United perks up at 'Coffee University'

As part of its overall efforts to perk up customer service, United 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.<br/>