After a flight that went by far too quickly, we were on final approach for runway 10 at Chicago O’Hare International Airport.

United Dreamliner Inaugural: Introduction

United Dreamliner Inaugural: Pre-Departure Festivities

United Dreamliner Inaugural: UA Flight 1116 IAH to ORD

United Dreamliner Inaugural: Chicago Arrival Celebration

United Dreamliner Inaugural: UA Flight 1510 ORD to IAH

United Dreamliner Inaugural: UA Flight 1209 IAH to LAX

Source: United Airlines

Captain Jim Starling brought us in for a smooth landing as you’ll see in the video below, which includes the water cannon salute at gate C20, deplaning and preparations for the arrival ceremony.

I was the third passenger to exit the aircraft among cheers and applause from a crowded gate room.

Jeff Smisek

Jeff Smisek deplaned behind me receiving a warm welcome and staff escorted him over to the stage area. Once all passengers and the crew had disembarked, Charles Duncan, United’s vice president of operations at ORD, kicked off the celebratory speeches by Jeff and Captain Starling:

And with that, the successful revenue inaugural of United’s Boeing 787 Dreamliner had concluded. But my day was young and after a quick visit to the United Club with Bruce and Mommy Points, I headed back to gate C20 for the return flight to Houston.

Up next: UA Flight 1510 ORD to IAH

Related posts:

United Airlines Boeing 787 Inaugural: Flight 1116 IAH to ORD

United Airlines Boeing 787 Inaugural: Pre-Departure Festivities

United Airlines Boeing 787 Inaugural: Takeoff Video

One week ago yesterday, I flew on United’s inaugural Boeing 787 Dreamliner flight from Houston to Chicago.

United Dreamliner Inaugural: Introduction

United Dreamliner Inaugural: Pre-Departure Festivities

United Dreamliner Inaugural: UA Flight 1116 IAH to ORD

United Dreamliner Inaugural: Chicago Arrival Celebration

United Dreamliner Inaugural: UA Flight 1510 ORD to IAH

United Dreamliner Inaugural: UA Flight 1209 IAH to LAX

The excitement following the pre-departure festivities at gate E5 in Houston culminated with very crowded boarding lanes for flight 1116 bound for Chicago.

I was among the first dozen or so to make it onboard and each passenger was greeted at their seat with a “Proud to fly the 787 Dreamliner” folder. It contained an inaugural flight certificate, 787 infographic card and an invitation to share pics and video with United’s social media team.

I was seated in 4A for this historic inaugural and my seatmate was to originally be Bruce (NonRevAdventure.com), but he fell victim to a mysterious and non-self-initiated seat change. I was very curious to find out who the “seat poacher” ended up being.

I settled in as boarding continued, lightened my electronic window shade that took quite a long time (all were darkened upon boarding) and snapped a couple of pics.

The flight attendants did an amazing job ushering everyone onboard and directing them to the appropriate aisle to walk down. Virtually everyone was taking pictures or video as they boarded. It would be a while before the seat poacher appeared, but he eventually did.

Mr. Hxxxxxx sat down in 4B and didn’t seem all that enthusiastic about the occasion. Hmm. He kept to himself as I was busy investigating my surroundings and occasionally standing up to snap additional photos and chat with people I knew. He was, however, gracious enough to honor my request for a picture of me in 4A.

The seat itself is your standard Continental BusinessFirst seat, which I find infinitely more comfortable and spacious than pre-merger United’s lie-flat offering. As boarding continued, people were a flurry around the cabin mingling and sharing their enthusiasm.

It was an exciting start to a memorable flight. We pushed back on-time amongst a throng of United employees watching from the tarmac. Here’s the video showing our departure, including the takeoff and champagne (or cider) toast by Jeff Smisek once we were in-flight.

Once the seat belt sign came off (and even before), many people were filing up and down the aisles filming the momentous occasion. Television crews and other media outlets were occupying Jeff Smisek’s time post-toast. Meanwhile, I took a closer look at the seat and my surroundings, including the fan-like overhead air nozzles.

Prior to breakfast being served in BusinessFirst, I headed to the nearby lavatory just forward of door two. It’s an incredibly spacious handicap-accessible lav with an inward opening door that took me by surprise. The touchless flush and sink features were fantastic. Now, if Boeing could just come up with a mechanism to avoid having to lift the seat/lid…

Back at my seat, Mr. Hxxxxxx sat there unenthusiastically as he had from the beginning watching the IFE. My curiosity was peaked as to who he was exactly and I was fascinated that he kept such a stoic and thoughtless presence about himself. Oh well. Not everyone is an aviation enthusiast.

Breakfast arrived and I was incredibly unimpressed. I thought United always served a choice of an omelet or cereal dish, but maybe that’s just on my constant mid-con or greater mileage flying. This was a ham muffin with egg, as well as fruit, yogurt and either a croissant or cinnamon roll. Ehh.

After eating, I was rarely in my seat. Everyone (except 4B) was milling about, chatting away, taking pictures and simply standing in the aisles sharing their excitement. It was a fantastic experience and it came to an end far too quickly.

Before I knew it, we were descending for our approach into Chicago. Settling back into my seat, I brought my video camera out again and… (sorry FAA)… filmed the approach. You’ll see that in the next installment.

The in-flight crew on this inaugural were simply fantastic. They were consummate professionals in handling the occasion while at the same time equally enthralled by the experience. Kudos to them!

Much more is to follow, including my overall impression (pluses and minuses) of the 787.

Up next: Chicago Arrival Celebration

Related posts:

United Airlines Boeing 787 Dreamliner Inaugural: Introduction

United Airlines Boeing 787 Dreamliner Inaugural: Pre-Departure Festivities

United 787 Inaugural Takeoff Video

I’m getting excited for United’s inaugural of the Boeing 787 Dreamliner on November 4! And they sent me a little preview of what to expect at Houston Bush Intercontinental Airport on Sunday morning. First, the basics:

Flight 1116 is scheduled to depart from IAH at 7:20 a.m. with an arrival at Chicago O’Hare at 9:51 a.m. The flight will depart from gate E5 with boarding estimated to begin at 6:35 a.m. But the fun starts earlier than that.

I’ll be at the airport at 5:00 a.m. for a sponsored media event, and then the festivities for everyone (assuming you’re airside) open up, as follows:

At 6:25 a.m., we will begin our pre-departure event. Jeff Smisek, United’s president and chief executive officer, will make remarks at the gate and there will be a ribbon-cutting with members of the crew.

There will be an opportunity to talk with customers, United executives and employees before and after the pre-departure event.

At 6:35 a.m., general boarding will begin. At 7:20 a.m., the flight departs.

Inflight, we will have a brief toast prior to the normal beverage and snack service. After that service is completed, you will have some time to shoot video and take photos inflight. We expect to arrive in Chicago at 9:50 a.m.

After arrival, we will have a short post-arrival event at the gate at Chicago O’Hare International Airport.

I didn’t specifically ask, but I’m hoping United issues inaugural flight certificates to every passenger as they did for the 777 in 1995 (as well as other goodies).

If you’re not flying on the inaugural, be sure to follow me on Twitter as I’ll be tweeting pics and updates throughout the day from Houston and Chicago. And for those of you who will be there, I look forward to meeting you!

In other United 787 news, they took delivery of their second Dreamliner yesterday and it flew to Houston earlier today.

Related posts:

United Airlines Inaugural Boeing 777 Flight in 1995

Video Tour Inside United’s First Boeing 787 Dreamliner

My Strategy For Booking a 787 BusinessFirst Seat

As many of you know or experienced first-hand, United Airlines had an outage yesterday impacting SHARES. More than 500 flights were delayed and several cancelled. United’s official response to me at CNBC was:

So much for “fully redundant.” To United’s credit, they did issue a travel waiver for all cities late yesterday. It’s gone now off the website, but it allowed for any passengers traveling yesterday to reschedule travel through September 7 with change fees and fare differences waived. Pretty generous extension of a ticket, I’d have to say, given it allowed for travel through and beyond Labor Day weekend. Refunds were also permitted if a flight was delayed at least two hours or cancelled.

With yesterday’s outage, United’s rather disappointing PRASM results since March compared to the rest of the industry and ongoing maintenance problems plaguing flights, I’ll be keenly listening in to an upcoming webcast.

United is presenting at the fifth annual Dahlman Rose Transportation Conference next Wednesday, September 5. Live streaming of the webcast will take place at 12:00 p.m. EDT and will be available at ir.united.com.

If it’s Jeff Smisek giving the presentation, he has historically been the one who adds a bit more detail to presentation slides, as well as being more forthcoming than other United execs during the Q&A session that follows the presentation.

Industry analysts and investors will most certainly grill whomever United sends on its financial and operational issues of late. I’ll report on any interesting nuggets of information… hopefully we won’t hear “over entitled elites” again.

Related posts:

United CFO: Certain Elites Were Over Entitled

Insights From Jeff Smisek’s Presentation This Week

United’s Presentation at 2011′s Deutsche Bank Conference

If you’re not following @FakeUnitedJeff on Twitter, you need to. Case in point is his exchange with American Airlines (and others) following the SHARES outage at United Airlines today. Kudos to American’s social media team for participating.

Related posts:

An Interview With American’s Social Media Team

United Airlines Retweeted WHAT?

Being Schooled on United’s Complimentary Premier Upgrades (a SHARES failure)

Tidbits of information about forthcoming improvements to SHARES, the reservations system for United Airlines, were revealed during the second quarter earnings call last week.

In addition to apologizing for a range of customer disservice issues we’ve all experienced since March 3 (seat assignments falling off, missing upgrades, miles not posting, etc.), CEO Jeff Smisek said, “We plan a number of improvements, including an enhanced front-end interface for our airport and contact center agents.”

Apparently a beta test of a new “fastair” and “fastres” (the old nicknames for Apollo’s efficient front-end GUI) were conducted last month. Some of the improvements said to be coming for airport and reservations agents will be an easier ability to handle premium cabin up-sells, same-day upgrades and standby requests.

A full release is expected in October and Smisek says it will include “a new user-friendly design and experience, easier elite recognition, automatic calculation of service charges and better flight amenity details.”

Sometime in 2013, United plans to roll out a “comprehensive new front-end for our airport and reservations agents, which enables us to deliver a higher level of service than we’ve ever been able to offer in the past,” he added.

I’m sure there’s a little PR going on in what he said, but I’m happy to hear improvements are coming – and I’m certain airport and reservations agents are happy, as well. I still have a feeling that within five years, United will dump SHARES for a new reservations system, as United executives had previously noted that SHARES was “the best short-term solution” when it was announced as the system to be used in the merged airline.

What I’m still having a hard time swallowing, though, are the policy changes (from pre-merger United, anyway) of selling “tens of dollars” upgrades to non-elites reducing my upgrade chances and giving a higher priority on each ticket’s transactional value over long-term loyalty for the same upgrades. Ah well… revenue-based loyalty will soon be the norm. I guess these changes are slowly getting me used to the eventuality of it.

Earlier this week, United Airlines and many other carriers presented at the J.P. Morgan Aviation, Transportation & Defense Conference in New York, and once again, Jeff Smisek was very engaging as he’s willing to go off-script a bit adding more than what the bland presentation slides provide. I listened to the 40-minute audio of his presentation and Q&A session last night and found the following particularly interesting, some of which I was hearing for the first time (bolded items).

He started his talk off by showing the “Rah! Rah! United” commercial currently seen immediately preceding the safety videos airing onboard this month (and last) jokingly claiming, “We need to sell some tickets.” While proceeding through the slides, he mentioned:

• Consolidation has been very, very good for the airline business in part because the industry was selling seats for far less than customers were willing to pay from the 1980s until the mid-2000s.
• United’s current management team is focused on sufficient and sustainable return on invested capital (ROIC) and a “significant” portion of their compensation is tied to achieving this goal.
• The unbundling of products and services has created high margin items, something rarely seen in the airline industry.
• United is “marching toward a higher business mix.”
• The Guam hub/service is a profitable operation.
• United will take delivery of 19 fuel efficient 737-900ERs this year and the first five of 50 787s (I thought it was to be six in 2012). He also mentioned they “plan to revenue manage that airplane (787) differently than the rest of the fleet.” I translate that as “good luck getting BusinessFirst award seats.”
• 777 pilots are common type-rated with the 787.
• Depending on demand and seasonality, certain markets will see 787s swapped in on 777/747 routes. Makes sense.
• Original capacity guidance for 2012 has been adjusted downward with the airline now anticipating a decrease of between -0.5% to -1.5% YOY.
• United will be investing in customer resource management (CRM) software to better deliver the right offers to the right customers.
• He plugged Chase as being a very important partner of MileagePlus. Not surprising.
• He also recognized that issues remain from the conversion on March 3rd to a new passenger service system and gave a similar “we’re working on the issues” as the press releases since have mentioned.

During the Q&A portion:

• When asked, “Who will be running MileagePlus?” he responded with the simple fact that United is now since the OnePass program has been integrated. I think the questioner was aiming more at management style (CO vs. UA), so it effectively went unanswered.
• He’s comfortable with March bookings and isn’t particularly concerned over later months’ advance booking levels.
• When asked, “Do you make more money if American and US Airways merge?” he laughed and simply stated his viewpoint again that consolidation has been good and can continue to be a good thing.
• His top priorities for what Washington should be focused on are 1) modernization of the air traffic system and 2) a national airline policy with rational levels of taxation.
• He declined to comment on specific compensation United will receive from Boeing for the late deliveries of the 787.
• Revenue management moved to origin & destination-based vs. by segment and it underperformed in February noting it needs a degree of learning and history.
• He takes comfort in Delta’s RASM growth noting it shows how well a carrier can realize synergies post-merger.

The slide presentation can be found on United’s Investor Relations page with the audio currently available from J.P. Morgan. Presentations from the other airlines present are also available if you’re interested.

This made my day. No commentary needed except get ready to laugh and cry.

A pair of Associated Press writers recently sat down with Jeff Smisek, CEO of United Airlines, and probed him for his thoughts on the current state and future of both United and the airline industry overall. Interviews of this type tend not to reveal anything new or juicy, but I still try to read between lines and will offer some further thoughts here.

First, it was interesting to re-learn that Jeff began his career as a corporate attorney never considering a gig in the airline industry. In 1995 he left a law firm as partner and likely took a huge pay cut to join the turnaround team at Continental Airlines. He remarked, “I was interested in it for sort of the business challenge.”

Here are a few quotes from the article and remarks of my own where I felt compelled:

That last part shouldn’t come as a surprise to anyone. What will be the next unbundled item? Some airlines are now charging to print boarding passes at the airport, and I eventually expect the majors to jump on this bandwagon in the next few years. I also speculate new onboard items will pop up and think amenity kits will be offered for sale to international economy class passengers.

Here he’s given the common high-level snapshot of each region. I was sort of surprised to hear Latin America is doing so well. I have nothing to base my viewpoint on other than a gut feel business traffic isn’t as strong as leisure here. The all-important U.S. market is still flat and we’re now going into the slow season.

Airlines currently send out blanketed target offers to groups of travelers, but I have to agree they lag far behind other industries in customer-specific data analytics. I know we’ll see highly targeted individual offers based on our travel patterns in the future. I think they’ll go so far as airlines monitoring what routes & fares we search for, but don’t book only to find an email a day or two later offering some type of related call to return. They’ll also increase the amount of bonus mile offers per “extra” flying we wouldn’t normally do based on our history and likely tie them to higher fare basis purchases. I also think the Continental system will win out where upgradable seats at check-in will be offered before elites get their free-bee upgrades.

Here’s where I’ll claim B.S. on Jeff’s part. He openly admitted previously that he knows United’s international service isn’t up to par with Asian or European carriers and wants United to improve it. I looked back at all my posts and can’t find the interview he gave mentioning it, but know he did. I currently go out of my way to fly a carrier in the Star Alliance internationally for their service vs. United’s unless I absolutely need the elite qualifying miles or can confirm an upgrade in advance. I know I’m not alone here.

Here’s where I have a lot of respect for Jeff. I know he consistently engages work groups when he travels. Whether it be at the airports or onboard, he always makes rounds in the secure areas – on the ramp, baggage claim, flight operations – and onboard to get first-hand feedback from his co-workers in the cockpit and galley. An engaging CEO can make things happen for his front-line employees.

Well of course he doesn’t deal with customer emails, but I bet he might scan over some of them from time to time. Executives of large corporations have both a public and private email address at their disposal. Someone on his staff obviously monitors his namesake’s email and would forward anything relevant to him, so your chance of reaching him directly at jeff.smisek@united.com is actually quite slim. It might be fun to shoot him an email there, though, at that address… I’ll try it in the future and report back.

The article continued on with a few personal tidbits about his routine while he’s in Chicago and Houston and offered a small glimpse into the life of how an airline executive lives. He’s an engaging guy having met him previously and I hold a lot of respect for him and his approach to running an airline. I’m definitely not his favorite type of customer, but I do defray his bottom line a little bit each year with revenue for a seat that might have been otherwise flown empty. I’m sure he hates my upgrade percentage, though.

In other airline, hotel and travel industry news this week…

• United Airlines CEO Jeff Smisek claims he doesn’t see any signs of an “imminent recession” when looking at advance bookings. A combination of capacity discipline and fare increases has kept the carrier in the black. Smisek remarked, “We’re not seeing it in our bookings [or] in our business travel,” as he told reporters after a speech at the Executives’ Club of Chicago. At the same conference he told reporters, “It’s easy to talk culture; it’s hard to walk it,” referring to the turbulence in challenges of merging two carriers and their respective unions. Captain Wendy Morse, chairwoman of the United Master Executive Council of the Air Line Pilots Association (ALPA) claims, “We will not stand by silently while United CEO Jeffrey Smisek inaccurately proclaims that the United-Continental merger is going along smoothly.”
• American Airlines, on the other hand, fears a double-dip downturn in the economy. They’ve further cut capacity this year and will retire 11 Boeing 757s. Eight times the normal amount of pilot retirements also occurred in August and September this year contributing to some of the capacity cuts. It’s rumored pilots are bailing early to ensure they receive advantageous pension plans, and one post also claims it’s due to the raise in mandatory retirement age from 60 to 65.
• Want to know more about mileage runners? Check out this amazing article that appeared this week on Fox News. BoardingArea’s founder Randy Petersen was interviewed for the article as would be expected since I consider him the “God” of frequent flyer programs. Here’s a teaser – “Would you ever fly around the world in 48-hours, or fly through Detroit eight times in a single trip just to get air miles?” We’re a unique bunch, but very passionate about why we do it.
• A woman has sued United-Continental (and regional airlines Colgan Air and Pinnacle Airlines) claiming post-traumatic stress disorder from a flight she was on that experienced ‘extreme turbulence.’ The flight from College Station, Texas to Houston was operated by Colgan Air, which does business as Continental Connection. File this under ridiculous and the far too often litigiousness some people have thinking an opportunity has opened up. Shame on the lawyers for taking such a ridiculous case. Money, money, money rules, though.
• Hotels in the United States posted impressive financials this summer. It has been reported, “U.S. hotel demand during the summer was higher than STR forecasted. Demand for the three months ended August 31 increased 4.2% from a year earlier, while revenue was up 8.1% to $31.2 billion.” Overall occupancy at hotels rose 3.5% and the average daily room rate similarly increased by 3.7%. No economic downturn signals this summer from the hotels.
• The U.S. Department of Transportation is looking to ensure passengers with disabilities have equal access to booking and checking-in with airlines. “Currently, the nation’s air carriers fail to use updated, accessible technology on the internet and at the airport, openly discriminating against the blind.” As such, the DOT is proposing regulations that will amend the Air Carrier Access Act to include provisions that will allow sight-impaired people to access web-only sale airfars, as well as include Braille instructions on check-in kiosks. I have a feeling the proposals will pass… it’s about time.
• More woes for travelers in Australia this week with Qantas cancelling or delaying flights due to labor unrest, Jetstar check-in agents taking “industrial action” by self-waiving excess baggage fees for 24-hours and Customs and Border Protection staff taking similar “industrial action,” by striking this past Thursday. The Australian Prime Minister is close to stepping in requiring Qantas and their unions to re-open discussions. It’s pretty unstable in Oz right now, in some cases benefiting passengers and in some cases not.