In order to “enhance the cabin environment and elevate the customer experience,” United Airlines has refreshed its onboard music for boarding and deplaning on widebody aircraft as well as select Boeing 757s.
United Airlines Boarding Music Refreshed
United will feature refreshed music on the following Boeing aircraft:
- 757-200
- 767-300/400
- 777-200/300
- 787-8/9/10
Music automatically starts when the IFE system is engaged during boarding and again when the aircraft door is opened upon landing. Special playlists for flights to Hawaii and Africa have been added as well.
I asked United for further details on the playlists and a spokesperson told me:
“We don’t have any route specific information to share but boarding music is currently active on about 30% of our fleet. Our brand playlist is updated on a bi-monthly basis.”
Apparently I’ll need to have Shazam open next time I step onto a United wide bodyaircraft…
Boarding music is a great way to put a signature touch on an airline. United’s theme song for decades has been George Gershwin’s Rhapsody In Blue and I think starting every flight with a unique rendition of this popular classic further ingrains the United brand, creating positive associations.
Wherever I am in the world, when I hear Rhapsody In Blue I think of United. That does not just happen, but has to be cultivated. Think about Rhapsody In Blue on a ukulele on Hawaii flights or using the kologo lute and the gonjey fiddle on flights to Ghana.
Check out this United flight attendant playing Rhapsody In Blue at LAX:
My favorite boarding music is what is Etihad’s exotic boarding music, forever linked to my journeys on the new-retired Airbus A380.
CONCLUSION
Boarding and deplaning music is an important tool of airline marketing. Personally, I never get bored of Rhapsody in Blue and think that United using several variations of it could really work well. But music of any kind is generally better than none at all, so I am happy to see United introduce it on more aircraft.
Have you heard United’s new boarding music yet? What was it like?
image: United Airlines
Given all that’s going on these days on flights they may want to consider Guns n Roses, Welcome to the Jungle.
I was pretty amused to hear, upon boarding last week, “Take A Chance on Me.” Not exactly the right mood (unless one is just listening to the bouncy tune) that an airline might want to instill.
Of all the things they could do to elevate the customer experience, this?
@David – Can they only choose one thing? The boarding music can be in conjunction with other initiatives. For example, I’ve read positive reviews of the process for holding for customers they wouldn’t necessarily have held for in the past. I’m guessing there are other pro-customer changes too.
remember the last time they tweaked the boarding music and added a “boarding scent?” They turned it up so loud that you couldn’t talk to the FAs or make a last-minute phone call.
Clearly some worthless marketing people need to be fired and their salaries put to good use actually providing something that matters to customers instead of stupid fluff.
” I’m guessing there are other pro-customer changes too.”
Great! Tell us more. I’d like to hear about them as a frequent UA flyer.
“Rhapsody in Blue” just became public domain now, right? I wonder how that will affect United’s use of the tune since their exclusive rights are expired. It is hard to think of United without it.
Oh I whole heartedly disagree with you Matthew. Everytime I hear that horrible composition . I want to punch someone. United paid Millions for the right to play that terrible thing and as background in the safety video. Why because it shows you UNITEDs past and craps all over Continental .
Rhapsody in Blue has become my least favorite piece of music ever. I used to find it mildly irritating, like nails on a chalkboard, but now that I’ve listened to hours and hours of it, endlessly, as a United employee, I truly hate it. It makes me want to stab someone. I suspect the forced listening to Rhapsody in Blue is more likely to cause air rage amongst passengers and crew than all the onboard alcohol consumption in the world.
Rhapsody in Blue is beautiful, iconic and recognized the world over as a masterpiece of classical and jazz integration. *You* don’t like it? Who cares?
So, United’s classic theme
music “craps on Continental?” So does that mean the Continental logo on the tail of every United aircraft crap on United?
You’re ridiculous.