What to Expect when you Travel Next

COVID-19 has changed everyone's familiar travel routines. So we've made important changes too — at every step of your journey — to provide a safer and cleaner travel experience. Today, I'd like to update you on those improvements and how they better protect our customers.
Safety has always been our top priority, and with that in mind, we've teamed up with leading experts at Cleveland Clinic and Clorox to ensure we're getting the best scientific advice. In making their guidance a reality, we've created an environment on the airplane that is one of the safest public places you can be:

• We're requiring everyone to properly wear a face covering.
•  The HEPA filtration system on board our mainline aircraft recycles the air every 2-3 minutes and removes 99.97% of particles, making the air on board a plane cleaner than what you experience in restaurants, grocery stores, schools or even hospitals. Today, we announced that we'll not only run these filters at full strength for the entire flight — we’ll run them during the boarding and deplaning process, too.
• We're making sure our aircraft are thoroughly cleaned: Electrostatic sprayers distribute a CDC-approved disinfectant before most flights, and all high-touch surfaces are wiped down to eliminate bacteria.

Even with our new cleanliness standards, disinfection protocols and social distancing policies in the airport and during boarding and deplaning, we understand that some travelers are anxious about being around large groups of people. So we'll do our best to let you know in advance if we're expecting your flight to be fairly full, and let you switch to a less-full flight for no additional fees. On more than 60 flights a day over the last few months, we've also been able to swap in larger aircraft on short notice if the flight was fairly full. Together, these measures mean that most of our flights are less than half full. Our work does not stop here. Our entire United team is committed to providing you with the best possible travel experience as we continue to evaluate our policies and practices based on the latest CDC guidelines. We look forward to welcoming you back when you're ready for your next flight.