United CEO promises to restore the ‘friendly skies’
United Airlines announced 10 changes to its customer service policies on Thursday. And that’s just the beginning, according to United CEO Oscar Munoz.
“There are many more things in the works,” Munoz said in an interview with USA TODAY’s Today in the Sky blog.
Munoz acknowledged the policies included in Thursday’s announcement were spurred by the company’s reaction to the April 9 incident on United Express Flight 3411. But he said United is using the opportunity to take a fresh look at all of its customer-service policies.
“It is our specific objective to try to make traveling a little bit easier and better in the friendly skies,” he said.
“The ones we’ve acted upon (already) — no law enforcement, other than for safety and security, and not deboarding anyone that’s already been boarded — those are aligned to that (preventing a repeat),” Munoz told Today in the Sky. “Certainly the incentive to go up (to $10,000) is part of that. But after that, it becomes the early start of our progression to our start of being infinitely more customer friendly.”
“When we talk common sense, we need to empower our folks to do things in the moment,” Munoz said before referencing a change that will minimize paperwork for passengers whose bags have been permanently lost by the airline. Expected to take effect in June, United will now reimburse those customers for claims up to $1,500, with “no questions asked.”
“The baggage policy, the bureaucracy. … Gosh darn it, if we’ve lost your bag and we can’t find it, we shouldn’t put you through hell trying to figure out where receipts are for the bag and pair the socks and underwear that you bought months or years ago. It’s stupid. It doesn’t make sense,” Munoz said. “It’s policies like that that we’re going to start reviewing across the board to make sure we don’t have other things like that.”
He declined to offer a specific timetable, saying “I don’t want to start promising things and then not be able to deliver. I want to get things right. We don’t have a lot of room for leeway.”
Munoz touched on a number of other subjects related to the Flight 3411 incident and its fallout. Read on for some additional highlights from his interview this past week:
Changing policies vs. changing culture
“This is less about changing the culture at United and more about updating policies that may be hindering employees from helping customers,” Munoz said. “Our culture is there. It’s always been there. We just needed to give it some freedom to operate.”
He points to improvements United has made since previous and unpopular CEO Jeff Smisek was fired in September 2015. At the time, United struggled with everything from on-time flights to complaint rates that exceeded its peers. Those numbers have improved since Munoz took over.
“You’ve seen the improvement and trajectory about how people feel about United and flying on us,” Munoz said. “The culture — the pride and professionalism — has always been there. Now we need to take it beyond that and allow them even more freedom to exercise their common sense.”
“It’s not a culture thing,” he said about Flight 3411, which was operated by United Express affiliate Republic Airlines. “This is an isolated incident. A horrible one. It’s a failure, we admit that.”
On United now being under a microscope every time something goes wrong on one if its flights
“We put ourselves in the spotlight. So, we have to manage it as best as possible,” Munoz said.
But Munoz said the incident has also prompted him to take a bigger-picture approach as to what United should be working toward.
“On a broader point, all these actions we’ve taken are important,” Munoz said. “But I’ve really found myself reflecting just more broadly on the role we play and the responsibilities we have to all the communities we serve”
“We’re going to go further than what you’ve seen (Thursday) on the customer side,” he added. “We also want to go further in redefining what United’s corporate responsibility and citizenship looks like to all the communities we serve.”
“That breach of public trust is something we have to rework,” he continued, citing Flight 3411. “Beyond that, what you’re going to see (us) do (involves) our corporate citizenship. There’s a humanity and values-oriented initiative that we’re going to roll out. We just didn’t think this was the right time to do it.”
On how long the fallout of the incident will continue to weigh on United
“The fact and the incident will live forever. The perception of fear or distrust of our airline will persist in some camps longer and some other camps less,” Munoz said. “Our challenge is just to fly the way we’ve always done, which is friendly, and prove to folks that there’s nothing for them to worry about. And I think our new policies will be a plus.”
On whether the things being said about United — and Munoz himself — are difficult to hear
“I’m human,” Munoz said when asked if comments made on social media are hard not to take personally.
“Of course it can be difficult for some time. (But) it cannot derail us from what it is that we are focused on,” he continued. “One of the most prideful things in my personal life is heading up this family. Period, end of sentence. I’ve worked at a lot of wonderful places and this the best place. We have the best people.”
“The slings and arrows that will come — not only today, but in the future — I suspect are part of the game. The focus is to keep our team very motivated and very energized,” he said. “It’s not just about tools, it’s about values. I hope that over time people begin to see that in us again, and that this thing does fade. But it will be awhile before that happens.”
On whether overbooking should be reconsidered
“We’ve reduced overbooking,” Munoz said. “Our algorithms support that. It’s a pretty systemic broad initiative that starts with (that) we’re going to offer the right amount (of compensation for volunteers) and, at the same time, lessen (the the rate of overbooking). One of our internal goals is that we’d like to have zero involuntary denied bookings. When you have that goal, and you have a $10,000 bookend, I think that helps.”
“That breach of public trust is something we have to rework.” OSCAR MUNOZ UNITED AIRLINES CEO