Our employees and competitors thought we were docile. We want to be defiantly disruptive. I don't mean necessarily by launching price wars but by being the best at the basics - having the best customer service, the best on-time performance, the best coffee - in a thoughtful, not a testosterone-laced, way.
I feel terrific - my mind, my energy, my focus continues to be what it always has been, and I have a renewed sense of purpose.
We have such rigid rules, sometimes, that they don't have to be rules. They can be policies and procedures that can be adapted for the moment.
It's a new era with regard to social media. It's just something that we have to adapt to and accept.
We have not provided our frontline supervisors and managers and individuals with the proper procedures that would allow them to use their common sense.
As board members, we only meet infrequently and are not as engaged with the front line, necessarily. The first thing I did as CEO was I left this board room.
It is a free world. It is a dynamic of our new day and age: technology is everywhere.
When LeBron James shows up at your doorstep, you're going to let him practice with your team if not join the team.
I can't tell you how many thousands of small moments that I've had with employees in our company that have been nothing more than a one-on-one. I'll see the baggage-services person, he or she is by himself. I'll pull them off to the side and have a 15-minute conversation about their history, their life, that kind of thing.
Getting people where they want to go, reliably and happily, can make or break their ability to succeed in a work endeavor or to hug a family member at an important moment.
We are dedicated to setting the standard for customer service among U.S. airlines, as we elevate the experience our customers have with us from booking to baggage claim.
We didn't have nine brands of cereal at home. We'd line up to fill our bowls from a giant vat of oatmeal.
I believe we must go further in redefining what United's corporate citizenship looks like in our society... and we intend to live up to those higher expectations in the way we embody social responsibility and civic leadership everywhere we operate.
Everyone eventually matches or leapfrogs everyone else.
You forget sometimes that the people you're carrying are human.
I am thrilled to return full time to a job and the employees I love.
There are no more holes in my management lineup.
If you feel anything weird, immediately call 911 and give them your address because you may not make it past the phone call.
I'm told by our internal surveys that we take of customers - by customers themselves directly and by a very large group of our employees - that there's a new spirit at United.
I represent the interests of almost 90,000 human beings in our system. That's by far my first and foremost commitment.
