Ari

https://onemileatatime.com/news/unit...eplus-new-ceo/

To bring all of the customer service innovations people love from the cable industry to United?

To help United sell personal data? United Privacy Policy.

mduell

From Comcast... and demoting the current President of MP... what can possibly go wrong.

IAH-OIL-TRASH

I think lack of airline experience (new CEO) suggests Mr. Bondar’s role will cover what we think of MP as - a benefits program. The new CEO’s main focus will be on monetizing UA’s database of customers - tie-ins with other companies etc. I’m not sure lack of airline experience is necessarily a negative if the roles are divided that way.

PsiFighter37

Probably means more useless ads on the TV screens after the safety demo.

halls120

OMAAT gets it right:

Comcast/Xfinity’s customer service still sucks. this doesn’t look good for UA customers.

PsiFighter37

I can’t think that the UA hotline is something that will be materially under his remit, unless it means every phone agent has to pitch me a credit card before I hang up.

ContinentalFan

Agreed.

Could United be thinking of spinning MP out as a separate company?

angetenar

We all saw how poorly that went for Air Canada and Aeroplan.

Kmxu

MP will become a subsidiary of Comcast according to this thread. But I will have a hard time to believe that this will be true. But I could predict that some high-rank officials will depart MP in the next few months.

notquiteaff

if you want to read up on Comcast’s reputation, see [url]https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Criticism_of_Comcast

That said, Richard Nunn has been with Comcast only since 2018. And he didn’t seem to be exactly in charge of running their customer service. So I wouldn’t necessarily draw any conclusions about what this appointment means for MileagePlus.

Still, complete lack of airline/loyalty experience makes this an odd choice for CEO of MP. I noticed on his LinkedIn profile that he once was an accountant in the early 90s, so he checks the bean counter checkbox.

l etoile

Moderator note: I removed a few comments regarding Comcast customer service. Personal feelings and experiences with Comcast and if you loved or disliked the company aren’t relevant to this thread. The new CEO’s experience and what he may or may not bring to MileagePlus based on that are more on topic here.

elmira56925

Where have I heard this before?? Oh yeah I remember

IAH-OIL-TRASH

I knew MP was a money maker, but this tidbit in the linked article succintly states why it is so important. Of course, UA can't just go direct 100% of their investment $ into MP (because it IS an airline), but I'm sure UA's decided spending 5 cents more on MP gets them more than another carrot in a salad. Confirms my suspicion that Nunn will focus more on MP revenue and Bondar will head the MP nuts and bolts benefits we think of.

"Airline loyalty programs are also highly profitable. A study by Frankie O'Connell, a professor of air transport management at the University of Surrey in England, has found the return on invested capital from these programs for American, United and Delta is more than 60%, far higher than a 5% return on their overall business."

U.S. airline loyalty programs can provide buffer from possible recession (yahoo.com)

EWR764

While UA was the first of the airlines during COVID to creatively leverage its FF program, I think the disclosures from that and the subsequent similar transactions from other carriers showed that United still has a fair amount value to unlock from that business unit, as compared specifically to AA and DL. This is no doubt a move to continue to build out MP as a business capable of generating better returns than the airline unit.

While devaluations are a fact of life in this space, I don't think this move necessarily portends reduction in FF benefits or further devaluation as a direct result of his hiring.

CApreppie

Better get my lifetime Gold ASAP, this only ends with customer despair. Failing upward.