United Airtime

United employees at Washington Dulles International Airport celebrated the 30th anniversary of its status as a United hub on Monday. It’s been a productive 30 years at Dulles – United has employed nearly 17,000 aviation professionals, connected more than 500 million customers and scheduled more than 4.5 billion revenue passenger miles, which is the equivalent of 19,750 trips to the moon. The airport holds a special place in the hearts of many, but this is especially the case at the Knight household. Wade Knight is a ramp service employee for United at Dulles, where he’s worked since 1989. It was there, at the airport, where his life changed forever for the better in April 1993. Wade and a customer service representative had recently...

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A surprise bottle of champagne delivered on board a flight to a honeymooning couple nearly 40 years ago sparked an idea for Mary Bucher, who was working as a customer service representative at O’Hare International Airport at the time. “I’m not sure where it came from – maybe the family asked the flight attendant to deliver it – but I thought it was a wonderful idea,” said Mary, who now works in United’s Food Services billing department. “All these years I’ve always thought, ‘That’s something we should do. Wouldn’t it be great if we could provide a service to customers to get chocolates or a special gift to present to their loved one or business associate on an airplane during their travel?’” “I’ve always...

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At the end of her automated external defibrillator (AED) training, Melanie Molek, a customer service representative at Washington Dulles International Airport, asked instructor Bill Huston how often he’d needed to use these skills in the 40 years he’s been certified. “Never,” replied Bill, who is a lead customer service representative at the airport. Melanie assumed she never would, either. The next day, customer Jim Bowles’ plan was to connect to Orlando, Florida through Washington-Dulles, but the flight was canceled due to weather. Unsure of how far he’d have to walk to find assistance with rebooking, the 51-year-old man, who’d felt fatigued the night before, grabbed the luggage cart at the end of the jetbridge...

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Just out of college with a marketing degree, Sandra Pineau-Boddison never imagined herself working in an airline’s employee cafeteria. She also never imagined herself, 26 years later, as one of the top executives at that airline. “I never had a grand plan to get to a certain level, but I don’t think I had any inhibitions to keep me from getting there,” said Sandra, SVP of United’s Customers division. “I was always open to different opportunities. I always wanted to do more and learn more, even though I didn’t have my finger on what exactly that meant at the time.” “I never had a grand plan to get to a certain level, but I don’t think I had any inhibitions to keep me from getting there. I was always open to different...

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Hand sanitizer, facial cleanser, toothpaste – while our customers love these items we provide in our premium cabin amenity kits, sometimes they leave them behind without using them. Now, we’ll be able to donate the discarded items to those in need around the globe. United is teaming up with Clean the World, the innovative non-profit organization that collects discarded hygiene products, refurbishes them and distributes them to those in need, leading to prevention of millions of hygiene-related deaths each year and a reduced morbidity rate for hygiene-related illnesses, while also reducing environmental waste. Clean the World works with thousands of hotels around the globe, but United is the first airline to partner with the organization....

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When a Denver-area snow storm led to cancelation of all flights into and out of the airport last weekend, our employees worked hard to save as many customers’ trips as we could. That included a large group of choir students from Wartburg College who were slated to connect to Denver on its way to a spring musical tour of Texas, New Mexico, Colorado and Nebraska. The internationally acclaimed choir was scheduled to perform two shows on Sunday in the San Antonio area and two more in nearby cities and would have missed all of them if not for the special efforts of several employees. “The group had bused to MSP [Minneapolis-St. Paul airport] the night before and found out about the canceled flight,” said Tammi Hautula, an operations...

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Today, United President and CEO Oscar Munoz sent the following letter to our employees. For more information, view our press release. Dear Team, As we accelerate our path forward, I am motivated by the positive momentum I am seeing across the airline. In fact, just this past Saturday our nearly 30,000 IAM-represented employees voted overwhelmingly to ratify seven new contracts. These new contracts are well deserved, and I assure you that my highest priority is getting contracts like these done with the AFA and IBT for our flight attendants and technicians, as well. To guide and bolster United’s continued momentum, we have also been making meaningful changes to United’s Board of Directors. This includes last month’s appointment...

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Flight attendants onboard a flight from Los Angeles to Houston give host Katie Nolan a first-hand look into their duties in the latest episode of Big Metal Bird, which you can watch here. The inflight crew helps explain some of the more than 100 safety checks they perform before departure, what they love about their jobs and what they do during the flight. Assisting the employees with their duties left Katie with a newfound appreciation for what they do. “I finished the day with a profound respect for the people who love flying so much that they work at 35,000 feet,” Katie said. We created Big Metal Bird to help educate our customers by providing a playful, behind-the-scenes look at our operation, striking the right balance between...

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Moving a 110,000-pound plane? No problem for our Houston airport employees. They showed their strength and support for March of Dimes on April 12 as teams competed to pull our specially painted March of Dimes Boeing 737-900ER aircraft 20 feet in the shortest amount of time. The Aviation Retirement Strategies team took the top honor — bragging rights and a trophy — by doing it in just over nine seconds. We will donate proceeds from the event to March of Dimes, an organization United has supported for 10 years. We have raised more than $8 million for the organization, which helps ensure moms have healthy, full-term pregnancies and provides vital funding for research to find answers to the problems that threaten premature babies. Check...

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At a 90-year-old business, there are so many stories that are handed down from one generation of employees to the next. United Airlines is no exception. And just as United has a long legacy in aviation, many employees have begun legacies at United that have grown to include their own children and grandchildren. As many of our employees proudly say, “Once the airline business gets in the blood, it stays there.” Here is just a selection of the hundreds of families that share a love of working for United: Father and daughter reunite at O’Hare Anetha Kazmer, a United customer service representative at Chicago O’Hare, hadn’t seen or heard from her father in nearly 20 years, so it’s understandable she was in shock after learning...

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