Monday Meetings with United Airlines
Travelfli landed in Chicago on Monday to meet with United Airlines and Hyatt Resorts. Our first meeting was at the United Headquarters, which is located in a beautiful sky rise in downtown Chicago that overlooks the city and the lake. We met with Robert Sahadevan, the VP of Mileage Plus at United. He runs all of the operations for the Mileage Plus Program. 
I have long been a United frequent flyer, having lived in either San Francisco or Denver (representing two out of five UA hubs) for most of my life. I also take advantage of United’s codeshare flights with other Star Alliance members. Back in 1997, United was a founding member of Star Alliance, the oldest and largest airline alliance that is comprised of 21 full and 3 regional members. 
Travelfli is very familiar with 1K frequent flyers because many of our local beta testers hold elite status with United. This means (for those of you who aren’t familiar with Mileage Plus) that they are flying 100,000 miles or 100 paid segments with the airline in a calendar year. In addition to receiving all the Premier Executive benefits, 1K members also get six free system-wide upgrade vouchers to be used throughout the year.
Since United plays a vital role in my travel habits (as well as almost everybody I know), it was very interesting to meet the master of all things Mileage Plus! Robert is responsible for one of the most important aspects of the United Airlines business because this valuable asset oftentimes carries United through rough patches. Case in point: earlier this year UA secured $600 million from Chase Bank for the advance purchase of frequent flyer miles and an extension of their contract. Chase helped out because their co-branded credit card with United is a vital component to the success of their own business. This safeguarded the airline from the economic downturn and protected them from the risks of falling into bankruptcy. 
It was clear from the meeting that Robert has a solid strategy for remaining at the forefront of airline award program innovation. He faces the same challenges as all the other airlines, namely how to make sure the program remains valuable to consumers as well as their customers, like Chase Bank. We enjoyed chatting with Robert about what lays ahead for Mileage Plus, and appreciated his insightful feedback on the site. Thanks for a great meeting, Robert!
