Leaving United

I left United at the end of December after almost ten years of work for the airline. It was certainly one of the most unexpected and unique career opportunities for me. Prior to this work, I had adamantly said I would never work for an airline. In my opinion, the airline business model was simply too thin on profits and hugely volatile. Something that I learned in even more detail over the past ten years at arm's length. You see, my work was the complete opposite. I achieved ten years of revenue growth and significant profitability.

I joined United in 2003 at the worst time in the company's history. 9/11 and rising fuel pricing had placed the company in bankruptcy proceedings (Chapter 11 restructuring). I saw a significant business opportunity in their loyalty program, MileagePlus, that United was not leveraging in Asia. The airline was rapidly downsizing personnel and was unwilling to hire me as an employee but gave me a one-year contract. I had twelve months to prove my case. I set out without any experience in the airline business, no support resources and no budget except whatever I could scrape together. I even had to buy my own laptop computer!

Year in and year out, I re-engaged the program with our members, enhanced and grew relationships with partners, developed a clear product strategy and created marketing communications channels. Revenue grew every year under my watch. I actively participating in the airline merger that created a single loyalty program. People came and left the organization, management changed multiple times and fuel prices spiked in 2008. Yet my business remained a constant revenue source and ironically, I never became an employee.

Leaving United was more difficult than I thought it would be. I often needed to exert "tough love" on our partners and HQ management in order to remain on course with my strategies. In the end, everyone was very generous with their appreciation for my work. Without a doubt, it has been the most rewarding job thus far and I attribute this to the chance to run the business as though it were my own. I intend to follow this rule in my future roles.