United Airlines customer experience refers to how the airline manages every touchpoint a traveler has, from booking a flight to landing at the destination. For a company operating hundreds of destinations across dozens of countries, that experience has to hold up across an enormous range of situations, from a routine domestic flight to a delayed international connection.
Airlines face a particularly hard version of the customer experience problem, since a single flight touches booking, airport operations, in-flight service, and often a call center all within a few hours. Feedback gathered across these frequent flyer touchpoints tends to reveal different problems than a single post-flight survey ever would. This guide looks at where United’s customer experience strategy performs well, where the data shows room for improvement, and what other brands can learn from both.
What is customer experience in the airline industry?
Customer experience in aviation is the sum of every interaction a passenger has with an airline, spanning booking, check-in, security, boarding, the flight itself, baggage handling, and any customer service contact. Airlines measure this differently than most industries because a single trip can include five or more distinct touchpoints in a matter of hours.
A strong airline customer experience program tracks feedback across at least two of these touchpoints rather than relying on a single post-flight survey. Isolated feedback from just the in-flight experience misses problems that started at booking or check-in and shaped how the passenger felt before they ever boarded.
The passenger journey map of United Airlines
A Passenger Journey Map is a tool often not widely used by all companies related to the mobility, transportation, and tourism world. However, the Passenger Journey Map is essential for airlines because it offers a deep understanding of the customer experience, helping them identify pain points, areas for improvement, and opportunities to enhance passenger satisfaction.
In this visual representation, it is possible to place not only the touchpoints of their consumers but also enrich them with valuable information previously collected or highlight sections that require special attention.
Below is an example of how a basic Passenger Journey Map would look based on the most common actions implemented by United Airlines to understand this concept better.
Table 01: Awareness
| Touchpoint | Activity | Pain Point | Solution |
|---|---|---|---|
| Search Online (SEO) | Customers discover United Airlines through online searches. | Limited visibility in search results. | Optimize SEO strategies to improve search engine rankings. |
| Content Marketing (Blog) | Customers find United Airlines’ blog content. | Lack of engaging and informative content. | Produce high-quality blog posts about travel tips and experiences. |
| Magazine Advertising | Customers see United Airlines ads in magazines. | Limited exposure to magazine readership. | Target relevant magazines with large and engaged readerships. |
| Pay per Click Campaigns | Customers click on United Airlines’ PPC ads. | Irrelevant or misleading ad content. | Design PPC campaigns with accurate and enticing ad content. |
| Product Placement in Movies or Series | Customers notice United Airlines in media. | Difficulty in making a memorable brand appearance. | Strategically integrate the brand into popular media for better recognition. |
| TV Advertising | Customers view United Airlines’ TV commercials. | Ad avoidance or inability to reach the target audience. | Place TV ads during high viewership periods for maximum reach. |
Table 02: Conversion
| Touchpoint | Activity | Pain Point | Solution |
|---|---|---|---|
| Website User Friendly | Customers find United Airlines’ website user-friendly. | Difficulty navigating the website. | Improve website design and navigation for a seamless user experience. |
| Flight Sites | Customers book flights through United Airlines’ partner sites. | Inconvenience in finding the best flight deals. | Offer competitive prices and deals on partner flight booking sites. |
| Points of Sale | Customers purchase tickets at United Airlines’ physical points of sale. | Limited accessibility to physical sales locations. | Increase points of sale and promote their availability. |
| Apps | Customers use United Airlines’ apps for flight booking and management. | Uncertainty about app features and usability. | Enhance app functionalities and user interface for easy navigation. |
Table 03: Loyalty
| Touchpoint | Activity | Pain Point | Solution |
|---|---|---|---|
| MileagePlus (Loyalty Program) | Customers enroll and engage in the MileagePlus loyalty program. | Perceived lack of rewards and benefits. | Enhance loyalty program perks and introduce tier-based rewards. |
| United Credit Card | Customers utilize the United Airlines credit card for rewards. | Lack of understanding of credit card benefits. | Educate customers about maximizing mileage rewards with the credit card. |
Table 04: Advocacy
| Touchpoint | Activity | Pain Point | Solution |
|---|---|---|---|
| Apps | Customers share positive experiences with United Airlines’ apps. | Limited incentives to share app experiences. | Encourage customers to share app experiences through rewards or referral programs. |
| Incentivize Online Reviews | Customers write positive reviews about United Airlines. | Unwillingness to leave reviews without incentives. | Offer incentives or rewards for customers who leave positive online reviews. |
How does United Airlines measure customer satisfaction?
United Airlines primarily tracks satisfaction through Net Promoter Score, asking travelers how likely they are to recommend the airline to others. In 2025, United’s NPS came in at 25, below the airline industry average of 33, indicating a meaningful gap between United and its top-performing peers.
An NPS of 25 means United has more promoters than detractors overall, but the gap is not as wide as leading airlines achieve. That distinction matters for interpreting the number correctly. A positive score is not automatically a strong score. It needs to be read against the industry benchmark, not in isolation.
What United Airlines does well
United has invested visibly in family-focused improvements to the booking experience, including a policy that seats children under 12 next to an accompanying adult at no extra cost, paired with a seat mapping tool that finds adjacent open seats during booking. This addresses a specific, well-documented pain point rather than a generic service upgrade.
The airline also uses passenger journey mapping to understand where in the travel experience problems most often occur. Mapping the journey from booking through arrival, rather than treating each touchpoint in isolation, makes it easier to see whether a satisfaction dip started at check-in or in the air.
Where United Airlines has room to improve
The NPS gap against the industry average points to unresolved friction somewhere in the passenger journey. Public reviews on SKYTRAX frequently cite irregular operations, particularly how missed connections and delays are handled, as a recurring source of frustration. Passengers consistently describe wanting more proactive communication and support during disruptions, not just an apology after the fact.
This is a common pattern across the airline industry: the booking and in-flight experience often score reasonably well, while service recovery during delays or cancellations drags the overall score down. Fixing the friction points that show up during disruptions typically moves the needle more than incremental improvements to the parts of the journey that already work.
Lessons other brands can take from United’s approach
United’s use of passenger journey mapping is a practice any customer-facing business can apply, not just airlines. Mapping the full path a customer takes, rather than surveying only the final touchpoint, surfaces problems that a single end-of-experience survey would miss entirely. A Journey Management Tool makes this kind of end-to-end visibility practical without manually piecing together data from separate systems.
The second lesson is about benchmarking. United’s NPS score alone does not tell the full story. It only becomes meaningful when compared against the industry average, which is why any brand tracking Net Promoter Score should always view the number relative to competitors, not as a standalone metric.
Common mistakes brands make when trying to replicate this approach
The most common mistake is measuring only one touchpoint, usually the most visible one, and assuming it represents the full experience. United’s own data shows this clearly: strong booking and in-flight features do not offset friction during service recovery if that touchpoint goes unmeasured.
A second mistake is collecting NPS or satisfaction data without closing the loop on what customers report. A journey map that identifies a pain point but never triggers a fix is a diagnostic tool without a treatment plan.
How QuestionPro supports airline and travel customer experience programs
QuestionPro’s Travel & Hospitality solutions, built on the same survey software foundation used across QuestionPro’s products, give travel brands the tools to track NPS, map the passenger journey, and route feedback to the teams responsible for fixing specific pain points, whether that is at booking, in the airport, or during a delay.
A closing thought on measuring the full journey
United Airlines’ customer experience data shows a familiar pattern: strong, visible improvements in one part of the journey do not automatically raise the overall score if friction remains elsewhere. The brands that consistently improve satisfaction are the ones measuring the entire path a customer takes, not just the part that is easiest to survey.
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)
United Airlines recorded an NPS of 25 in 2025, below the airline industry average of 33. This places United among airlines with more promoters than detractors overall, but with a smaller gap than top-performing competitors.
Airline NPS benchmarks tend to run lower than retail or software industries due to the operational complexity of air travel, including weather delays and connection issues largely outside an airline’s direct control. Comparing airline scores against airline-specific benchmarks gives a more accurate read than cross-industry comparisons.
A passenger journey map is a visual representation of every touchpoint a traveler experiences, from booking through arrival. It helps airlines identify where satisfaction drops and prioritize fixes at the specific stage causing the most friction.
Delays involve factors like weather and air traffic control that airlines cannot fully control, but passenger frustration often centers on communication and support during the delay rather than the delay itself. Proactive updates and clear rebooking options typically matter more to satisfaction than the delay length alone.
Any business with multiple customer touchpoints, such as a retailer with browsing, checkout, and support stages, can map the full journey rather than surveying only the final step. This surfaces friction points that a single end-of-experience survey would otherwise miss.
