Smisek comments today re service culture

 
Old Mar 11, 2011, 9:43 am
  #1  
Original Poster
 
Join Date: Feb 2002
Location: NYC: UA 1K, DL Platinum, AAirpass, Avis PC
Posts: 4,599
Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; U; CPU iPhone OS 4_2_1 like Mac OS X; en-us) AppleWebKit/533.17.9 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/5.0.2 Mobile/8C148 Safari/6533.18.5)

Jeff spoke at a Houston conference today. An energy related audience so a lot of broad brush strokes but a few nuances....

- Working very hard personally to make sure the culture is elevated - noted there was a lot of mistrust as a result of the events earlier in decade - making it work takes up a lot of his time
- Believes all the lie flats and AVODs will do no good if service is "surly" and goal is to be a customer service company first
- Reiterated the "make employees happy to come to work" philosophy
- Fuel, fuel, fuel
- Noted ANA JV will have reciprocal elite recognition; he seemed to imply something more than Star Alliance level but don't remember announcement detailing
- Working through UA legacy fleet complexity will take time
- Doing the work to make the technology best in industry to enhance delivery
- Highlighted he believes loyalty program is best and in good shape (implying not a lot will be changed)

A group of us had a chance to talk beforehand...GS's were assured their attention would continue, some were frustrated with cross CO/UA elite inconsistencies -- to which the new online tool was his quick response -- they loved it.

I probed on bringing the UA Business standard closer to BizFirst and eventually Asian competition -- he was quite emphatic the way they deliver the product will change for the better.

Hard product will be in great shape but wants to avoid things like getting a tray plopped down when you're in a premium intl cabin -- really going to focus on service delivery. But said it will take time.

He referred to the UA intl premium product as IPTE or some similar acronym -- anyone knows what that is?

Separately a biz first concierge I spoke with said they plan to expand the program -- take that with a grain of front line salt.

No I did not ask about meal order taking -- though sense he is deep enough in the weeds he'd have a view. And avoided the cabin mix discussion as that's non public info you don't want to put him on the spot about.

But overall he was very thoughtful-- not flippant -- and very much has service delivery at the top of his day to day, fuel aside.
cerealmarketer is offline  
Old Mar 11, 2011, 9:48 am
  #2  
 
Join Date: Feb 2011
Location: NYC
Programs: DL
Posts: 76
IPTE = International Premium Travel Experience
penguin085 is offline  
Old Mar 11, 2011, 9:52 am
  #3  
 
Join Date: Jul 2005
Location: SAN
Programs: UA 1MM/1K, HH Diamond
Posts: 6,824
Interesting! Thanks for the report ^
as219 is offline  
Old Mar 11, 2011, 9:56 am
  #4  
 
Join Date: Apr 2006
Programs: AA, AS, TZ, UA, Clipper, EZ-Link, Hop, Navigo, Octopus, Oyster
Posts: 416
Originally Posted by cerealmarketer
- Working very hard personally to make sure the culture is elevated - noted there was a lot of mistrust as a result of the events earlier in decade - making it work takes up a lot of his time
- Believes all the lie flats and AVODs will do no good if service is "surly" and goal is to be a customer service company first
- Reiterated the "make employees happy to come to work" philosophy
All good. And I know it will take some time.
But as I'm typing this I'm sitting here at SFO watching a UA GA berate an older pax for handing her the wrong BP. (Sigh.)
I hope the culture elevation happens sooner rather than later.
dieselbear is offline  
Old Mar 11, 2011, 10:04 am
  #5  
 
Join Date: Dec 2002
Location: AA Gold/Million Miler,DL dirt,UA1K/Million Miler;Honors Silver,Marriott Gold;Avis Preferred,Hertz Prez Circle, Nat'l Exec Elite
Posts: 1,428
Originally Posted by cerealmarketer
Jeff spoke at a Houston conference today. An energy related audience so a lot of broad brush strokes but a few nuances....

- Working very hard personally to make sure the culture is elevated - noted there was a lot of mistrust as a result of the events earlier in decade - making it work takes up a lot of his time
- Believes all the lie flats and AVODs will do no good if service is "surly" and goal is to be a customer service company first
- Reiterated the "make employees happy to come to work" philosophy
-Those 1st 3 were re-iterated in the (I think February) Hemispheres interview w/the twins pilot/FO article; all the tweaking/ improvement in hard/soft product is great, but you have to have people feeling good about their work/future before their effects impress the customers. That's a plus for Him to note it.

Last edited by FlyinHawaiian; Mar 11, 2011 at 5:57 pm Reason: proper quote attribution
rustyr is offline  
Old Mar 11, 2011, 10:08 am
  #6  
 
Join Date: Apr 2005
Location: MBS/FNT/LAN
Programs: UA 1K, HH Gold, Mariott Gold
Posts: 9,621
Originally Posted by cerealmarketer
Jeff spoke at a Houston conference today. ..............A group of us had a chance to talk beforehand...GS's were assured their attention would continue, some were frustrated with cross CO/UA elite inconsistencies -- to which the new online tool was his quick response -- they loved it.
So this was the "meeting" with Jeff....

Any developments on the meal-taking front?

Last edited by FlyinHawaiian; Mar 11, 2011 at 5:57 pm Reason: fix html
jhayes_1780 is offline  
Old Mar 11, 2011, 10:16 am
  #7  
In memoriam
 
Join Date: Feb 2007
Location: NYC
Programs: UA, AA, SPG - Gold, LM
Posts: 589
Originally Posted by jhayes_1780
So this was the "meeting" with Jeff....

Any developments on the meal-taking front?
No I did not ask about meal order taking -- though sense he is deep enough in the weeds he'd have a view. And avoided the cabin mix discussion as that's non public info you don't want to put him on the spot about.

I thought the OP had answered that Q on his post, why would anyone ask again?
anishub is offline  
Old Mar 11, 2011, 10:45 am
  #8  
FlyerTalk Evangelist
 
Join Date: Jan 2009
Location: London & Sonoma CA
Programs: UA 1K, MM *G for life, BAEC Gold
Posts: 10,215
This is very good to hear. It is so important for UA to stand for something in the marketplace and, at the moment, it stands for poor service (whether justified or not). From reading the OP, it does appear that senior management recognizes that UA cannot compete in WN's market and that they have identified a market where UA can compete - one of a good, solid product with good service delivery.

Who knows? If he delivers on these matters, FT may be reduced to posts from people outraged that their pre-take off drink was only half full and that they demand their money for the whole flight back to recompense.
lhrsfo is offline  
Old Mar 11, 2011, 11:09 am
  #9  
 
Join Date: Apr 2005
Location: MBS/FNT/LAN
Programs: UA 1K, HH Gold, Mariott Gold
Posts: 9,621
Originally Posted by anishub
why would anyone ask again?
Maybe you missed the at the end of my post?
jhayes_1780 is offline  
Old Mar 11, 2011, 11:54 am
  #10  
 
Join Date: Dec 2009
Location: Westchester with HPN (LGA, JFK, EWR possible but...)
Programs: AA EXP, UA PP, HHonor Diamond, etc.
Posts: 124
OP, thanks for sharing information!
Hope the bad apples would be changed to good ones or thrown away soon!
uecsome is offline  
Old Mar 11, 2011, 11:59 am
  #11  
Moderator: Luxury Hotels and FlyerTalk Evangelist
 
Join Date: Sep 2002
Location: Palo Alto, California,USA
Posts: 17,837
Unfortunately, I think the only solution to the international service problem is to get rid of 90% of the senior FA's. In F recently on a SFO-LHR-SFO trip, they knew all the tricks to avoid work and provide sloppy service. Didn't even bother to pass through the tiny cabin with water refills once meal service was done.

The menu said I could pace the meal to my preference. In one direction I tried to do just that and got the meal at exactly the same time and at exactly the same rate as everyone else. The passengers were there for the FA's convenience, clearly.
RichardInSF is offline  
Old Mar 11, 2011, 1:46 pm
  #12  
 
Join Date: Sep 2006
Location: xLAS
Posts: 1,362
Originally Posted by RichardInSF
Unfortunately, I think the only solution to the international service problem is to get rid of 90% of the senior FA's.
I don't think you'd actually need to do it, as much as convince them that they're at risk of it being done.

If they had no protection from being fired -- no protection conveyed by seniority nor union membership -- they'd work harder just knowing that.

It's just human nature to relax when you can, and work hard when you must. Nothing specific to FAs.


edit: I'd like to add that with 700000 BIS miles on UA metal, I've had only 1 complaint/issue with one of the UA FAs, and it was minor, and I think that's pretty impressive on their behalf. Their service is sometimes great, sometimes good, sometimes acceptable, but never have I thought it was unacceptable.

Last edited by ajc1970; Mar 11, 2011 at 2:32 pm
ajc1970 is offline  
Old Mar 11, 2011, 1:55 pm
  #13  
FlyerTalk Evangelist
 
Join Date: Nov 2009
Location: Northeast Kansas | Colorado Native
Programs: Amex Gold/Plat, UA *G, Hyatt Globalist, Marriott LT Gold, NEXUS, TSA Disparager Unobtanium
Posts: 21,558
Perhaps we will see the practice of delivering meals to F & C pax on trays, disappear. ^


FWIW, on my last intl C trip (ORD-FRA-ORD), service from all of the FAs, especially the purser was excellent. The purser also shook my hand as I left the aircraft, thanking me for flying so much on UA ^
FriendlySkies is offline  
Old Mar 11, 2011, 2:00 pm
  #14  
 
Join Date: Dec 2005
Location: Kirkland, WA
Programs: AS 75K,UA Gold 1.6MM, Hilton Dia, Marriott LT Plat, Hyatt Glb, Natl Exec, Hertz 5*
Posts: 3,657
Originally Posted by RichardInSF
Unfortunately, I think the only solution to the international service problem is to get rid of 90% of the senior FA's. In F recently on a SFO-LHR-SFO trip, they knew all the tricks to avoid work and provide sloppy service. Didn't even bother to pass through the tiny cabin with water refills once meal service was done.
.
I was on PVG-SFO once and had a 747 upper deck C seat. When I got there I found that there were only about 6 of us there. The FAs also commented on the light load up top and semi-joked that on the bus on the way in they were thinking about how to close the upper deck so they wouldn't have to work!

On a flight out from SFO-PVG I had my seat changed unbenknownst to me at the gate to lower deck (saw the GA reprinting a lot of BPs). When I boarded and noticed the change, I complained and they said that there was a lot of water leaking in the upper deck and they needed to move everyone down. I insisted on the upper deck anyway and they gave it back. When I got up there I saw no water leaking, mentioned it to the FAs and they knew nothing about such a thing.

The old "elevator is broken" trick to close down upper deck I have also seen
dmodemd is offline  
Old Mar 11, 2011, 2:21 pm
  #15  
 
Join Date: Jun 2005
Location: KDEN
Programs: UA GS, AA EXP, BA GGL
Posts: 110
I agree with RichardInSF. My most recent SFOLHR trip in F was extremely disappointing and I keep feeling that the overall service in international F has certainly gone downhill over the past 12 months.

On this particular flight the meal was rushed, no drink/water refills, and although I had told the purser not to wake me for breakfast, I was given a dirty look when I asked for a cup of coffee an hour before landing.

I realize that the new hard product in F is only marginally better than the new C, however there is such a great opportunity to make the smaller F cabin (on the B763 and B77Q) feel special. Come on, UA...
BE-58 is offline  

Thread Tools
Search this Thread

Contact Us - Manage Preferences - Archive - Advertising - Cookie Policy - Privacy Statement - Terms of Service -

This site is owned, operated, and maintained by MH Sub I, LLC dba Internet Brands. Copyright © 2024 MH Sub I, LLC dba Internet Brands. All rights reserved. Designated trademarks are the property of their respective owners.