01:11:42 · Scott Kirby, John Collison
[01:11:42] S0: So we're all kinda locked into lines and now it's hard to switch. And the real value for customers is being able to connect onto places that we don't fly to. You know, so when we fly, you know, we fly to Frankfurt and Munich and I think we have, you know, four times as many flights into Frankfurt and Munich as American Delta combined. But it's because we have a partnership with Lufthansa. And those people, I think 60% of the people on our Frankfurt and Munich flights are connecting beyond Munich. And so they're going to Kazakhstan and, you know, all kinds of places that we don't fly to. So that's the value for customers. The downside is the experience doesn't feel the same as on United. And that's what we've been working to do. And we've made a lot of progress. A few years ago, actually, I finally, like, I asked and asked and asked other airlines about this and I finally said, if you don't have seat assignments available for our customers, we're gonna turn off our partnership with you. And that got everyone to do it. Like I'd been begging them, we'd been begging them to do it for years but it just wasn't a priority for [01:12:43] S1: them. [01:12:43] S0: That other stuff wasn't their priority And we finally had to say, we're going to cut you off unless you do it. And so my focus on our partnerships has been how do we make the customer, if a United customer is flying on any of our partners, how do we make it feel to them like it is still United Airlines? And I think the other airlines, you know, ought to be [01:13:03] S1: doing it.
01:13:03 · John Collison, Ben Thompson, Scott Kirby
[01:13:03] S1: doing it. [01:13:04] S2: Is that the nature of the partnership? You provide the most customers and so that ultimately Yeah, [01:13:08] S0: we're by far the biggest, you know, and the access to the, you know, have the big hubs. Lufthansa is second. You know, across the Pacific, you know, ANA is big. There's several big partners. But some of the others are, like, one of my favorite airlines is Croatia. You know, I love the people. They're small. 21 airplanes. One, I love Croatia. [01:13:27] S1: It's a [01:13:27] S0: great country. Super fun. People are awesome. I like the CEO. I like the culture. I like the people. And like, it doesn't drive a ton of economic value. But when we try to do new stuff, like, we're gonna do new technology stuff, like, they're one of the smallest. They raise their hand every time. Yeah. Like, and so I appreciate that. [01:13:44] S2: Well, career is very much defined by consolidation [01:13:46] S0: and doing stuff together. And you've [01:13:47] S2: been talking about, oh, we should just buy American Airlines or whatever it might be. Is there any limit in your belief in the power of consolidation [01:13:56] S0: building a better consumer experience? My... I've... My... I was gonna start with... Thank you for adding it. My belief is delivering a better consumer experience works. Like, we're not in a commodity business. Maybe not true in steel because it's commodity, but in non commodity businesses, doing things that are good for your customers is the one...
01:13:56 · Scott Kirby, John Collison
[01:13:56] S0: building a better consumer experience? My... I've... My... I was gonna start with... Thank you for adding it. My belief is delivering a better consumer experience works. Like, we're not in a commodity business. Maybe not true in steel because it's commodity, but in non commodity businesses, doing things that are good for your customers is the one... [01:14:12] S1: And the consolidation dynamic, actually, hadn't thought about this. The consolidation dynamic that you're referencing is that ultimately eliminating duplicative flights in a capacity constrained airport, which is all the major ones, means that you can have more selection [01:14:26] S0: as That's consumer the Chicago example. [01:14:29] S1: But it's not just that?
01:14:29 · John Collison, Scott Kirby, Ben Thompson
[01:14:29] S1: But it's not just that? [01:14:30] S0: It's not just that. Like, the American rationale is I would like to create an airline that Americans broadly are proud of. That they think of as the flight carrier of The United States. If you go to Dubai, people are proud of Emirates. They may complain about stuff but they're proud of Emirates and they recognize that Dubai, the wealthy city state exists because of Emirates. Like, they're hand in hand. Singapore, same thing. Singapore is not Yeah. Without Singapore Airlines. And I would like to create the same thing. We also have a massive trade deficit with international airlines. It's two thirds of the long haul seats into The US are from our competitors even though only 40% of the customers are coming from overseas. Because they're all state subsidized, you know, a bunch of reasons for it and I'm not complaining about those. But I would like to create an airline that can compete head to head with those airlines. And by the way, doesn't create as many good jobs in The US, like a whole bunch of reasons. I would create a great airline in The US that can really compete head to head with state subsidized entities around the globe on every, not just in totality, on every factor. [01:15:36] S1: Anything we haven't covered? [01:15:38] S2: Well, he does have seven kids. He goes to soccer games, reads a lot of books and apparently runs the global airline. Yeah. How do you pull that off? [01:15:45] S0: I'm very efficient with time management. [01:15:48] S2: Were you, was this a post kid thing?
01:15:48 · Ben Thompson, Scott Kirby, John Collison
[01:15:48] S2: Were you, was this a post kid thing? [01:15:50] S0: No, I've always been. [01:15:51] S2: Oh, you've always been. [01:15:52] S0: I've got a bunch of weird quirks if you want to ask, but my wife can tell you that are time efficiency. [01:15:57] S1: Please, tell us the weird quirks. You can't set that up and then Okay, not [01:16:00] S0: okay. So, the one that people find the most amusing I think is 90% of the time you use a fork, I use a spoon. And by the way, I use a serving spoon. [01:16:11] S2: Completely agree. So So much more more [01:16:13] S0: A salad. Like, eating a salad [01:16:15] S1: The lettuce will fall off, no? [01:16:17] S0: No, I cut it up and then you can mix it all up too. [01:16:20] S2: It's tastier because you get all the little [01:16:21] S0: bits I and pieces on the can't eat like, I watch my wife eat, she's mad at me. She stabs a tomato and eats a tomato, then she stabs a piece of lettuce and eats a piece of lettuce. Mine's all mixed up. Does taste good and it's faster. And like a salad which has little nuts and cheese crumbles and stuff, you eat it with a fork and all that's left, all those good stuff falls off and is left on the tray. And [01:16:43] S1: I presume your wife loves you salad splaining her like this and telling her.
01:16:43 · John Collison, Scott Kirby
[01:16:43] S1: I presume your wife loves you salad splaining her like this and telling her. [01:16:46] S0: No, she gets super annoyed with me. But the bigger things are I only have two to three hours of meetings a day. I limit myself to two to three hours. And I don't waste time. And in particular, I'm not on social media. I do write my own stuff for LinkedIn and Instagram, but I don't even know how to That's log true. I like, I watch other people on TikTok or YouTube and like, Oh my God, what are you doing? It's such a time waste. And I don't watch TV really. I just don't waste time. That's a huge one. Yeah, yeah. And if you don't waste time, you got time for a whole bunch And of other [01:17:22] S1: you have the sleep one, right? And I sleep eight and [01:17:24] S0: a half hours a night. Last night I slept over nine. [01:17:26] S1: Yeah, yeah, I do find the short sleeping contest in American business a very funny one because it's like very proven, deleterious cognitive effects.