“Communication and communication strategy is not just part of the game – it is the game.”
― Oscar Munoz
“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.”
― Oscar Munoz
“Uncertainty always creates doubt, and doubt creates fear.”
― Oscar Munoz
“In the telecommunications, consumer products, and railway businesses, there are very real consequences if you don’t meet the consumer’s needs and desires. There are also substantive rewards for doing so, and especially for exceeding customer expectations.”
― Oscar Munoz
“Somewhere in the mix, we forgot the very critical people who deliver the service.”
― Oscar Munoz
“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.”
― Oscar Munoz
“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.”
― Oscar Munoz
“It’s so important that we tell customers what’s going on as best as we can. And we’re trying to do that. We don’t often know ourselves, for so many different factors, but reliability, flexibility, and information are the three critical customer service orientations.”
― Oscar Munoz
“Let’s be honest: the implementation of the United and Continental merger has been rocky for customers and employees.”
― Oscar Munoz
“If you feel anything weird, immediately call 911 and give them your address because you may not make it past the phone call.”
― Oscar Munoz
“There are no more holes in my management lineup.”
― Oscar Munoz
“We will not only be more flexible when it comes to price, we’ll also be more efficient operationally by forgoing pre-assigned seating, priority boarding, upgrading the option for last-minute changes.”
― Oscar Munoz
“It is about the entire experience. It’s not just a new seat. It’s not just new meals. It’s not just better wines.”
― Oscar Munoz
“I deeply apologize to the customer forcibly removed and to all the customers aboard. No one should ever be mistreated this way. I want you to know that we take full responsibility, and we will work to make it right. It’s never too late to do the right thing.”
― Oscar Munoz
“Treating our customers and each other with respect and dignity is at the core of who we are, and we must always remember this no matter how challenging the situation.”
― Oscar Munoz
“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.”
― Oscar Munoz
“It is a free world. It is a dynamic of our new day and age: technology is everywhere.”
― Oscar Munoz
“I think the hardest thing that, historically, the industry may have relied upon is that we can’t control weather, we can’t control air traffic control, and use that at the end of the day as an excuse. Things do happen – we know they happen. We don’t exactly know when they are going to happen, but we should definitely be prepped.”
― Oscar Munoz
“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.”
― Oscar Munoz
“When LeBron James shows up at your doorstep, you’re going to let him practice with your team if not join the team.”
― Oscar Munoz
“We had taken the cups for coffee out of the building as a cost-saving measure, but left the coffee. Somebody thought it was symbolic to do this.”
― Oscar Munoz
“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.”
― Oscar Munoz
“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.”
― Oscar Munoz
“I represent the interests of almost 90,000 human beings in our system. That’s by far my first and foremost commitment.”
― Oscar Munoz
“I think we have a thriving economic engine between not only the U.S. and Mexico but the U.S. and many, many other countries.”
― Oscar Munoz
“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.”
― Oscar Munoz
“We are market based and have to differentiate our product in many ways; pricing isn’t the only one.”
― Oscar Munoz
“We are committed to re-earning your trust.”
― Oscar Munoz
“We set out to reinvent the whole business class experience. We went back to re-engineer everything we had thought about and made sleep a priority.”
― Oscar Munoz
“The level of improvement has been great across the industry, and we have improved along with everyone.”
― Oscar Munoz
“Our progress isn’t just limited to the operation. Financially, we have been performing well. United’s 2015 earnings were one of the best in the company’s history, and we made significant progress shrinking the margin gap with our closest competitors, strengthening our balance sheet, and returning significant cash to shareholders.”
― Oscar Munoz
“United spent $1.2 billion repurchasing shares in 2015 and plans to spend $1.5 billion on share repurchases in the first quarter of 2016. We have a lot of positive momentum, but this is just the beginning.”
― Oscar Munoz
“I am thrilled to return full time to a job and the employees I love.”
― Oscar Munoz
“We have to realize we have millions of human beings traveling on our equipment.”
― Oscar Munoz
“Our parents taught us to work hard and never forget our family roots, where we came from, and how much effort it took to get to where we are today.”
― Oscar Munoz
“Everyone has images in their mind of what to expect from different groups.”
― Oscar Munoz
“United’s 2015 earnings were one of the best in the company’s history.”
― Oscar Munoz
“We didn’t have nine brands of cereal at home. We’d line up to fill our bowls from a giant vat of oatmeal.”
― Oscar Munoz
“Simply put, we haven’t lived up to your expectations… That’s going to change.”
― Oscar Munoz
“It’s the human approach to customers that I want to bring back.”
― Oscar Munoz
“We have significant work to be done. We have old, antiquated systems. Remember the 8-track tape player? Think of that as our core system, and we’re living in a world where everybody has an iPhone.”
― Oscar Munoz
“At United, I will dedicate myself to making our airline flyer-friendly.”
― Oscar Munoz
“To get our passengers where they want to go safely and happily requires thousands of us working together with a shared purpose of supporting each other in serving our customers.”
― Oscar Munoz
“I am a first-generation college graduate, and I’m proud to say that most of my other siblings have college degrees as well. Our parents taught us to work hard and never forget our family roots, where we came from, and how much effort it took to get to where we are today.”
― Oscar Munoz
“The airline industry has been closely watching, monitoring, exactly what the rail industry has done.”
― Oscar Munoz
“It is important that we win back the trust of employees first, then customers.”
― Oscar Munoz
“We are not going to put a law enforcement official onto a plane to take them off… to remove a booked, paid, seated passenger. We can’t do that.”
― Oscar Munoz
“I think my reaction to most issues is to get the facts and circumstances.”
― Oscar Munoz
“We have not provided our frontline supervisors and managers and individuals with the proper procedures that would allow them to use their common sense.”
― Oscar Munoz
“We are deeply sorry for the loss of anything – from your luggage to, of course, a loved pet.”
― Oscar Munoz
“We’re going to teach and broaden sort of the cultural impact of respect and dignity, regardless of where you’re sitting. And that’s why we’ve said once you’ve boarded an aircraft, we’re not going to take you off except for safety and security.”
― Oscar Munoz
“You forget sometimes that the people you’re carrying are human.”
― Oscar Munoz
“I think one of the things that, at least, I found out over – and many have in the industry – is that of all the customer service desires and needs, price is one of them.”
― Oscar Munoz
“It’s a new era with regard to social media. It’s just something that we have to adapt to and accept.”
― Oscar Munoz
“For me, it’s common sense to treat other people like you would like to be treated. Empathy is a broad concept, but how do you get there? People get there differently. I get there by truly building a little trust and connection. You’ll tell me something, I’ll act on it, and then that builds on itself.”
― Oscar Munoz
“If I have any strength that would be considered above average, it is that I can read people.”
― Oscar Munoz
“Clearly, nutrition is great. I was a vegan, so being an athlete and a vegan certainly sounds like it would be the right thing to prevent something like heart disease, but it’s highly genetic.”
― Oscar Munoz
“I was hired to make United better, and that’s what we’ll do.”
― Oscar Munoz
“The process of overbooking is a complicated one. It’s actually minimal. We, on certain flights, overbook by one or two people.”
― Oscar Munoz
“I think we need to communicate more effectively how we treat you with respect and dignity as a customer.”
― Oscar Munoz
“If you fly and you look around today and you see our United family, you see them incredibly motivated and focused on making things right.”
― Oscar Munoz
“Clearly, on a visceral human front, I oppose any wall, anywhere, between any people – period.”
― Oscar Munoz
“We have some inherent cost and infrastructure issues that are difficult to deal with, no questions. From my perspective, we have to work on the revenue side primarily. We’ve lost some customers. We need to rebuild the trust with those customers and get them back.”
― Oscar Munoz
“At the end of the day, the differential, I believe, on the airline space has got to be about the product and the service that you provide. And again, I can’t express that enough. That comes from people. It is a people business, and my primary focus is to get our 84,000-plus people back aligned, back engaged, and back focused on our customer.”
― Oscar Munoz
“It is my mission to ensure we make the changes needed to provide our customers with the highest level of service and the deepest sense of respect. Ultimately, our actions will speak louder than words.”
― Oscar Munoz
“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.”
― Oscar Munoz
“Everyone eventually matches or leapfrogs everyone else.”
― Oscar Munoz
“I feel most comfortable in the hangars and ramps.”
― Oscar Munoz
“This is a pattern-bargaining industry, like railroads. You need to pay market to get a contract at all, and without contracts, you have a poor relationship with workers.”
― Oscar Munoz
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