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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.