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 United, the second-largest U.S. airline by capacity, began testing a
web portal on Thursday that lets customers use award miles to access
the Internet on their laptops, tablets and smartphones, making it
the first U.S. carrier with the feature, a spokesman said.
It hopes to roll out the portal to most U.S. domestic flights by
early 2016 and to finish installations on international flights by
mid-summer. Regional jets that United contracts for its United
Express brand will get the portal later.
The move reflects an ongoing push in the airline industry to treat
frequent-flier miles like a currency. Travelers already can redeem
miles on U.S. carriers for hotel rooms, theater tickets, goods such
as cameras and even identity theft monitoring.
This also marks United's latest move to win over customers since
Oscar Munoz took over as chief executive of parent United
Continental Holdings Inc in September.
Munoz has solicited feedback from travelers on how to improve the
airline, ranked the lowest in customer satisfaction of the largest
North American carriers, according to J.D. Power's 2015 ranking.
The team overseeing the sale of extra services such as Wifi is now
focused on improving travelers' experience more than maximizing
revenue, United's Vice President of eCommerce and Merchandising
Scott Wilson said in an interview.
"There is a bias towards promoting that type of thinking. It’s
always existed, but maybe where it was more balanced, it’s shifted a
little bit," he said.
That doesn't mean free Wifi, however.
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Wilson said there has to be some dollar or mileage cost because web
speeds could slow if each customer tried to access the Internet. For
now, existing contracts prevent United from rolling out the
speediest satellite-based Wifi on all flights.
Wilson said the miles needed for Wifi would vary with supply and
demand.
United's partner Deutsche Lufthansa AG charges long-haul customers
3,500 miles or 9 euros for an hour of Internet access, according to
its website.
Munoz, who is on leave until 2016 after a heart attack, has said
implementing the 2010 merger of United and Continental was "rocky
for customers and employees."
(Reporting by Jeffrey Dastin in New York; Editing by Cynthia
Osterman)
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