Tag Archives for united airlines.
Dear American Airlines. One simple change to your service would signal a break from the past and a bright premium future. Change the coffee, and I have a specific suggestion for how you do this.
Some customers choose on schedule and price. They may not value the difference in product across airlines, or may not be aware of them. To Kirby, those are basic economy customers – show them the lowest price and give them the least. (This may be a mistake, I will explain below.) Others choose on product elements. Those are the customers to fight for.
A passenger walked up to a gate agent at Washington Dulles airport United Airlines gate D12 – apparently planning to board while the previous flight was deplaning – saying things like “who wants it first?” and then punched the agent hard enough to knock him down.
At an investor conference this week, United Airlines CEO Scott Kirby was asked whether United might buy another airline? “JetBlue is the obvious candidate” and don’t ask me, go ask JetBlue!
One of the unique benefits of lifetime status at United Airlines is that the designated companion of the million miler inherits their status. This benefit is changing.
Usually flight crew stick together. Here, a United flight attendant saw their colleague’s behavior as so far out of bounds that they encouraged a passenger to report it. United’s discipline of other flight crew suggests this might get some management attention. However, it might carry even more weight coming from another employee than from a customer.
The message of the CFO at United is that you can’t reduce everything to a variable in a spread. You have to make investments that seem to make sense in order to differentiate the product and drive consumer loyalty in order to attract a revenue premium as well as co-brand credit card spending.
A United Airlines passenger flying from Houston to Austin on Monday found a self-upgrader in their seat when they boarded. They were supposed to be in a first class window seat, but a woman was already there. The first class passenger offered, “I’m seat F,” but the woman declared “I’m more comfortable here.”
Passengers had been told after takeoff that “they would not be permitted to leave their seats” for the entire flight due to weather-related turbulence expected for the full flight. Cabin crew would not be getting up, either – and “that includes to unlock the bathroom doors.”
They want to cram in as many passengers as possible. Every inch that’s used for something else – like lavatories and gallies – is seen as money left on the table.
Gary Leff is one of the foremost experts in the field of miles, points, and frequent business travel -- a topic he has covered since 2002.
Co-founder of frequent flyer community InsideFlyer.com, emcee of the Freddie Awards, and named one of the "World's Top Travel Experts" by Conde' Nast Traveler (2010-Present) Gary has been a guest on most major news media, profiled in several top print publications, and published broadly on the topic of consumer loyalty. More About Gary »
