Latest / The David Rubenstein Show / Oscar Munoz

Transcript

Oscar Munoz · The David Rubenstein Show

• 0:02
  Speaker 1: Five weeks after being named CEO of United Airlines, Oscar
• 0:05
  Speaker 1: Munos had a heart attack. Two months later, with a
• 0:09
  Speaker 1: new heart, he was back at work, where he was
• 0:11
  Speaker 1: faced with a company in disarray. His predecessor, Jeff's Missik,
• 0:15
  Speaker 1: had been caught in a federal corruption probe, and the
• 0:17
  Speaker 1: airline was still not fully integrated with Continental Airlines after
• 0:21
  Speaker 1: the merger of the two companies. Over the course of
• 0:25
  Speaker 1: the following year, Munos largely succeeded in turning around the airline,
• 0:29
  Speaker 1: boosting on time performance and renegotiating worker contracts. You knows
• 0:34
  Speaker 1: was so successful in his role that pr Week named
• 0:37
  Speaker 1: him the Communicator of the Year in March of However,
• 0:41
  Speaker 1: one month later, Minos faced another test after a ticketed
• 0:45
  Speaker 1: United passenger was forcefully removed from a flight, becoming a
• 0:49
  Speaker 1: national news story and a major headache for the company.
• 0:52
  Speaker 1: In the wake of the controversy, the United board decided
• 0:55
  Speaker 1: that Munos would not take over as chairman of the company,
• 0:58
  Speaker 1: as had been originally plug end, but he was able
• 1:01
  Speaker 1: to keep his job, although his salary for was just
• 1:05
  Speaker 1: half of what it was in He recently sat down
• 1:08
  Speaker 1: with Carlisle Group co founder David Rubenstein They spoke on
• 1:12
  Speaker 1: David Rubenstein's Bloomberg television program Peer to Peer Conversations. First,
• 1:17
  Speaker 1: I want to talk about an incredible story that many
• 1:20
  Speaker 1: here may not be familiar with. So let's talk about
• 1:22
  Speaker 1: your background initially to get to this story. You grew
• 1:26
  Speaker 1: up in California and you had eight siblings. I do,
• 1:31
  Speaker 1: And what does that like? I'm an only child. What
• 1:34
  Speaker 1: was it like when you have eight siblings? Is that
• 1:36
  Speaker 1: easy to do? Or if you're an only child, it's
• 1:39
  Speaker 1: probably hard to reference a good point of view? But
• 1:42
  Speaker 1: now it was hectic, it was crazy. Um, we shared everything.
• 1:46
  Speaker 1: We had first and second lunch because we couldn't fit
• 1:49
  Speaker 1: everybody at the first table. Um. When I first brought
• 1:52
  Speaker 1: my wife home for Thanksgiving, UM, I said, okay, honey,
• 1:56
  Speaker 1: let's just get ready. Okay, because this will be not normal.
• 1:59
  Speaker 1: It was great when you're growing up, you were a
• 2:01
  Speaker 1: must have been a good student. You got into Harvard,
• 2:04
  Speaker 1: then you chose not to go. Why was that? It
• 2:07
  Speaker 1: was an awkward moment? Um, I'm the first goal to
• 2:11
  Speaker 1: college came blue collar family. Uh, and we were invited
• 2:15
  Speaker 1: to an event that was a black tie optional event.
• 2:19
  Speaker 1: I don't know what that means at that time, and
• 2:21
  Speaker 1: my dad certainly didn't. And we had to walk across.
• 2:24
  Speaker 1: First of all, we got stopped at the door because
• 2:26
  Speaker 1: they said you must be lost because it the way
• 2:28
  Speaker 1: we were dressed. And I had to remember I was
• 2:30
  Speaker 1: in high school. My hair was down to here. I
• 2:33
  Speaker 1: grew up in Huntington Beach, so it was a surfer kid,
• 2:35
  Speaker 1: and my hair was red and long and ratty, and
• 2:37
  Speaker 1: I thought I looked good. Um, So walking across a
• 2:41
  Speaker 1: room of this size with all eyes upon you, and
• 2:43
  Speaker 1: then sitting at a table where everybody asking you questions
• 2:46
  Speaker 1: like who are you? What's your major? And none of
• 2:48
  Speaker 1: the none of things that I knew. So I knew
• 2:50
  Speaker 1: that wasn't quite the right fit. And Southern cal was
• 2:52
  Speaker 1: just closer to home in a great university. Have you
• 2:55
  Speaker 1: ever thought when you could have accomplished with your life
• 2:57
  Speaker 1: head you're going to Harvard? God knows that could be
• 3:01
  Speaker 1: in that seaton, right. So, Um, you went to U
• 3:12
  Speaker 1: s C. University of Southern California, and obviously did well.
• 3:17
  Speaker 1: You work your way up and ultimately you find yourself
• 3:19
  Speaker 1: at CSX, a railroad company, and you were working your weapon.
• 3:23
  Speaker 1: You were president and CEO. Is that correct? You're probably
• 3:28
  Speaker 1: about ready to be made CEO, and at the same
• 3:31
  Speaker 1: time you're on the board of a company called United Airlines.
• 3:35
  Speaker 1: So one day, Um, there's a need to have a
• 3:38
  Speaker 1: new CEO and they asked you to be the CEO.
• 3:41
  Speaker 1: And why did you want to leave Florida for Chicago?
• 3:45
  Speaker 1: And why did you want to give up running a
• 3:46
  Speaker 1: railroad which is maybe not as complicated as running an airline.
• 3:49
  Speaker 1: Why did you do want to do that? One of
• 3:51
  Speaker 1: the more complicated questions in my life right Uh. And
• 3:53
  Speaker 1: to add to that, by the way, my first daughter
• 3:55
  Speaker 1: was getting married, um, right around that time frame, and
• 3:58
  Speaker 1: we had the wedding plan. My wife entire sole interest
• 4:01
  Speaker 1: over the course of that momentous decision was you better
• 4:05
  Speaker 1: get your father the bride speech done. But now it
• 4:09
  Speaker 1: was a difficult It's listen, I and there's some friends
• 4:11
  Speaker 1: from CSX that are here today and it was a
• 4:13
  Speaker 1: wonderful place. Frankly, I just thought I had another turnaround
• 4:16
  Speaker 1: in me a and b Um, when you meet the
• 4:19
  Speaker 1: people of United and what we needed at United was
• 4:23
  Speaker 1: someone that could relate to the everyday folks that we
• 4:26
  Speaker 1: work with, and I thought I could do that better
• 4:27
  Speaker 1: than the most So one month after you take this job,
• 4:30
  Speaker 1: you get a heart attack. You never go to any
• 4:33
  Speaker 1: conversation without this one. But thirty eight days to be exact.
• 4:37
  Speaker 1: All right, So did you think maybe you had taken
• 4:40
  Speaker 1: the wrong job? It was too much pressure? And you
• 4:43
  Speaker 1: know you were a vegan and you were an exerciser
• 4:46
  Speaker 1: and you run marathons or so what went wrong? Um?
• 4:53
  Speaker 1: So it's a quick public service announcement to all of
• 4:55
  Speaker 1: us in the room. Heart disease is the biggest killer
• 4:58
  Speaker 1: in America. To be serious, Um, most the reason why
• 5:01
  Speaker 1: is most of us don't know we have it. My
• 5:04
  Speaker 1: family background didn't allow me to understand a lot of
• 5:07
  Speaker 1: my history. And so again, being relatively fit and eating
• 5:10
  Speaker 1: crazy like a vegan, you think that nothing would happen,
• 5:13
  Speaker 1: and something did. And I think when you talk to cardiologis,
• 5:16
  Speaker 1: we talked to hard specialists. Unfortunately. You know some of
• 5:19
  Speaker 1: the things internal you're plumbing is what affects you. So
• 5:21
  Speaker 1: so you have your heart attack and then they come
• 5:23
  Speaker 1: in and say, guess what, you need a heart transplant? Yeah,
• 5:27
  Speaker 1: so were you a little surprised about that? It was
• 5:29
  Speaker 1: a little surprised and a little hesitant. Um. You know,
• 5:31
  Speaker 1: they talk about the fact that heart transplant surgeries are
• 5:34
  Speaker 1: ninety three percent uh successful the actual surgery, and of
• 5:40
  Speaker 1: course us being who we are, it's like, so what
• 5:42
  Speaker 1: happens to the seven percent? Not a good answer on
• 5:47
  Speaker 1: that one, by the way, So when they came in
• 5:48
  Speaker 1: and told you you needed a heart transplant, did you
• 5:51
  Speaker 1: ask for a second opinion or anything like that. We
• 5:53
  Speaker 1: did travel around and I'm unfortunate enough to know people
• 5:56
  Speaker 1: all over the country, and I was trying to figure
• 5:58
  Speaker 1: out if there was something else because more to us
• 6:00
  Speaker 1: guys in particular, I think we can fix things. Right.
• 6:02
  Speaker 1: It's like I'll just you know, run it off or something. Um.
• 6:05
  Speaker 1: That is not true, ladies and gentlemen, you cannot fix
• 6:07
  Speaker 1: these things. And what the doctors around the world that
• 6:10
  Speaker 1: I trust and no told me, They said, sit your
• 6:13
  Speaker 1: butt down and get the surgery because that's the only
• 6:15
  Speaker 1: way you're gonna live. Okay, It's one thing to say
• 6:17
  Speaker 1: you need a hard transplant, but you gotta get a heart.
• 6:19
  Speaker 1: So I don't get the weight online for a long time.
• 6:21
  Speaker 1: How did you? How did you get a heart? It
• 6:23
  Speaker 1: is the most one of the most byzantine processes of
• 6:25
  Speaker 1: how you apply and what levels you're in and how
• 6:28
  Speaker 1: all this gets worked. It's very well regulated and and
• 6:31
  Speaker 1: modulated so that people don't take advantage in any way,
• 6:33
  Speaker 1: shape or form um. But I was very fortunate I
• 6:36
  Speaker 1: was on a list and uh on my birthday reason
• 6:40
  Speaker 1: John On on on my birthday, in the morning of my
• 6:42
  Speaker 1: doctor Anderson called and said, quote, have we got a
• 6:46
  Speaker 1: gas heart for you? Um, and we happen to be
• 6:50
  Speaker 1: at a meeting in uh United It's kind of a
• 6:52
  Speaker 1: strategy vision going forward that were I was in the
• 6:55
  Speaker 1: middle of it. I had come back from my heart
• 6:56
  Speaker 1: attack and I had this device and I stood up
• 6:59
  Speaker 1: after launch. We're determining actually the strategic future of the
• 7:03
  Speaker 1: of the company, where all the things that we've been
• 7:04
  Speaker 1: able to do with the last couple of years and
• 7:06
  Speaker 1: all the things that we're doing. But uh, as we
• 7:08
  Speaker 1: bro I knew that morning I had to go into
• 7:10
  Speaker 1: the hospital that afternoon, and UH so I went to
• 7:13
  Speaker 1: the meetings because what else am I going to do
• 7:15
  Speaker 1: for the morning. Uh, And we were excited. And then
• 7:17
  Speaker 1: I didn't say anything other than my general council and
• 7:20
  Speaker 1: a couple of Boloks to make sure they knew. But
• 7:22
  Speaker 1: I did stand up at lunch and said I'm not
• 7:23
  Speaker 1: going to be back after lunch. I gotta go to
• 7:25
  Speaker 1: the hospital. I got this thing I gotta do. But
• 7:28
  Speaker 1: there's a classic line that I didn't mean to say
• 7:30
  Speaker 1: the way I said it. But I said, I'll see
• 7:32
  Speaker 1: you on the other side. And again, as you know,
• 7:35
  Speaker 1: they could have a lot of meetings. Uh, I meant
• 7:38
  Speaker 1: the most positive meeting meeting. Hey, I'll be back. And
• 7:40
  Speaker 1: so the surgery was went great. I was in and out.
• 7:43
  Speaker 1: I was out of the gosh, a twenty one year
• 7:46
  Speaker 1: old beat me as far as the history of Northwestern Hospital.
• 7:48
  Speaker 1: But I was out in about seven days. I don't
• 7:51
  Speaker 1: know Thursday. I was back in the office on Monday
• 7:54
  Speaker 1: in smaller levels. Now we didn't tell the world an
• 7:56
  Speaker 1: analyst and investors that because they freaked out, But I was.
• 7:58
  Speaker 1: I was spending a lot time back in the office.
• 8:00
  Speaker 1: All right, So today you're in pretty good shape. You
• 8:02
  Speaker 1: have a hard transplant, but other than immune issues from
• 8:05
  Speaker 1: time to time, you're feeling as good as you could
• 8:07
  Speaker 1: possibly feel. I think most people wouldn't ask the table. Yes,
• 8:11
  Speaker 1: he's I mean, we're always I'm always running around. I
• 8:14
  Speaker 1: just came back from Australia. And then now that there's
• 8:17
  Speaker 1: no restriction, and you still exercise a lot, not a lot,
• 8:20
  Speaker 1: because the job unfortunately takes you up. I'm not Dennis
• 8:23
  Speaker 1: Mullenberg from boring. I ride bikes with him. But so
• 8:26
  Speaker 1: I haven't thought that maybe exercising and being a vegan
• 8:28
  Speaker 1: isn't such a good thing, and maybe don't exercise and
• 8:31
  Speaker 1: eat all the meat would be better. Have you ever
• 8:33
  Speaker 1: thought of that? Uh? My doctor, who is um a
• 8:36
  Speaker 1: larger gentleman, I think, would advise me. He advised me
• 8:39
  Speaker 1: to go from vegan to what he calls flexitarian, meaning
• 8:42
  Speaker 1: eat what the hell you want. Um all right, but
• 8:45
  Speaker 1: hea lots of it's because you need to gain weight,
• 8:47
  Speaker 1: all right. So let's talk about the airline industry that
• 8:49
  Speaker 1: you're now. Thank you, all right. People love to fly
• 8:57
  Speaker 1: around the world at relatively low prices. But why is
• 9:00
  Speaker 1: it that generally the public doesn't seem to like airlines. Well,
• 9:03
  Speaker 1: a couple of things. You're right, prices, Since so next
• 9:06
  Speaker 1: year will be the forty anniversary of deregulation, and so
• 9:09
  Speaker 1: many new things have been offered, so many products, and
• 9:12
  Speaker 1: to your point on pricing, I think the numbers forty
• 9:17
  Speaker 1: on inflation adjusted basis prices are actually lower schedules are increased,
• 9:21
  Speaker 1: we have much further reach. Um. But the customer has
• 9:25
  Speaker 1: evolved as well. And again, as I said, we have
• 9:28
  Speaker 1: a hundred and fifty million of you wonderful people every year,
• 9:31
  Speaker 1: and you all have opinions on various aspects. And um,
• 9:34
  Speaker 1: you know, not everyone dislikes things, but people that fly
• 9:38
  Speaker 1: very infrequently. So for instance, uh, luggage and a fee
• 9:42
  Speaker 1: around luggage that if you haven't flown in a few
• 9:44
  Speaker 1: years and now you have to pay it, you get angry.
• 9:46
  Speaker 1: And so things have evolved. Good thing is the airly
• 9:49
  Speaker 1: industry is generally profitable. Where you used to hear about
• 9:52
  Speaker 1: us in bankruptcy every other day, And so we have
• 9:55
  Speaker 1: to balance that history of providing everything you want all
• 9:58
  Speaker 1: the time at a low price to still having a
• 10:01
  Speaker 1: relatively low economic price, but also adding all the product
• 10:04
  Speaker 1: and value and schedule and efficiency that we've been able
• 10:07
  Speaker 1: to do in the old days. You pointed out old
• 10:09
  Speaker 1: days thirty years ago or so, a lot of airlines
• 10:11
  Speaker 1: were going out of business. I've read about the old
• 10:12
  Speaker 1: days and Grand f t W A Trump shuttle. They're
• 10:17
  Speaker 1: not around anymore. Um, I don't know what happened not
• 10:20
  Speaker 1: going there, So I don't know that They've you ever
• 10:24
  Speaker 1: fly on the Trump shuttle? I don't know. But uh so,
• 10:26
  Speaker 1: why are there so many airlines that went out of
• 10:28
  Speaker 1: business but today the airline seemed to be profitable? Was
• 10:30
  Speaker 1: that because you the algorithms have worked, so you know
• 10:33
  Speaker 1: how to actually have not too many empty seats? Well, um,
• 10:37
  Speaker 1: consolidation has helped. Um. I mentioned my railroad experience, and
• 10:40
  Speaker 1: I think if you look at their history, I think
• 10:43
  Speaker 1: the airline has closely followed the same evolution of less
• 10:46
  Speaker 1: folks vying for the same amount of customers. Uh certainly,
• 10:49
  Speaker 1: as part of it, I think some discipline around how
• 10:52
  Speaker 1: we invest, how much product we offer, how we price,
• 10:55
  Speaker 1: and how more importantly, how we're efficient. But underlying it all,
• 10:58
  Speaker 1: I can never forget the fact that this product is
• 11:01
  Speaker 1: supported by the human beings that run the airline every
• 11:04
  Speaker 1: single day. What's the best way to get the lowest
• 11:07
  Speaker 1: price of people go online and book it themselves, that
• 11:10
  Speaker 1: to go through a travel agent. Probably in broad aspects,
• 11:14
  Speaker 1: the further out you book, the better options that you have.
• 11:18
  Speaker 1: But people use an interesting array of folks. So travel
• 11:21
  Speaker 1: agents are still big customers of ours, and they're still
• 11:23
  Speaker 1: part of it. Our direct channels for US United dot
• 11:26
  Speaker 1: Com is a growing channel. So is it possible that
• 11:29
  Speaker 1: somebody could be sitting next to somebody else on airline
• 11:32
  Speaker 1: he or she paid a lower price in the person
• 11:34
  Speaker 1: sitting right next to him or her. Nobody talks about that.
• 11:37
  Speaker 1: But yeah, it's been an issue forever. I mean, you've
• 11:39
  Speaker 1: got a corporate customer on a corporate discuss us someone
• 11:42
  Speaker 1: that booked far ahead. UM. So usually, I mean I
• 11:44
  Speaker 1: don't know about you in the room. I don't usually
• 11:46
  Speaker 1: ask who's sitting next to me here? By the way,
• 11:48
  Speaker 1: how much did you pay for that ticket? Um? But
• 11:50
  Speaker 1: it is an issue, but it's not a significant one. Well,
• 11:53
  Speaker 1: let's talk about you're flying. Um, I assume you're not
• 11:55
  Speaker 1: flying on private planes anymore. Uh. No, you gotta eat
• 11:59
  Speaker 1: with your cooks. I'm I'm very comfortable with our wonder right.
• 12:02
  Speaker 1: So when you want to need a reservation, you have
• 12:04
  Speaker 1: any problems getting uh you know, getting a seat or
• 12:06
  Speaker 1: anything in a We booked through the normal channels, and
• 12:11
  Speaker 1: what we call it, it's it's positive space or space availably,
• 12:14
  Speaker 1: meaning I'll look of light and if it's booked, I'll
• 12:17
  Speaker 1: find another flight like everyone else. Can you be you
• 12:19
  Speaker 1: on your airline and not have people come up and
• 12:21
  Speaker 1: tell you what you should do better or bother you
• 12:23
  Speaker 1: or is that how does that work? Yeah, it's not
• 12:25
  Speaker 1: not an easy task anymore. Pet. You're fairly recognized. So
• 12:29
  Speaker 1: the further back you go, the less you're recognized. In
• 12:32
  Speaker 1: the front of the cabin, it's almost impossible. And people
• 12:34
  Speaker 1: do want to chat and provide input and feedback on
• 12:36
  Speaker 1: many things. Obtrusive. Yes, I've had people you know, read like,
• 12:40
  Speaker 1: I'll put my my headphones on and pretend to do
• 12:43
  Speaker 1: something so I can try to sleep. They'll reach over
• 12:45
  Speaker 1: and take it out. It gets worse. Um, so I'll
• 12:50
  Speaker 1: be in the smart person that I am. I went
• 12:51
  Speaker 1: to the earbuds, figured they can't reach and get those.
• 12:54
  Speaker 1: Oh contrary, this guy reached in and grabbed this thing,
• 12:59
  Speaker 1: which is at all obtrusiapan no listen, it's um. All
• 13:03
  Speaker 1: of us that are in this business do this a lot,
• 13:05
  Speaker 1: and it's important to hear from your customers and increasing
• 13:08
  Speaker 1: in our business it's more positive. But you have a
• 13:10
  Speaker 1: lot of people in first class whop when they don't
• 13:12
  Speaker 1: like something, they say, do you know who I am?
• 13:14
  Speaker 1: You had a lot of that. We have wonderful customers
• 13:17
  Speaker 1: who have a very high degree of self impoint. I
• 13:21
  Speaker 1: guess one percentage of luggage is lost by the industry generally.
• 13:28
  Speaker 1: I'm sure yours is better, but by complaints, uh per
• 13:33
  Speaker 1: I think a thousand employments, it's like three per thousand
• 13:35
  Speaker 1: over the course of time. And the best way to
• 13:37
  Speaker 1: avoid ahead of your luggage lost is do what just
• 13:42
  Speaker 1: carry it on or your predicate I don't not an agreement,
• 13:47
  Speaker 1: which we don't. We don't lose that much luggage, um
• 13:49
  Speaker 1: and if we do, we get it right to you.
• 13:51
  Speaker 1: In fact, we institute it into policy last year. It
• 13:53
  Speaker 1: used to be kind of owners where if indeed something
• 13:55
  Speaker 1: got lost and we couldn't find it, we made you
• 13:59
  Speaker 1: put you know, we needed receipts for everything that was
• 14:01
  Speaker 1: in your bag, including things you know, I mean, who
• 14:04
  Speaker 1: keeps receipts for your underwear and your toothbrush? So we
• 14:07
  Speaker 1: institute it a thing. It's like, listen, you trusted me
• 14:08
  Speaker 1: with your bag, we lost it. Here's as soon as
• 14:12
  Speaker 1: you ask. I guess in the number. Because it's important
• 14:15
  Speaker 1: for us to build the trust. We don't lose them
• 14:18
  Speaker 1: that often. We need you to trust us, and what
• 14:20
  Speaker 1: we do we have to act on it very quickly.
• 14:22
  Speaker 1: And now in the old days, the old old days,
• 14:24
  Speaker 1: people were worried about the safety of flying. Today if
• 14:27
  Speaker 1: people care about the safety very much and you don't
• 14:29
  Speaker 1: have a lot of accidents in the industry now, um,
• 14:32
  Speaker 1: you know that's that's one of the safety is by
• 14:34
  Speaker 1: far tipe priority. Interesting, safety and security has been an
• 14:38
  Speaker 1: increasing focus. So there'll be things that you as customers
• 14:41
  Speaker 1: don't enjoy, you don't like for a lot of different reasons. Uh,
• 14:44
  Speaker 1: it's just unfortunately, at this time, at this day and age,
• 14:46
  Speaker 1: with safety and security have to be our top most concerns.
• 14:49
  Speaker 1: Sometimes that gets in the way of a customer service
• 14:52
  Speaker 1: you'd like or wish. But I think we'll all agree
• 14:54
  Speaker 1: that safety and security or paramount. So let's talk about
• 14:57
  Speaker 1: some of your specific issues that have arisen recently. You're
• 14:59
  Speaker 1: probably familiar with them, so, um no, but I'm sure
• 15:03
  Speaker 1: you're going to remind me. Okay, there was a flight where, um,
• 15:08
  Speaker 1: I think there were some United employees that needed to
• 15:11
  Speaker 1: go somewhere and you were trying to get people to
• 15:12
  Speaker 1: get off the airline. You offer money, which is a
• 15:14
  Speaker 1: fairly standard thing to do, and one person said, I
• 15:16
  Speaker 1: can't get off. I'm a doctor, I have to operate
• 15:18
  Speaker 1: in the morning and not united, but the local police
• 15:22
  Speaker 1: dragged him off. Yeah, it's, you know, one of the
• 15:24
  Speaker 1: dark moments and in our in our time, and usually
• 15:28
  Speaker 1: the question is are you glad that's getting behind you
• 15:31
  Speaker 1: or something? And I always say now, I'm happy to
• 15:34
  Speaker 1: be reminded of it every day begin and so is
• 15:37
  Speaker 1: our is our company because it's important to know how
• 15:39
  Speaker 1: quickly things can go sideways on us. And so the
• 15:42
  Speaker 1: circumstances that led up to that, all the different policies
• 15:45
  Speaker 1: and procedures in a nutshell again because safety and security
• 15:48
  Speaker 1: and operational efficiency becomes we become so focused and it's
• 15:52
  Speaker 1: important that we do that. The rigor and discipline around safety,
• 15:56
  Speaker 1: security and operations doesn't necessarily apply to the comfort and
• 16:00
  Speaker 1: the and the quality and the emotional connection as a
• 16:04
  Speaker 1: human on customer service. And so are rules and procedures.
• 16:08
  Speaker 1: You can't put always rules and procedures on how you
• 16:11
  Speaker 1: treat another human being, which is why we've started UH
• 16:15
  Speaker 1: over the last year something we call Core four and
• 16:17
  Speaker 1: it's and it's four principles that are in order. And
• 16:21
  Speaker 1: if you, if you as an employee, have any concern
• 16:23
  Speaker 1: or any question about how to act. You deal with
• 16:25
  Speaker 1: safety first, the number two, and this is the big
• 16:29
  Speaker 1: change for us. It's caring. Just the simple word caring.
• 16:32
  Speaker 1: What does that mean? Can mean a lot to a
• 16:34
  Speaker 1: lot of people. But it doesn't mean shutting the door,
• 16:36
  Speaker 1: It doesn't mean yanking someone off the plane, doesn't mean
• 16:39
  Speaker 1: any of those things. And then you get to dependable
• 16:41
  Speaker 1: and efficient, which are important, but there are four. They're simple,
• 16:44
  Speaker 1: but carrying the number two. So let's talk about another
• 16:46
  Speaker 1: problem you had, which was dogs. You're not the only
• 16:48
  Speaker 1: one to have dogs die and overhand compartments. Yeah, let
• 16:53
  Speaker 1: me just a little bit of defensiveness on my part.
• 16:55
  Speaker 1: We we as a as a as a company because
• 16:58
  Speaker 1: we understand how important pets are. The fall, which you
• 17:00
  Speaker 1: may not agree with given the circumstances, but we flew
• 17:03
  Speaker 1: three times as many animals for people all over the
• 17:06
  Speaker 1: world because no other airline really was doing that. So
• 17:09
  Speaker 1: we're doing it as a customer aspect. When you open
• 17:11
  Speaker 1: up the arm to that many animals across a lot
• 17:14
  Speaker 1: of things, you introduced risk into it. And so um,
• 17:17
  Speaker 1: what we've done is we derisk the situation. We just
• 17:19
  Speaker 1: brought that things back down is to what kind of
• 17:22
  Speaker 1: dogs we carry animals. That's very aligned with the rest
• 17:25
  Speaker 1: of the airline world. We've noticed a lot of people
• 17:27
  Speaker 1: have things called emotional support animals or something like that,
• 17:31
  Speaker 1: where they get a certificate from a doctor saying I
• 17:33
  Speaker 1: can't travel without this animal, whatever the animal might be.
• 17:36
  Speaker 1: Are people abusing that and you're getting a lot of
• 17:39
  Speaker 1: big animals on your planes as a result. Yeah, y'all,
• 17:43
  Speaker 1: anyone's heard about the peacocks story, so I think that
• 17:45
  Speaker 1: won't go into that one. We just had a recent
• 17:47
  Speaker 1: experience where one of the emotional support animals wait for it,
• 17:52
  Speaker 1: required another emotional support animals. Uh. So it was a
• 18:02
  Speaker 1: dog and a monkey. And somebody asked me earlier today
• 18:05
  Speaker 1: which one was supporting so and I don't know that answered,
• 18:08
  Speaker 1: but I said, no. Listen, on a serious note, people
• 18:12
  Speaker 1: that need things. Uh you know, the problem is it's
• 18:16
  Speaker 1: abused because it's not regulated in any way, shape or form,
• 18:19
  Speaker 1: and anybody can get in and so we don't know.
• 18:21
  Speaker 1: So if you have a need, I mean so service
• 18:24
  Speaker 1: animals for disabled veterans, for people that are blind. We
• 18:27
  Speaker 1: bend over twice over backwards to ensure we take care
• 18:30
  Speaker 1: of the people that truly need aspect, but when you
• 18:32
  Speaker 1: get into the ridiculous stage where a peacock or two
• 18:35
  Speaker 1: different animals and most of the consumers I mean if
• 18:37
  Speaker 1: you have allergies, so all of that has to be
• 18:39
  Speaker 1: modulated and worked and there's no real rules around it.
• 18:43
  Speaker 1: And so we've taken, along with the other airlines, pretty
• 18:46
  Speaker 1: harder stance. It's like, we need to have some proof,
• 18:48
  Speaker 1: you need to register the animal. It has to be
• 18:51
  Speaker 1: of a general size. We have small ponies, snakes, I mean,
• 18:55
  Speaker 1: there's a and again it sounds funny, but our flight
• 18:59
  Speaker 1: attendants an organization have to deal with this. And so
• 19:02
  Speaker 1: you know, back to we're putting humans and we're getting
• 19:05
  Speaker 1: uncomfortable getting them on their seats, and then all of
• 19:07
  Speaker 1: a sudden you have to deal with that and that
• 19:09
  Speaker 1: and many other issues that we How do you deal
• 19:11
  Speaker 1: with sexual harassment? Yeah, I just fundamentally, as an individual
• 19:16
  Speaker 1: human don't understand how people can um do things that
• 19:20
  Speaker 1: we hear people doing. So that's just a personal opinion. Um.
• 19:24
  Speaker 1: In addition, people don't want to sit next to someone
• 19:26
  Speaker 1: because of their race, or their sex, or their color,
• 19:29
  Speaker 1: and frankly, I don't have a lot of time for that.
• 19:30
  Speaker 1: This is where customer service for me personally kind of
• 19:33
  Speaker 1: goes out the window and says, you know, you want
• 19:35
  Speaker 1: to fly us elsewhere because we don't want to deal
• 19:37
  Speaker 1: with that. But the issue is the really issues of
• 19:39
  Speaker 1: sexual harassment safety in general is a very important one
• 19:43
  Speaker 1: for us. We partner with the people Sarah Nelson's here
• 19:45
  Speaker 1: from the American Flat Attendant Organization. We've listened to them
• 19:48
  Speaker 1: because they're the ones that generally have to take some
• 19:50
  Speaker 1: of the bront of this, and it's it's it can
• 19:52
  Speaker 1: be awful, and and it's been quiet for a long time.
• 19:54
  Speaker 1: It's been going on for a long period of time,
• 19:57
  Speaker 1: and we just had a deaf ear to it. And
• 20:00
  Speaker 1: now the issue is that you have human trafficking. By
• 20:02
  Speaker 1: the way, there is another angle that we have to
• 20:03
  Speaker 1: ask our flight attendants to how do you recognize it?
• 20:06
  Speaker 1: How do you resolve it? And then inevitably have false
• 20:09
  Speaker 1: positives when you see something going on and then we
• 20:11
  Speaker 1: pull someone off the aircraft and you have you know,
• 20:13
  Speaker 1: law enforcement meet them and it turns out to be
• 20:16
  Speaker 1: something different, and of course we get sued. And that's
• 20:19
  Speaker 1: always has been an argument for why we shouldn't do
• 20:21
  Speaker 1: some of those things. I say nay, I say listen,
• 20:23
  Speaker 1: we'll take the heat for the things, the minority of things,
• 20:26
  Speaker 1: in order to fix the broader issue, because it's a
• 20:28
  Speaker 1: real issue. Do you hold the airlines for anybody? Like
• 20:31
  Speaker 1: there's a rumor in washing that members of Congress can
• 20:33
  Speaker 1: get airlines held for them. Is that there any truth
• 20:35
  Speaker 1: to that? Um? We generally, as an operation don't want
• 20:40
  Speaker 1: to hold anything because we have a schedule to keep.
• 20:43
  Speaker 1: But if one of my gate agents sees, uh, you know,
• 20:46
  Speaker 1: a young woman with three kids, you know, running down
• 20:49
  Speaker 1: the and and but our schedule says we close it
• 20:53
  Speaker 1: in thirty seconds and she's a minute away or ten
• 20:55
  Speaker 1: minutes away, whatever, we have historically tended to shut the
• 20:58
  Speaker 1: door to get it out on time. Again, we say, hey,
• 21:01
  Speaker 1: we are gonna allow our gate agents to make that
• 21:04
  Speaker 1: call and hold that aircraft for the right amount of
• 21:06
  Speaker 1: time for the right person. You know, the morning flight
• 21:08
  Speaker 1: you can let it go because you have other options,
• 21:11
  Speaker 1: it's the last flight of the day, you can you
• 21:13
  Speaker 1: can hold it for someone. So we don't hold aircraft
• 21:15
  Speaker 1: for anyone, not members of Congress, nobody. We don't hold
• 21:19
  Speaker 1: aircraft for any Okay, Now, on your planes, do you
• 21:22
  Speaker 1: have WiFi on most of your planes or a lot
• 21:24
  Speaker 1: of them. Boy, that's another loaded question, um again on
• 21:29
  Speaker 1: what Yes, we do we have WiFi and it's a
• 21:30
  Speaker 1: huge focus for us. Some of the technology is evolving,
• 21:34
  Speaker 1: some of it's better than others, and so we have
• 21:36
  Speaker 1: a mismatch. But again, remember you're not in your living room, uh,
• 21:41
  Speaker 1: streaming Netflix. You're in the air flying at six miles
• 21:46
  Speaker 1: an hour. We forget that sometimes and it does. It's
• 21:48
  Speaker 1: it is Uh, it is inconsistent, which is the worst
• 21:51
  Speaker 1: thing that we can do to you as a customer here.
• 21:53
  Speaker 1: So we're working on that, but it will take some time.
• 21:55
  Speaker 1: I suppose I have three airlines to pick from American Delta,
• 21:59
  Speaker 1: you know it to fly across the country. Why should
• 22:02
  Speaker 1: I pick United over your peers. This is a great
• 22:05
  Speaker 1: company with importantly, probably of our greatest and most valuable
• 22:08
  Speaker 1: asset is our humans and our people that work with us,
• 22:11
  Speaker 1: and the level of of of of spirit and service
• 22:15
  Speaker 1: and caring that they're going to be increasingly given to you.
• 22:17
  Speaker 1: I think it's going to make the difference that place
• 22:19
  Speaker 1: digitals will always be. But I think the human aspect
• 22:21
  Speaker 1: we forget. We are a person to person, human to
• 22:25
  Speaker 1: human business and all the other things don't matter as much, right,
• 22:28
  Speaker 1: So no regrets about taking the job. You don't think
• 22:30
  Speaker 1: if you'd state at CSX, you wouldn't have had your
• 22:32
  Speaker 1: hard transplant right there would have happened anyways, that right, Yeah,
• 22:36
  Speaker 1: regrets is a wonderful academic and theoretical term, but that
• 22:39
  Speaker 1: I don't it's not practical. I love what I do,
• 22:42
  Speaker 1: I love my company before, and I really love my
• 22:45
  Speaker 1: United family today. So no regrets at all.