The Friendly Skies

Last week I was traveling back from a 2 day ideation session. The session had involved a lot of work and some particularly long days + nights, so I was delighted to see my request to use my upgrade certificates confirmed when I checked in at 4.30am in St. Louis for my return leg on United. I’m extremely loyal to United, which is about 95% due to the fact that I’ve been a member of their Mileage Plus program for the past 7 years and get preferential treatment as a result. I am, however, not committed to United.  If another carrier flying the routes I travel most often, offered me the same status to switch and matched my accumulated miles - I’d be there in a second (at least for a decent trial period).  Yep, that’s a pretty big ask, but I do spend a lot of money on flights.

However, this United flight was a bit different. The pilot made all his pre-flight announcements from the front of the plane rather than in the cockpit, so I immediately connected the brand with someone beyond the flight attendants - sort of like meeting the bank manager rather than a teller (sorry flight attendants). Then about an hour before landing, the flight attendant brought me a card that was a personal note from the pilot.  “Dear Mr. Band”, it said, “It’s my pleasure to fly you to Vancouver”.  OK, so not exactly going way above and beyond - but certainly a small unexpected touch that made me reconsider my relationship with United a little bit and perhaps put my brand promiscuity on the back burner. Reminded me it doesn’t take much to shape brand relationships, even ones that are years old.  When I told my wife about this, she asked me if the captain had added his hotel room number and a winking smiley.  Thankfully no.  Stretching the brand to the overly friendly skies would have been a bit much.