As reported by @xJonNYC, soon it’ll be possible to tell for how many years an employee has worked at United Airline just by looking at their wings or pins.
United Airlines’ new “milestone sequence” wings & pins
Starting this month, United Airlines will be rolling out a new way to recognize for how long employees have worked at the airline, in the form of special wings and pins. With the new milestone sequence program, the airline will be recognizing for how many years someone has served at the airline, ranging from five years, all the way up to 55 years (I’m guessing United no longer has any employees with 60+ years?):
- Each sapphire (blue) will represent five years of service
- Each diamond (white) will represent 10 years of service
- 55 years of service will be recognized with five emeralds (green)
For flight attendants and pilots, these sequences will appear on their “wings,” while for other employees, these will appear on their pins.
This isn’t the first time that United has recognized employee milestones on wings and pins, though this is a new design for the airline, and I think it’s the most visually interesting one we’ve seen so far.
This is a fun initiative from United
Admittedly people make a lot of jokes about how senior employees at some US airlines are. In my opinion, senior employees at airlines often represent the best and worst an airline has to offer when it comes to service.
You have some senior staff who provide exceptional service, take pride in their jobs, and remember the “good old days,” when flying was something more special. Then you have some senior employees who are clearly frustrated by what their career has become, and are just there to clock in and clock out, and get their paycheck.
I think it’s super fun for staff to be able to show off how long they’ve been at the airline in such a subtle way, should they so choose. Of course 99%+ of passengers will have no clue what these pins represent.
Along similar lines, I used to love how all Emirates flight attendants had pins representing the countries they were from, as it beautifully highlighted how international cabin crew at the airline are. Unfortunately those pins were eliminated several years back, due to a predictable China vs. Taiwan flag kerfuffle. Emirates had let flight attendants from Taiwan wear pins with the flag of Taiwan, which China took issue with, and that caused these pins to just be eliminated.
Bottom line
United Airlines is introducing new milestone pins for employees, intended to recognize for how many years an employee has been with the company. You can expect to see sapphire, diamond, and emerald pins, with each sapphire representing five years of service, each diamond representing 10 years of service, and five emeralds representing 55 years of service.
What do you make of United’s new milestone sequence pins?
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