00:10:51 · Scott Kirby, John Collison, Ben Thompson
[00:10:51] S0: We're bringing much more in house. We have more in house, I think, than any airline in world. We're the only airline in the world that owns our own reservation system. Everyone else is outsourced to Sabre and Apollo. [00:11:00] S1: You worked at Sabre, right? [00:11:02] S0: I did. It wasn't Sabre then. It was called American Airlines Decision Technologies. But you know, that's a mainframe system. [00:11:08] S1: Sure. [00:11:08] S0: And because we own our, it's a legacy, like we locked into it, like legacy decisions that we own our own mainframe. Because we owned it and we're, because us, Copa uses it too, Copa Airlines in Panama uses it because they're partner with us. We're the only two airlines in the world that use it. So like eventually it was EDS owned it and then someone else, like they didn't want to keep supporting it. So we had to, like we lucked into it, like we had to support it on our own. But it's been huge. And now we're taking over all kinds of other parts of the tech stack, partly because we do things, you know, it's so much more complicated at United than it is at most airlines around the world. Is that just because [00:11:46] S2: of size or what?
00:11:46 · Ben Thompson, Scott Kirby, John Collison
[00:11:46] S2: of size or what? [00:11:47] S0: The size and complexity is just much higher. But I'll give you another example of one that we're taking over that I got so frustrated about. The seat back entertainment screens. I didn't actually realize it until I started complaining about the maps. The maps are terrible. Like the map, like I just want a map to show up, like go, I'm into maps. Go where I'm going. If I can zoom in, zoom out if I want. And the stupid map switches to the globe. Like I know, like, approximately where I am on the globe. Don't need [00:12:14] S1: to see the damn globe. By the time you find the information you're looking for, it switches screens. [00:12:18] S0: Yeah. Because what [00:12:19] S2: I want though is... Because you already know who I am. You log in. My name's Eric, put in my birthday or whatever. I do nothing but have the map on the whole time. I wanna have my map preferences and everything.
00:12:19 · Ben Thompson, Scott Kirby, John Collison
[00:12:19] S2: I want though is... Because you already know who I am. You log in. My name's Eric, put in my birthday or whatever. I do nothing but have the map on the whole time. I wanna have my map preferences and everything. [00:12:28] S0: That's actually so, that's what we're... So we're taking over the map software from Panasonic. They're taking over the whole software. Yeah. And so there's all kinds of stuff we're gonna... So like one is we're gonna know Ben. Preferences. So it's just going to come up. You can get to other stuff. It's just going to pop up with the map on the screen. Another one, like these are little things, but they're, what I've started to say, it comes from this book, Unreasonable Hospitality. One of things about that book is, that I took away from that book is try to create memories for people. And so like, to me, this is another example of a cool thing, which is when you're hitting your 2,000,000 mile mark, the screen is going to pop up with a little thing at the bottom. And I said, Congratulations, Will. This could do a countdown. Like, one, nine, nine, nine, 12, 13, then like celebrating last 10, it's And the like flight attendants a are going to all know exactly when you hit 2,000,000, where over the country you hit. I mean, it's a little thing, but it's cool. And you know, could have never done that unless we took over... [00:13:25] S1: These surprises are light product touches are quite important.
00:13:25 · John Collison, Scott Kirby, Ben Thompson
[00:13:25] S1: These surprises are light product touches are quite important. [00:13:27] S0: Yeah. And that's another one that AI makes possible to do things like that that wouldn't have been possible. To know who you are, you know, like, you know, know what you want to drink. You know, do you want a, you know, want your normal genitin? What is your excellent wine selection? Yeah, you want your ginit? I don't think we have ginit on the airplanes, but now. [00:13:46] S1: We'll work on that. I have a question on [00:13:47] S2: this surprise and delight because that is a great thing. You show up and United delivers something I didn't expect. Yeah. The question is, how do you handle that becoming a feature? So, like, I was traveling this summer and my flight was delayed out of Madison due to a maintenance issue. But I'm like, it's gonna be super tight in Denver, connection saver's gonna save me. And I... Gates were next to each other. I wasn't... I was totally relaxed about it. And then I get there and the flight had already closed. I walked to the gate. They closed it early and taken off. I'm like, if American Airlines does that, I don't care. It's my expectation. Yeah. I was kind of crushed. Yeah. Because I, like, so you're surprising like feature. Yeah. But I'd already internalized it as you do this amazing thing. [00:14:26] S0: Yeah. And And you're such [00:14:28] S2: a large airline. How do you, like, it's hard to do had,
00:14:28 · Ben Thompson, Scott Kirby
[00:14:28] S2: a large airline. How do you, like, it's hard to do had, [00:14:30] S0: you know, we've, we have to get really good at communicating on it. A couple things. First, on something like that, have to get really good at communicating. The seatback screens now are going be helpful too. We're going to tell you that, and we're going to put it on the screen. So, the seatback screen today is completely divorced from the app. Tomorrow, once we take it over, they're gonna be the same. And so we're not gonna just have to text you about your... We're gonna text you and tell you, you know, exactly where it is. And if something changes, like what probably happened on that flight is it got delayed by air traffic control. Right. And the time, we didn't have time to hold for it. Oh no, it was one [00:15:02] S2: those things where like I knew, I understand the complexity Yeah, of right. It was just, I was kind of looking at myself like, why am I disappointed here? I'm like, [00:15:08] S0: oh, no, no, you shouldn't be disappointed. Because what we should do is communicate with you really well on that. Another cool thing that I hope we're going to have rolled out actually, well, we're going roll it out pretty soon. I've told them I want it done by Christmas, for Christmas twelve because of weather at Christmas. Normally if there's a weather delay coming on one of your flights, all airlines, including United, send you a text that says, Oh, there may be weather in Denver tomorrow. And like, great. [00:15:37] S2: What you supposed to Can I do my fingers?
00:15:37 · Ben Thompson, Scott Kirby, John Collison
[00:15:37] S2: What you supposed to Can I do my fingers? [00:15:38] S0: Yeah, yeah. Like what can you do? [00:15:39] S1: Yes, it's December in Denver. Yeah. I'm [00:15:41] S2: aware. Bring your little shot of anxiety