In an upbeat message directed at employees, United Airlines CEO Scott Kirby focused his Thanksgiving Day message on thanking employees for their service.
United Airlines CEO 2021 Thanksgiving Video
While Oscar Munoz was much loved by United employees during his tenure as CEO, he took a more impersonal approach to communication, preferring notes and letters versus videos. Kirby doesn’t write much to employees, instead speaking to them face-to-face with video messages.
This Thanksgiving, instead of a flowery note, Kirby produced a 90-second video shared with Live and Let’s Fly that centers on distinguishing United from its competition and thanking employees for their service:
“…Onboard our aircraft and in our airports, the environment feels so different at United Airlines than what you read about at some of our competitors. And it’s a testament to all of our customer-facing employees and the amazing job you do both at the airport, or our flight attendants once you get onboard the airplane, taking care of customers and deescalating those tense situations, and really just doing the right thing to take care of customers.”
We speak to a lot of employees at United at Live and Let’s Fly and it is amazing to me how high morale is right now. Kirby has largely earned the respect of employees, but it is not just reluctant support or recognition United has fared better in the pandemic than its competition. Rather, it is enthusiastic support, which goes beyond policy to show how important it is communicate, whether expressing good news or bad. Face-to-face communication seems to work best.
There’s still a disconnect between Kirby’s emphasis on delivering a premium product and the actual product delivered, but that is a separate issue from United’s employees, which have largely rallied around Kirby.
CONCLUSION
On this Thanksgiving Day, United employees are thankful for their CEO and their CEO is thankful for them. It’s quite a different picture than the tense holiday travel periods in the Tilton and Smisek eras. Where will all this lead? Kirby says (and repeated in the video) it will lead United to becoming the biggest and best airline in the world. But only time will tell.
> Read More: United Airlines CEO Says “We Will Be Largest Airline In The World By Summer 2022”
I”m alway amazed at inside information you are able to get on United, from the good, to the bad, even the ugly, you seem to have a unique view into their operation which is good for us the readers.
Scott Munoz?
Oscar. Gracias.
Well, Mr. Munoz appreciates being remembered…..
As a former United management employee under Smisek, Munoz, and Kirby, I can tell you that Kirby is most certainly the best bar none. Kirby has the respect of those in management and those on the front line, whereas Munoz was a persona meant to appeal to just the front line. Behind doors, Munoz was ruthless toward management employees – just look at his “achievements” in his early career at Pepsico, where he prided himself of streamlining headcount. United is in a much better place with Kirby at the helm now – he has not only the vision, but the analytic smarts to help build a plan and execute; he’s not just a talking head.
Maybe Kirby could express his gratitude in a more tangible fashion, say, reinstating the bonuses he ripped away from them early in his tenure.
Christian really? Haven’t you heard the latest Harvard Business School buzz?
Give them trinkets and empty awards!
Save the cash for management bonuses!
Seems like it was not all that long ago that the skepticism about Kirby was healthy … and warranted. I’m glad that he his tenure at the helm has gone better than we feared … so far.
as a front line employee, it does not matter who’s in that spot. we have contracts coming up then we’ll see how much respect there is. United gives… United takes. my immediate supervisor has more effect on my moral. Ferris Wolf Greenwald Goodwin Creighton Tilton Smisek Munoz Kirby since 1984 plus 17 managers in my career… and its been a very good career!
You gotta believe!
You seem to have different conversations about the man than I do with my coworkers. The consensus seems to be that he’s an evil sociopath, but that he’s doing a pretty good job getting us through the pandemic. I wouldn’t say morale is high (the opposite) or that we’re particularly thankful for him. And absolutely everyone I work with loathes the stupid time consuming videos and townhalls that never work properly. Write it down.
I’m all ears. This is not the feedback I am getting.
Undercover minions letting you try on rose covered glasses!
All sounds good but when they fire people for trying to protect themselves from covid doesn’t make any sense to be that disingenuine to the population when we all know what happens behind closed doors #bs
WOW…To give employees, namely Flight Attendants, the option to apply for pandemic excemptions, then approve the exemption to then putting them on UNPAID LEAVE is trickery and not right…United is treating there employees like shi_,..I’m a 1Ker and won’t be flying United because of this…
The unpaid leave is short term I believe, until they can find the employee an alternate position to fill that does not involve them being with customers.
Sorry disappointed but all employees NEED to be vaccinated. You don’t have the right to infect and kill my children. “Uh, but the incidents are low.”
Tell that to the parents who have lost a child.
One dead child is too many!
“My body my choice.” Except for women right?
I despise hypocritical scum…..
This is complete fake news
It’s really not. Sorry if you are disgruntled.
As a frontline employee at United (a flight attendant) I started right behind smisek and it was not a pretty place to work at. But Munoz deff improved things. However with Kirby, it’s been a transformation. Morale is at a high, and personally I’ve never been more excited for my future at United as I am right now. But I do hope that we focus on improving our service inflight. Other than that, in my opinion, United is the best!
Thanks for your comment!
Even though they led the industry in cutting FA’s
on all flights, morale is still high?
Surprising.
There must have been a little sumpthin’ sumpthin’ in their Thanksgiving stocking…..
Meh.
We love Scott Kirby! The best airline CEO any of us could have asked for. Proud to be “Uniquely United”!
Let’s keep connecting people and uniting our world.
The wife and I went on vacation to PVR with United. As we started our trip from Kansas City, every interaction that we had with a United employee was pleasant. I kept on thinking about reading Matthew’s article a few days before our trip. The measure here was on my flight back from MEX to MCI via IAH. The outbound flight was delayed due to maintenance, the gate agent accommodated me from 25C to 8B to expedite my exit and try to make my connection. Flight attendants allowed all connecting pax to exit ahead of everyone else. Cleared immigration, customs and TSA then on to C39. Boarding was closed and when the gate agent came back he re checked me on my seat and let me on the plane… AFTER BOARDING WAS CLOSED! Made it back home, my bag didn’t make it though, but I was able to track it and got it back the next morning with my two bottles of mezcal. There are so many moving parts and at any point something will go wrong, United handled everything within their power with great customer support and felt like they anticipated my needs. They even sent me a text with a link to book hotel accommodations because they didn’t event think that I was gonna make it.I agree with Matthew on this one, they’re on their way to be the biggest and one of the best airlines. I could tell that every employee was motivated to deliver the best experience that they could to their customers.
As a top-tier flyer with several airlines, from all the way back to TWA, the difference at United today is noticeable compared to other airlines. Having been ExPlat at AA for many years, I became frustrated and switched to UA in 2018. Not easy to do being based in Dallas. Even in that short time span as 1K, the improvement in service and attitude within UA itself has improved significantly. Clearly the 1K experience has been superior to what AA ExPlat had become. From a simple hand written note from a FA thanking me for my business (on ORD-LHR) to the pilot coming into the cabin to thank us for our patronage (ORD-DFW 2019), these little gestures have a huge impact but cost the company nothing. UA isn’t perfect, but someone is paying attention there.