Hi, team, this is Patti and welcome to FLT-LINE. Today is Thursday Feb. 20, I’m recording a day early because I’ll be traveling and visiting with our San Francisco domicile tomorrow.

Our senior leadership team continues to share United’s plan for transformation in employee meetings across the system. These meetings are giving employees a chance to fully understand the state of our airline and what steps must be taken to move us through Chapter 11 restructuring.

This presentation should leave no doubt in anyone’s mind that in order to move forward, we must lower our operating costs and develop a low cost product if we are going to compete successfully in the future. And, it also becomes clear that our existing strengths; such as our route structure, star alliance, code share and United Express network will help us achieve that goal.

While the information being presented during these meetings is straight forward and to the point, so too are the comments from our employees. I was impressed and I know Glenn was as well, with the open candid nature of these meetings, particularly on Monday here at O’Hare.

Employees are asking thoughtful and compelling questions, and their comments are honest and forthright. These exchanges have reinforced what we already know; we must tap into employee ideas and experiences as our plan for transformation is further developed. Glenn is committed to finding a way to more effectively get these ideas from the front line to leadership so they can be made part of our way moving forward. In fact, I’m proud to tell you that Onboard Service has just introduced the I Team, which provides an on line forum for division employees to share opinions and ideas on potential policy or procedural changes. For details about this exciting new process, go to SkyNet and click on to the Onboard Division home page, but please get involved.

Whether or not you have an idea for transformation or cost savings, we all can contribute to the success of our company by doing our best work each and every day. I’d like to close today’s message by thanking San Francicso-based purser Carol Rapp and her crew for offering their very best on a recent military charter from Riverside California to Kuwait.

In addition to providing excellent service, this crew reached out, in an extraordinary way, to the marines and sailors on board, and embraced them as if they were their own family. Purser Carol offered to make personal phone calls on their behalf since most of them did not even know their final destination. Sandy Mamere took almost two hundred photos to send to their loved ones, and the entire crew collected several hundred cards and letters from these very special customers with a promise to mail them once they returned to United States. My sincere thanks to Carol, Sandy and the entire crew for opening your hearts and sharing the best of yourselves with these soldiers.

Thank you for calling. Next Tuesday I’ll be sharing our plan for transformation with employees in Seattle, so I’ll record my next FLT-LINE message from there. Have a great weekend. Thanks for all you are make United special and take care of each other and our customers.