United’s Luc Bondar on jet lag

Why did United partner with Timeshifter?

United flies more than 160 million people a year, many of them on long flights, and wants customers to arrive able to make the most of their destination. After Luc Bondar tested Timeshifter on a four-day trip from Chicago to Tokyo, Guam and back, United expanded the partnership.

What surprised Luc Bondar when he used Timeshifter?

He had believed jet lag was all about sleep. Following his Timeshifter plan, he learned it was all about light, and now wears sunglasses in airports to avoid light when his plan says so.

Key moments

• 0:00 – Why United’s long-haul passengers need to perform on arrival
• 0:26 – The urban myths of jet lag
• 1:08 – Meeting Mickey and trying Timeshifter
• 1:24 – Chicago, Tokyo, Guam and back in four days
• 2:01 – “It was all about light”
• 2:09 – Timeshifter for United’s loyalty members
• 2:46 – Science-based circadian advice for everyday travelers

Transcript

Luc Bondar, then VP of Loyalty and President of MileagePlus, United Airlines: Absolutely. Thank you, Mickey, for having me here today. For United, we fly over 160 million people a year from A to B. We’re the largest US carrier in terms of our international network. So many of those 160 million passengers are flying long flights. They may be connecting through multiple destinations to get to where they want to go. And to the points that have been made up here, they want to be able to show up and perform. Whether that’s leisure or business, you want to feel good.

And I, for one, have lived all of those urban myths about all the different things that you do. I’ve been flying since I was six months old – I’m Australian. I’ve been to the US I don’t know how many times, and I fly all around the world all the time. And those urban myths are pervasive. For us, when we think about the experience that we’re delivering to our customers, we’re constantly looking at ways that we can improve the experience in the air, but also on the ground, so when customers arrive they have the ability to make the most of that destination, whether it’s for business or for leisure.

And so when we met with Mickey, I would say it was quite a transformational moment. I recall the meeting distinctly, because I was skeptical, frankly. In that meeting I called Mickey out on a few of these things, and he talked me through the science and he talked me through the process, and he said, “Look, give it a go.” As it turns out, the next week I had a trip coming up where I was flying from Chicago to San Francisco to Tokyo to Guam, back to Tokyo, back to San Francisco, back to Chicago – and I was doing that in four days. And I had meetings on the ground at every one of these destinations with a bunch of banks that we have partnerships with. I had to be on my game.

So I installed Timeshifter and I went through the process of sticking to the plan very tightly. And my mind was blown – truly blown – because it was the best experience I’d had in terms of energy levels and alertness. And it was all about light. I had mistakenly believed for all these years that it was all about sleep, and that I had to sleep at certain times. I learned it was all about light.

Since then, I’m a staunch advocate, and that inspired us to really expand the relationship with Timeshifter – so much so that now we make Timeshifter available for free to members of our loyalty program, which is about half of all of our customers. We make that available so that every time they fly, they’re getting very specific advice as to when to expose themselves to light, when to drink caffeine, and when to take very small amounts – micro amounts – of melatonin. Another urban myth: I used to pound my body with 10 milligrams just to try to knock myself out, and I learned that that is absolutely not the way to do it.

I think the beauty of Timeshifter, and the beauty of apps and investment in circadian health in general, is that they help everyday consumers understand how to optimize their circadian rhythms, so that when they need to perform they can – and do it with science, in such a way that they’re not trying to make it up and they’re not relying on what their best friends told them to do. They’re getting very clear instruction through their phone, through their watch, as to when to be alert, when to have darkness, when to walk through an airport with a pair of sunglasses – which I now do frequently, because I’m trying to cut light. So as soon as I get on that plane, my body is in a different state of circadian rhythm than it otherwise would have been.

So it’s a huge investment for us, as we really think about our responsibility to make sure that when customers are traveling, they have the opportunity to have the best possible experience – not only in the air, where we’ve obviously made a lot of investment, but also on the ground when they reach their destination.