With the travel industry braced for another difficult summer, and rumors flying of more mergers among the major carriers, United Airlines vice president of sales for the Americas David K. Myrick spoke to TravelAge West about the challenges facing United in particular and the industry as a whole.
What is United doing to alleviate concerns of travelers who are delayed or stranded this summer, even if it's due to weather or ATC problems?
The primary thing is to make sure that our customers are comfortable. And that goes beyond just bringing water and food on board. The idea is to have the best possible communication internally at the airline, with ATC and most importantly with our customers, to let them know what’s going on. It goes back to our stated policy of “customer commitment,” which we’ve had all along.
We've heard all the warnings that air travel this summer will be worse than last year, with flight delays, cancellations, etc. A lot of airline industry people blame the problems on ATC, saying the system is outdated and overburdened. Do you agree?
ATC is an older system. It’s an industry-wide problem.
Has United, like other carriers, reduced the number of seats available domestically in favor of increasing capacity for international flights?
Yes. Domestically, we’re reducing our capacity slightly this summer. And there will be additional capacity reductions in the fourth quarter.
How will that affect the service on board?
We’re refitting the entire international fleet to upgrade service in First and Business. The idea is to make the experience on a par with comparable service internationally. The means we’ve added personal media players in our 757s and our cuisine was created by world-renowned chef Charlie Trotter.
Since United is a member of Star Alliance, is it easier for travel agents booking foreign travel to go directly to United for the entire itinerary? How does that work?
One of the benefits of belonging to Star Alliance is that the customer can do “one stop shopping.” It’s seamless booking. It gives our customers access to destinations around the world. You can go from carrier to carrier anywhere in the world and it’s as if you are traveling all the way on United.
Same old question: What happens if the flights are late?
In some cities, I understand that representatives from Star Alliance are meeting planes that are late and getting customers to their connecting flights.
