United Airlines CEO Scott Kirby has unsurprisingly praised the flight crew of UA328, the 777 flight which encountered engine failure enroute to Honolulu last Saturday, but also outlined a chain of events he argues demonstrates a new spirit at United Airlines.
United CEO: Everyone Stepped Up After 777 Engine Failure
In a note (and video) to employees, shared with Live and Let’s Fly, Kirby thanked everyone involved for keeping passengers safe and making the best of the situation:
To everyone involved in the return of UA328, I want to thank you for your exceptional response under the most challenging circumstances. Our Flight Ops and Inflight crew performed calmly and professionally under intense pressure. At DEN, our teams were at-the-ready.
Our Tech Ops crew—securing the damaged aircraft while also retrieving debris. On the ground, Airport Ops—comforting and supporting customers. Behind the scenes, Denver leadership, partnering with the NOC to provide critical updates across the system.
From our Contact Center Agents making wellness checks to our team at HNL, standing by to welcome our customers after landing, we came together to navigate the best possible outcome.
He starts by praising the flight crew, who undeniably handled the incident professionally and with great skill. But he proceeds to count up all that went on on behind the scenes in order to comfort passengers and then get them safely to Honolulu. Kirby added:
Every choice we’ve made to build trust and make customers feel good about us is making a big impact.
I do wish Kirby would use the term “guest” instead of “customer.” Nevertheless, he’s right that it’s the little things, like comforting passengers upon arrival or welcoming them in Honolulu that actually distinguish one airline from another. I insist that schedule and pricing are important, but so is service.
CONCLUSION
In his video, Kirby shared that United’s response to the 777 incident suggests a new spirit of customer service is alive and well at United Airlines. We’ll address that issue tomorrow.
image: Hayden Smith/@speedbird5280 (with Kirby superimposed by me)
I think customer is perfectly fine
Just a pet peeve of mine. Probably not an issue for most.
With you 100%. Customer is transactional. Guest implies trust and care, which is what you want in an airline that becomes completely responsible for your health and safety.
I do wish Kirby would use the term “guest” instead of “customer.”
Seriously? That’s a bizzare thing to pull out of this.
Me too. Technically, the term “passenger” would be appropriate. Semantics means things and the term “guest” would imply “hospitality” which has been de-emphasized by industry trends towards minimum service levels in economy class although it has made the airlines profitable and kept the cost of travel down. (Let’s hope they never adopt the term “human cargo.”)
I miss the term “steward” and the politically incorrect term “stewardess”. “Stewards” provide care and management of a person’s needs. While an “attendant” merely watches after them.
Like wardens.
Let’s hope that Spirit’s desire to be seen as more mainstream with better service and mileage programs along with the industry needing to get flyers back into the air is the beginning to a race to the top, rather than the 2 decade long race in the other direction.
I think I’d vote for ‘customer’ as well, since it subtly reinforces to employees that 1) as a customer they have a choice in airlines, and 2) their choosing to pay for a United ticket pays your salaries. There’s also the association of the word ‘customer’ with ‘service’. ‘Passengers’ sounds like herding cattle. ‘Guest’ sounds good too, but I think most people associate that with hotels. Are there any transportation industries that refer to their passengers as guests?
‘I do wish Kirby would use the term “guest” instead of “customer.”’
Actually, I’d prefer to be called a “passenger.” Nothing wrong with that term. “Guest” sounds like you are at Disney.
Passenger is better than customer!
I think “passenger” is best. Technically, that’s what they are.
I do wish Kirby would use the term “guest” instead of “customer.”
How about “perishable revenue sources.” LOL
Me three. They (and I think some other airlines) have been using that word for a while and it just seems cold.
Passenger would be good I agree, so would guests.
I have found “Self Loading Cargo” to be the most accurate description, especially in the main cabin of the “germ tube” !.
Way back in 2019 when the world was normal, I was traveling to Singapore on a UA flight from SFO. About 4 hours out there was a medical on-board and we diverted to HNL. The medical event caused the various medical supplies to require restocking, which was done quickly, but unfortunately the crew timed out requiring everyone to overnight.
I recall vividly how the UA HNL team jumped into action to accommodate a full planeload of passengers. They had hotel vouchers, meal tickets bags off loaded in record time. They had several staff members helping pass out vouchers, directing passengers and answering questions. All this one in what is the decrepit HNL Airport which is frankly a disgrace (IMO).
I remember talking to the guy who helped me. I could tell he was not a normal customer facing team member. He was the ramp supervisor who came inside to help. By this time it was 6:30pm. I asked him how long he had been up. He said he came to work at 4:30am.
Great teams don’t happen by accident. UA and DL in my experience seem to have it together in a difficult business.
Are you taking photoshop classes from Brett Snyder?
Was that a compliment or an insult? 😉
A compliment, no doubt!
So United didn’t kill anybody and they were nice to people they inconvenienced – and this is some great triumph of guest relations?
AA employees were so happy to have Brand X steal Scotty Away. He is PERFECT for them!