United Airlines received a lot of attention last month when it introduced its Relax Row
product, a soon-to-be-available feature on long-haul flights where customers —
particularly those traveling with young children — can pop up individual leg rests under
the seats to a 90-degree angle, add a mattress pad and create a bed-like setting to
sleep or watch movies.
And families can do this in coach.
CEO Scott Kirby, in a chat at the ReNew Jersey Summit last week in Atlantic City, told
an audience of business leaders that the perk is part of an ongoing initiative by United
to make in-flight service the top priority and a differentiator for the airline.
That means adding Starlink internet service to every flight and giving coach passengers
the biggest screens in the industry. It even means … wait for it … taking out seats to
provide more leg room and more storage space.
Kirby explained his vision.
“We’re trying to build great products,” he said. “So many airlines over the years have
focused on cost at every expense. I’ve heard a bunch of airline CEOs over the years
say, ‘Low cost always wins.’
“My view is the best product and service is going to win.”
It’s not the first time Kirby and United have challenged the conventional wisdom of the
industry.
***
In February of 2020, Kirby said United Airlines believed two things no other airline did:
- COVID-19 was going to be a global pandemic, shutting down air travel;
- The global pandemic was not going to be the end of the industry.
“We took a very different path during COVID,” he said. “We raised $2 billion of financing at 3% two days before the world shut down because we thought it was going to be a global pandemic and no one else did.”
Here’s how Kirby saw it.
“We thought it was going to be deep and last a long time, but we also had a unique view
that air travel was going to fully recovery,” he told the crowd in Atlantic City.
“If any of you remember back in those dark days, all the experts said air travel is going
to permanently down at least 50% and airlines are going to have to go out of business.
They’re going to have to shrink air travel. People are never going to fly again like they
did before.
“We just thought that was wrong.”
More than that, Kirby said he thought it created a once-in-the-history-of-the-industry
opportunity for United to be the only ones that got it right.
So, while others were shrinking their fleet, United was making the biggest aircraft order
in its history — both wide-body and narrow-body — and doubling down on amenities.
“That was a launching point that gave us the confidence to then invest heavily in the
product,” he said.
***
Relax Row is a great concept — and the fact it is available in coach is unusual. But
United hasn’t forgotten about its key business travel class, either.
Last Friday, the airline announced it will be offering three tiers of service in its Polaris
and Premium Plus class this fall (more details to come later, the airline said).
All of this goes back to what Kirby said is United’s ultimate goal: To be the brand of
choice because of its service.
“Our goal has been to build what we call a brand loyal airline,” he said. “A brand loyal
airline is an airline that you can trust, that you love, that you have an affinity for — that
you’re not just flying United because we’re the only one that has a non-stop flight out of
Newark, but that even when there’s a different option, you want to fly United because
our app, our technology, our product on board, our service, our reliability is better than
anyone else.”
It goes back to the push during the pandemic.
“We’ve been investing incremental billions of dollars a year to try to make customers
love us,” he said. “We’re really trying to create something that feels different than any
other airline.”
So far, it’s working, Kirby said.
He said United is increasing its market share in competitive markets in Chicago,
Denver, San Francisco and Newark, the hub he considers the crown jewel of the
airline.
***
Last week, United announced that TSA wait times would be added to their award top-
quality app.
It’s unclear how long the feature will last. As in, will it still be a feature if the current TSA struggles are fixed.
For Kirby and United, it’s another example of how the airline is putting its emphasis on
looking ahead – and doing it with the ‘Wow’ factor in mind.
“Every year we need to surprise our customers with something that when they look at
us, they say, ‘Wow, that’s cool. I’ve never seen any other airline in the world do what
United Airlines is doing,’” he said.
“We should not get any credit for the things we’ve done in the past. You should take
those for granted as customers.
“We have to do something new each and every year to surprise and wow you. And if we
keep doing that, we’re going to just keep winning market share.”
