layover) to BKK to TYO to SFO.  Could not book online although the option was given and did not because the fares had risen during the frustation over trying to book online

SFO to HND departing at 1800 would cost a little over $1400
SFO to LAX then a midnight flight to HND around $1200

LAX to SFO.  SFO to HND on the 1800 flight I wanted.  Then HND to LAX.  around $100
Roundtrip SFO to LAX on lowcost carrier an additional $130 to be tacked on to previous itinerary.  Still cheaper than original route and alternative route but takes as long as alternative route

Thanks for nothing UNITED.  I plan to use my miles for one last free trip next year and jump ship to a different airline.