Agency
A note on why feeling capable matters as much as feeling cared for.
I’ve been flying United the most in the past few years.
Part of it is practical. Routes, airports, schedule, loyalty, habit. I don’t think it is clearly the best airline. The service can be inconsistent, and sometimes the experience feels cold.
United is often praised for its digital UX. The app is useful, the information is clear, and a lot can be done without talking to anyone. But over time, I started noticing that the value is not only the UX itself. It is the kind of relationship it creates.
I once arrived early at the airport and noticed a flight leaving in about 20 minutes. With a few clicks, I put myself on standby and was cleared automatically. Across the journey, I can see where my plane is coming from, how to get from my door to the gate, what is happening with my bag, whether my connection is getting tight, and the actual reason for a delay.
I also saw reports that United is exploring sending photos or videos of aircraft maintenance to customers waiting for a plane to be fixed. I’m not sure how useful that will be, but the impulse is interesting: show more of the system instead of hiding it.
None of these things alone makes the experience. Some give me something to do. Others simply make the situation less opaque. Together, they make me feel more informed and more able to decide what to do next.
That observation made me think about something beyond United.
Customer experience can either manage people through complexity or help them become more capable inside it. I’m more interested in the second one.
A lot of customer experience talks about care as comfort: make people feel welcome, remove friction, add warmth, make things smoother. Those things matter. But in complex systems, maybe care can also mean helping people stay oriented.
Air travel is a controlled loss of control. You hand over your time, luggage, schedule, and plans to a system you cannot fully see. In that situation, a friendly message is not always enough. Sometimes what helps is the right information: the kind that lets you decide, wait, act, or ask for help.
Not everyone wants to operate the system themselves. But more experiences could give people the option to understand it.
That is where agency feels important to me. Not total control. Not doing everything myself. Just enough clarity and choice to take the next step with confidence.
Of course, agency can become a corporate excuse. Removing support and pushing everything into an app is not empowerment. Self-service only becomes agency when the customer gains something, not when the company simply reduces labor.
The version I’m interested in still has support behind it. Tools when tools are enough. Useful information when it helps. A person when the situation becomes too complex to handle alone.
When I look at an experience, I’m becoming less interested in whether it simply feels delightful. I’m more interested in the position it puts people in.
The best experiences do not just make people feel good in the moment. They help people understand, make a choice, and trust themselves enough to move forward.
Less about impressing people, and more about empowering them.