United Airlines Kicks Off the Holiday Travel Season

New Customer Service Initiatives in Place,
Travel Tips to Get the Holidays Off to a Pleasant Start

Chicago.– To kick off this holiday season and ensure customers get to their destinations safely, comfortably and on time, United has adjusted its staffing and enhanced its airport technology. United also recently revised its customer service commitment, called Our Customer Commitment, which details information about what United does to minimize inconveniences, especially during unexpected weather and Air Traffic Control (ATC) delays.

“The improvements we have made so far this year place our customers at the center of everything we do,” says Barbara Higgins, vice president - Customer Experience. "We are working hard behind the scenes to create a positive experience for our guests during the holiday travel season, and to deliver a more dependable and consistent experience every time they travel with us.”

Areas where United has concentrated its efforts include:

* Staffing – Adjusted staffing to ensure we have the appropriate number of people available to best serve our passenger and cargo customers.
* Technology – United has added 140 Easy Check-in® kiosks in the gate areas of our busiest airports, so when United automatically rebooks customers who are experiencing delays or cancellations, these travelers can print their new boarding passes without having to go through security again.

These kiosks also have United’s Easy Rebook® software that enables customers to make changes to their itineraries, such as placing themselves on the stand-by list for an earlier flight.

United is adding more than 78 Easy Bag Claim kiosks in the baggage claim areas of our busiest airports. These kiosks enable customers to scan the barcodes on their baggage claim tags to see exactly where their bag is and to which claim belt it will be delivered.

* Reliability – United has added more than a minute of service time – the time allotted to clean, prepare and board the aircraft – to each flight to ensure our customers’ flights are on-time and each aircraft is in the proper condition when we welcome customers onboard.

United recently renewed its service commitment, called Our Customer Commitment, which is a 12-point plan outlining the ways in which we strive to keep our customers feeling relaxed and respected during normal operations, and what they can expect if delays occur. As part of this commitment, United will communicate flight updates to delayed passengers every 15 minutes, reduce long in-aircraft and taxiing delays, and strive to deliver luggage at the bag claim carousels within 25 minutes. United’s full Our Customer Commitment can be found at united.com/commitment.



Helpful Suggestions: 3Ps – Print, Pack & Plan

United’s customers can take the following steps to get their holidays off to a great start:

Print

· Check-in and print boarding passes using united.com. Customers can check-in up to 24 hours prior to departure – even if they are checking bags. Once they have checked in online, customers can take their bags to the convenient united.com bag drop at the airport, and proceed directly to security. If customers are traveling on a domestic flight from one of United’s hubs (Chicago O’Hare, Washington Dulles, Denver, San Francisco or Los Angeles), they can use our united.com BagCheck to quickly check bags at Easy Check-in kiosks.

Pack

· Before packing carry-on or checked luggage, review the latest baggage restrictions from the Transportation Security Administration and United’s checked baggage policy on united.com.

· Be sure that holiday gifts are unwrapped. Passengers may not take wrapped packages through security.

· Liquids, aerosols or gels may be transported in carry-on bags only if they are 3 ounces or less in volume. Passengers must place these items into a one-quart, zip-top, clear plastic bag that should be taken out of carry-on bags and placed into screening bins at the security checkpoints. A limit of one bag per passenger applies.

· Enclose a copy of the e-ticket receipt in each checked bag for quick identification.

Plan

· Allow extra time at the airport during the holiday season. For domestic travel, we recommend arriving at the airport 60 minutes prior to flying – 90 minutes for customers who are checking bags.

· We recommend that passengers traveling internationally arrive at the airport two hours prior to their flights.

· During the peak holiday season, we recommend that passengers who are traveling from our busiest airports and need to park their cars (Chicago O’Hare, Washington Dulles, Denver, San Francisco or Los Angeles) arrive an additional 60 minutes earlier than the times suggested above.