Tilton had the thankless job of taking over the airline post 9/11 and when they had zero choice but to reorganize. I remember distinctly employees not liking him because of many of the unpopular but necessary cuts that had to be made in order to save the airline. He didn’t sugar coat things and tell people what they wanted to hear, which is why he was unpopular. I feel for the employees who lost pensions and saw their pay reduced, but United is around today because of those sacrifices. And regardless of how the merger turned out, he was absolutely a visionary in knowing the industry needed it long before anyone else did.
What he and his team did do was know their bread and butter. Mileage Plus was absolutely a top notch FF program and UA made it easier to accrue your miles and made up for many of the necessary BK cuts by rewarding your loyalty to them during a turbulent time. And when things did hit the fan, there was generally a mea culpa from the airline and decisive action to make it right. Global Services was launched during his tenure, along with p.s and IPTE, which saw the launch of the first lie flat business class of any US airline. People can snicker all they want, UA’s premium seats were best in class among all of the US airlines when it was introduced. And for those that say everything else suffered, United didn’t have a single crash or plane write off during his tenure and things like their on-time performance, plane cleanliness, and plane refurbishments, took huge leaps between 2007-2010.
In addition to the BK, he had to deal with oil at $150/bb, terrorism, SARS, bird flu, Swine Flu, worst recession in 70 years, and still managed to keep UA flying when many (including Buffoon) said they wouldn’t.
Contrast that to Smisek and Oscar, who have had the benefit of cheap oil, less competition, & better economy and still manage to have a lack luster product and lag behind Delta, and you can see that Glenn is was able to make some lemonade with rotten lemons.