United CEO Keeps Trashing American Airlines — Then Gets Spotted Flying Them First Class

Here’s United Airlines CEO Scott Kirby flying first class to Dallas on… American Airlines. It’s good to fly the competition. He keeps trashing them, though. The dominant reaction to seeing him flying first class on his Dallas-based competitor is, ‘why doesn’t he fly his own airline?’

Scott Kirby was fired as American Airlines President in 2016, immediately becoming President of United Airlines. Then-American CEO Doug Parker explained that they could only retain Kirby or Chief Operating Officer Robert Isom and they picked Isom. Parker wasn’t ready to step down as CEO (he should have) and Isom was happy being promoted to President rather than being in a hurry to become CEO.

He’s tried to drive American out of Chicago. In something of a revenge deal, Kirby pitched President Trump on his idea of United buying American. He even emailed the United Airlines database how great it would be if he ran the combined carrier.

Kirby received $13 million in severance and did not have a non-compete. That let him go run United and become its CEO where he rebuilt the airline’s fleet, product and domestic network. No U.S. airline is more improved over the past decade than United.

And he kept lifetime travel privileges at American:

Executive previously vested into lifetime travel privileges that include unlimited reserved travel in any class of service for Executive and Executive’s immediate family, including eligible dependent children, for personal purposes, access to Admirals Club travel lounges and 12 free round-trip passes, or 24 free one-way passes, each year for reserved travel for non-eligible family members and friends.

These lifetime travel benefits are “for personal purposes” so Kirby can’t take free business trips on his competitor’s dime. But this flight to Dallas is clearly a personal trip – he’s flying home.

United’s CEO continued to live in Dallas, where his kids go to school. He doesn’t live in Chicago near United’s corporate headquarters. Often he works from home (adn people who need to meet with him fly to Dallas). Brian Sumers reports that American has made it more difficult for employees of other airlines to confirm space at discounted rates on their flights.