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Better Boarding lives up to its name

By The Hub team , November 20, 2018

As part of our ongoing commitment to putting customers at the center of everything we do, we identified boarding as an opportunity to improve the airport experience. Three months into "Better Boarding", and just in time for the busy holiday travel period, it's clear the new process is living up to its name.

Boarding start notifications

Customers with the United app can now receive a push notification once their flight starts boarding.

Our goal is to provide customers with more information throughout the boarding process so that they will feel more at ease. Customers will only receive the notification if they've opted in for push notifications and have a mobile boarding pass in the app's wallet.

"Your notifications are outstanding!" – (General Member)

Less lanes

Goodbye, five-lane boarding process. Hello, two-lane boarding process.

By reducing the number of boarding lanes, there is more space for customers to enjoy the gate areas, many of which have been completely remodeled with more comfortable seating and in some airports, the ability to have food and drinks from within the airport delivered directly to the gate area.

With the additional space, we've also been able to add additional seating to gate areas in numerous airports.

Improved customer satisfaction

Customer satisfaction as it relates to our boarding process has increased in the three months since we introduced Better Boarding.

"UAL has taken appropriate action to recognize & reward their most serious & loyal Premier members by including us in Group 1." – (Gold Member - BOS, 10/5)

"I loved how the gate crew handled the boarding process. Kudos to the Chicago team, it was great - fair and speedy!! – (General Member - ORD, 10/4)

Better Boarding is just one of the steps we are taking to improve the customer experience. We will continue to collect feedback from customers on ways we can further improve boarding — you may receive a post-travel survey to tell us more about your experience.

Find United in New York's Penn Station

By The Hub team

In July 2015, through an effort to showcase our dedication to the New York/New Jersey area, we opened a branded experiential space in New York's Penn Station. The space was created to allow our customers the opportunity to engage with employees, as well as to help provide information on new routes, promotions, sponsorships and amenities. During the work week, a few of our Customer Service Representatives are available as additional resources for customers to help with upcoming travel plans, booking future travel or just simply to provide travel inspiration.

Since opening, there have been a number of events and promotions such as teaming up with TSA for a TSA Pre✓® enrollment event and offering Global Entry interviews to make the process even more convenient for you. Events and promotions take place throughout the year so be sure to stop the next time you're traveling through Penn Station.

Our United space at Penn Station is located near the main concourse and Amtrak waiting area. There are Customer Service Representatives available at the space Monday through Friday from 9:00AM to 5:00PM, as well as promotions and events taking place live Monday through Friday from 7:30AM to 9:30AM and from 4:00PM to 6:00PM; schedule pending holidays and government observances.

We're California's global airline for a reason

By The Hub team

We're proud to connect our California customers to the places and moments that matter, with the most international flights from the San Francisco area. But it's not just the number of flights that sets us apart — it's the overall experience. Here's how we're committed to being the best when it comes to taking you around the world.

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Plenty of choices

We have more international flights out of San Francisco than any other airline by far, directly connecting the area to dozens of destinations around the world every day.

Not only do we have the most daily departures to regions like Asia and Latin America, we also easily connect the area to Europe with nonstop service to important airports such as London Heathrow and Frankfurt.

We're not done growing our network either, with new nonstop routes to exciting destinations like Tahiti and Amsterdam.

Overwater bungalows in Tahiti Tahiti Tourisme

An extensive global network

We also have the best global network thanks to our Star Alliance™ partners, which can connect you to more than 1,300 destinations in 193 countries.

With Star Alliance, you'll have a seamless travel experience with our airline partners. Buying your ticket to destinations served by our Star Alliance partners, or even earning and using award miles, can be done conveniently on united.com or the United app. Eligible travelers can even access more than 1,000 Star Alliance-affiliated airport lounges around the world.

Fly in style

We back up our comprehensive global network with a stellar onboard experience. Enjoy unmatched comfort in the sky on long-haul international flights with United Polaris® service. Our United Polaris business class seats recline flat and come with luxurious amenities like Saks Fifth Avenue bedding and amenity kits with products from Soho House & Co's Cowshed Spa.

For travelers who seek comfort on their international journeys, we provide more premium cabin seating and more extra legroom seating than any other airline flying out of the San Francisco area.

Relax and recharge

We also offer premier airport facilities that add comfort to the pre- and post-flight experience.

Earlier this year, we opened our United Polaris lounge at San Francisco, exclusively for travelers in first and business class on select international flights. Travelers can relax in privacy before or after their flight, grab a bite from the buffet, sit down to eat in a private dining area or freshen up in our shower suites.

We also welcome eligible travelers to visit any of our four United Club℠ locations at San Francisco, each one featuring oversized furniture, complimentary snack and drinks, and convenient work stations.

California's global airline

The San Francisco area plays a vital role on the world stage and deserves a comprehensive global network to reflect that.

We thank our customers in the San Francisco area for choosing United, and welcome others to discover just why we're California's global airline.

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We expand our commitment in San Francisco

By Matt Adams

For more than 90 years we have proudly served the San Francisco Bay Area, one of our oldest and most important markets. Over the years, we've demonstrated an unwavering commitment to the region, one that has been particularly evident in recent years as we've developed our hub at San Francisco into our prime Asia-Pacific gateway.

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Expanding our network

Outlook to the water and the city of Tel Aviv

Today, we serve 79 domestic and 24 international destinations from San Francisco and boast the second longest route of any U.S. airline with our direct flight from San Francisco to Singapore. But our San Francisco story isn't only about strengthening our extensive network — it's about connecting with our nearly 12 million customers and over 13,000 employees in the Bay Area.

Throughout 2017 and rolling into 2018, we announced multiple new international routes from San Francisco, including one to Tahiti – making us the only U.S. carrier to offer nonstop service to the islands of French Polynesia from the mainland United States. We continue to offer nonstop service to an important technology center – Tel Aviv, Israel – in an effort to keep this region accessible and a seamless travel option from Silicon Valley. Additionally, we have also enhanced our domestic route offerings from San Francisco by adding direct flights to New Orleans, Detroit and Madison, Wisconsin, in the past year. We also added new service to Santa Rosa, California, and Monterey, California, which helps to further solidify our presence surrounding the Bay Area.

The new United Polaris\u00ae lounge at SFO The new United Polaris® lounge at SFO

Enhancing our hub

In April of this year, we opened the United Polaris® lounge at San Francisco, part of the United Polaris lounge network that helps to further elevate the business class travel experience for our customers. The two-story, 28,000-square-foot lounge, located in the International Terminal, was designed with sweeping views of the airport and bay. The lounge offers customers three distinct experiences: an area to relax, an area to recharge and an area to engage. A custom scent, curated music playlist and subtle mood lighting also come together to create a memorable sensory experience. Food and drink selections include nods to both the local area and the popular destinations we serve from San Francisco.

Additionally, we renovated the Terminal 3 East Concourse and built an all-new United Club℠ location.

Investing in the Bay Area community

As announced in October of 2016, we became the official airline of the Golden State Warriors and continue to partner with them on co-sponsored events in the Bay Area. Including hosting players at the airport to understand and experience a day in the life of our employees. This year, we also partnered with the team and the Players Tribune to fly a young teenage athlete, who had his leg amputated, to San Francisco to attend a Warriors game as the special guest of point guard Shaun Livingston, a man who knows something about what the young athlete had gone through.

This past Earth Day, employees teamed up with the California State Parks Foundation (CSPF) for its 20th Annual Earth Day Restoration and Cleanup. They took part in conservation efforts that aid state parks in the face of natural disasters, as well as help with their overall preservation and upkeep.

Earlier this year, as part of a larger initiative, we announced a $1 million grant to the San Francisco Immigrant Legal & Education Network (SFILEN) to increase its advocacy and community engagement endeavors in the immigrant community. Our goal is to reaffirm our commitment to invest in and lift up the communities where many of our customers and employees live and work.

San Francisco and its neighbors have played an integral part in our history and evolution, and they will help propel us into the future. The Bay Area is home to some of the most beautiful, vibrant and innovative communities in the world, and we couldn't be prouder to be a part of them.

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Our ongoing commitment to New York/New Jersey

By Matt Adams

For the last 90 years, we have proudly served the New York/Newark region with the most flights to the most destinations around the world. We have always had a strong presence in the area, and over the years we've demonstrated our commitment to this region through the transformation and development of our hub, Newark's Liberty International Airport, into a global gateway.

Expanding our network

Street view of Naples harbor

Over the past year, we've grown our route network by leaps and bounds, including new year-round service to Rome and Buenos Aires as well as new seasonal service to Naples, Italy and Prague, Czech Republic. Today, we operate over 400 daily flights out of Newark, including more than 30 daily flights to the Caribbean, Mexico and Central and South America, and daily nonstop flights to four cities in Asia. But our New York story isn't only about strengthening our network — it's about connecting with our nearly 15 million customers and over 14,000 employees in the region.

Enhancing our hub

EWR Polaris Lounge

With more than $2 billion invested over the past few years, we partnered with concession management company OTG to turn Newark's Terminal C into a destination unto itself. Home to dozens of specialty dining options, you'll find some of the area's finest cuisine just steps away from your gate. We're also working with our partners to transform New York's LaGuardia Airport Terminal B into a cutting-edge facility with new dining concepts, unique retail shopping options and more. Recently, Terminal B's new parking lot opened with a new indoor pickup area to make ride-sharing and coordinating car service more convenient.

And while New York might be the city that never sleeps, we've taken the opposite approach for our business travelers thanks to our newly opened United Polaris® lounge at Newark Airport. Offering local touches in the design elements of the space and the food we serve, we want you to experience the best of the best. Whether you want to relax, catch up on work, freshen up or enjoy a meal pre-flight, the lounge offers it all; from rainfall shower suites to rest pods with daybeds. Last year, we also announced an enhanced premium transcontinental service that includes deluxe amenities, flat-bed seats and a culinary experience inspired by United Polaris onboard dining. Customers seated in United Economy Plus® will also enjoy a coastal-city-inspired menu from one the four cities served — Boston, San Francisco, Los Angeles and New York.

Grab-and-go food options at the Global Bazar

Investing in the New York/New Jersey area

We have been working closely with local institutions and building meaningful partnerships to ensure they can serve their critical missions. As part of this effort and a larger initiative, we announced a $2 million grant to be split between the Community FoodBank of New Jersey, Urban League of Essex County and Year Up New York. We are partnering with these organizations to help support their local communities' dedication to vital workforce development initiatives.

New Yorkers are well-connected to the rest of the world and don't settle for second-best and neither do we; that's why we're on a mission to be the best airline in the region and your top choice when you fly. We fly places New Yorkers want to go, whether that means connecting them with clients and business partners across the globe, or uniting family and friends all over the world. Closer to more of Manhattan than JFK International Airport, we are well-positioned at Newark and at New York LaGuardia Airport to make that happen. Or as we like to say, "More flights from Newark, less traffic from New York."

Introducing Better Boarding

By United Airlines , September 17, 2018

The feedback from customers and employees was clear: we needed to improve our boarding process. As part of our ongoing efforts to put customers at the center of everything we do, we identified boarding as an opportunity to improve the airport experience. We tested a variety of different boarding processes on thousands of flights across multiple airports. Best practices emerged from each test, and combined, they now form what we are calling "Better Boarding".

Better Boarding consists of three key improvements

Less time in line:

By reducing the number of boarding lanes, there is more space for customers to enjoy the gate areas, many of which have been completely remodeled with more comfortable seating and in some airports, the ability to have food and drinks from within the airport delivered directly to the gate area. Over the years, we have invested millions of dollars in our terminals, and now with less time spent standing in line, customers will have more time to dine, shop, relax, work or enjoy a United Club℠.

Simplified gate layout

Say goodbye to the five long lines we see today

Group 1 will board through the blue lane.

Group 2 will board through the green lane, followed by groups 3, 4, and 5.

Two groups on each side of sign indicating lanes 1 (blue) and 2 (green)

Late arriving customers in Group 1 and 2 will use the blue lane.

Customers in groups 3, 4, and 5 always use the green lane.

Better information:

We are providing customers with more information throughout the boarding process so that they feel more at ease, and more equipped with the latest information about their flight. Customers with the United app can receive a push notification once their flight starts boarding. Customers will only receive the notification if they've opted in for push notifications and have a mobile boarding pass in the app's wallet.

Enhanced communications

Be in the know about boarding

Mobile phone and smartwatch with boarding notifications

Customers will receive boarding notifications through the United app (if they've opted in for notifications).

Gate information display with boarding instructions for group 1-2 through lane 1 (blue) and group 3-4 through lane 2 (green)

Improved gate area digital signage to guide customers through boarding.

Balanced groups and better recognition:

United MileagePlus® Premier 1K® customers will now pre-board and United MileagePlus Premier Gold customers will be boarding in Group 1. For more information on our boarding groups, visit: https://www.united.com/web/en-us/content/travel/airport/boarding-process.aspx

Improved premier customer recognition

We're happy to make them happy

Premier passenger in front of boarding line

Improved premier recognition and better positioning of customers to create balanced boarding groups.

The new Better Boarding process is just one of the steps we are taking to improve the customer experience. We will continue to collect feedback from customers on ways we can further improve boarding and you may receive a post-travel survey to tell us more about your experience

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