David Neeleman, born in Brazil, learned the importance of customer satisfaction from his grandfather's convenience store. He studied accounting at the University of Utah, worked part-time, and served as a missionary in Brazil. After returning, he started a successful travel agency while still in college, which went bankrupt when an airline he was using went out of business. He then joined Morris Travel, where he innovated by offering low-cost vacation packages. Morris Travel evolved into Morris Air, which became known for its unique practices like developing its own reservation system and offering ticketless travel. Morris Air was eventually bought by Southwest Airlines, where Neeleman briefly served as an executive.
David Neeleman was born in Sao Paulo, Brazil, in October 1959. His father, stationed there as a bureau chief for United Press International, moved the family back to Salt Lake City, Utah, when David was five. Initially, David faced challenges in school due to his better fluency in Portuguese than English, compounded by his hyperactivity and short attention span. By age nine, David was already learning the ropes of customer service in his grandfather's convenience store. His grandfather's commitment to customer satisfaction was such that he would have David purchase items from Safeway if they were not in stock, teaching David to never disappoint a customer. After high school, David attended the University of Utah to study accounting and managed the school's basketball team. At 19, he took a two-year break to serve as a missionary in Brazil. Returning in 1980, he resumed his studies but soon ventured into business by offering to rent out unsold timeshare condos in Hawaii. This led to the creation of his own travel agency, which quickly grew to $8 million in annual sales. Despite his success, the bankruptcy of Hawaii Express in 1983 devastated his agency. Post-bankruptcy, David joined Morris Travel, where he continued to create vacation packages. He, along with Rick Frendt and June Morris, initiated charter flights using an unused Hawaiian Airlines DC-8, offering significantly lower fares than competitors. When Hawaiian Airlines retired the DC-8, they arranged for more charter flights, now between Salt Lake City and Los Angeles, at fares much lower than Western Airlines. Despite initial difficulties, Morris Travel's development of its own booking software allowed them to efficiently manage a surge in reservations, setting the stage for David Neeleman's future successes in the airline industry.
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