ST. HELENA, Calif. — As part of its overall efforts to perk up customer service, United Airlines announced this past November that it had inked a deal with Italian coffee roasting company illy to provide coffee in the United Clubs and – starting this summer – on board flights worldwide.
Switching brews may seem like a small thing, given the carrier’s rebuild-the-brand challenge, but “coffee is a disproportionately noticeable small thing,” said travel analyst Henry Harteveldt, founder of Atmosphere Research.
“One of United’s greatest traveler-facing mistakes was ending its relationship with Starbucks and replacing it with the awful coffee Continental served,” Harteveldt added.
With the Continental/United merger now completed and the food on-board and in the lounges “reinvented globally,” Jeff Pelch, United’s senior manager of product strategy and implementation, said that “now it was time to do the same thing with the coffee. To be honest, our customers demanded it.”
United didn’t just get a catalog and pick a new coffee supplier, said Pelch. Instead, it put its corporate nose to the grindstone – almost literally – to make a decision.
Staff from United and illy conducted in-flight coffee brewing and taste tests. And, as part of a newly-forged partnership, illy is building a United-dedicated production line at its headquarters in Trieste, Italy, where it will roast and package the 50 tons of coffee United will need each month once the coffee begins being served on United flights this July.
In preparation for that roll-out (or should we say pour out?), a team from United attended illy’s intensive University of Coffee last week at the Culinary Institute of America’s campus in St. Helena, Calif. The goal? To learn just what goes into growing, roasting and preparing great coffee.
The highly-caffeinated course included many tastings and covered everything from the “discovery” of coffee to how coffee is best cultivated, harvested, processed, roasted, stored, ground and — of course — brewed. Grounds covered included the many variables that can affect the taste and quality of coffee, how to make a perfect espresso and how to add foam art to espresso-based drinks.
“What we learned here won’t change anything about our choice of product,” said Pelch, but now that key people at United know the story of coffee in general and illy in particular, communication with employees and customers about the switch “can be richer,” he said.
In the airlines’ on-the-ground lounges, where illy is already being served, customers have noticed. “They say it’s a better brand and a more robust and flavorful product,” said Delilah Jones-Bardlette, senior manager of United club lounges. “Now I can tell them about the overall effort and passion that goes into the coffee.”
Thanks to articles and background materials that will arrive on their mobile devices, United’s flight attendants will also be able to speak knowledgeably about the new coffee as well.
“For many years we had another coffee on board that wasn’t getting the best feedback and coffee consumption was going down” said Steven Petritis, Supervisor, inflight policies and procedures. “Once we have illy, we expect consumption to go up and that will start a dialog between customers and flight attendants.”
Will better coffee – or the recent reintroduction of complimentary in-flight snacks – make passengers choose United over other airlines?
That will be difficult to measure, but “United’s decision to partner with illy illustrates the airline is paying attention to the many things its passengers value,” said travel analyst Harteveldt. “Having just suffered through a cup of the swill that masquerades as coffee on United two weeks ago, I personally can’t wait to be offered a cup of Illy on a future United flight.”
