United Airlines CEO Scott Kirby claims he flies coach all the time, explaining it in a way that will resonate with many families who travel.

United Airlines CEO Says He Flies In Coach “Often”

Kirby sat down with David Lazarus of KTLA, a local station in Los Angeles. His interview with Kirby was fairly broad and shallow, but did produce an interesting nugget about Kirby’s flying habits.

Lazarus asks, “As someone who flies coach a lot, it just seems like the seats are getting smaller and passengers are getting bigger.”

Laughing, Kirby responded, “You obviously are not flying United enough, becuase we’ve invested hugely in the coach cabin as well. Now, the sexier pictures that show up on TV are typically the premium cabins, but you go get on one of the United airplanes and we’re either buying new airplanes and we’re updating 100% of the other ones. A big seatback monitor. Bigger overhead bins where every single customer on the airplane can bring onboard a larger roller board and have room in the overhead bin.”

Lazarus then asked, “Do you ever fly coach?” Kirby responded:

“I do, often! I have seven kids so I often take my turn in the back with the kids.”

It sounds like he’s a gentleman and his wife Kathleen flies up front while he deals with his kids in the back. At least they rotate…

While I haven’t heard of any reported sightings of Kirby in economy class, I’ll take him at his word…and think it is very important that CEOs fly in economy. If United wants to charge a revenue premium for economy class, it must offer things like seatback screens, decent snacks, edible food for purchase, and functioning Wi-Fi. To its credit, it does all those things and is increasingly doing them well.

There’s a danger to over-investing in economy class, though, becuase ultimately it seems to me that most economy class passengers are booking based on price and when faced with competition, many folks will not pay even slightly more for United versus a competitor.

But Kirby is convinced that offering a solid economy class experience will build brand-loyal customers who will not even shop other carriers when purchasing air travel.

> Read More: United Airlines CEO Thinks Customers Are “Sticky”

As Kirby tells it (not in this interview), he tried to resist the removal of monitors while President at American Airlines, but was overruled. I’m not sure about that, but he has realized that people appreciate seatback screens and his “United Next” initiative will indeed transform the entire United mainline fleet, with seatback screens on every aircraft (except the high-density 777s in economy class, which themselves may be retrofitted if they remain in the fleet).

You can watch the entire interview here. Here’s part one:

And here’s part two:

Finally, I would have assumed that Kirby has lifetime positive space first class booking rights for American Airlines and United Airlines for him and his entire family, so I am surprised he flies in economy class ever.