BOISJC744

I've done a lot of searching through existing threads but I'm not seeing anything that's directly responsive the the questions that I have. I've also read all of the pages on United's site that seem relevant. Apologies for starting a new thread if I've missed something.

Basic story:

My nonprofit organization (I'm the primary actor/manager) directly spends about 200k on airfare annually, distributed across a variety of flyers. This is all airfare that the organization directly pays for. Currently we spend probably 2/3 to 3/4 of our airfare budget with United. Ex in the last 4-5 weeks I've purchased about 36k in United airfare, and have another approximately 40-45k to purchase in the next 3 weeks or so. There is an additional variable amount of probably somewhere close to 50k airfare that is spent by clients and attendees of events and meetings that we run (note that we do not directly pay for this airfare, but it is spend that would not exist absent our organization).

United is a good fit for us due to the route network out of SFO. Service quality and benefits are definitely down over the last five years, but I honestly don't think that another carrier would provide us the same overall benefits from United. I know that this is peanuts versus big corporate contracts, yet it is clearly enough that United is interested in the business. Ex the Pass Plus program starts at 50k for organizations (and I believe that at 100k they award a GS membership). We do have alternatives, VX could work for us as they cover BOS, NYC and WAS (that's most of our travel), obviously AA or DL are options as well but then we give up nonstop options.

What I'm looking for:

Obviously we're looking to save some money. I know that the amount of discount that we're looking at here is going to be small (ex the Pass Plus discount for domestic economy is 2%), but it is better than nothing.

Given that we are consistently spending a sizable chunk of money with United annually, I'd like to maximize what we can get in return. Even if the answer is "not much of a discount," since we have a bit of an information asymmetry (we know we prefer United, but United is unaware of the level or strength of that preference) it seems that at a bare minimum we should be able to leverage some status perks out of a deal. Although I'm consistently a 1K (and closing in on MM), GS would be incredibly useful to me and to the organization as a whole.

The one negative that I see with the Pass Plus program is that it requires prepaying the whole account balance via check. Obviously that eliminates a mileage earning opportunity via a credit card that is somewhat valuable (especially with the upcoming earning devaluation). The other issue is accounting and compliance with spending funds. Prepaying all of that money is a bit of a budgetary pill to swallow (we're not sitting on tons of cash year round), plus it is hard to write a 100k check when there is nothing concrete to link that expenditure for.

Questions:

Am I missing another alternative that might be a better fit? Ex a traditional contract that is pay as you go, but tracks spend and has benefits awarded at certain spend tiers? This would seem to solve the prepay issue, while also allowing travel that we don't directly pay for out of our own budget to count towards spend requirements. Is this a realistic option? How do yo go about setting up a corporate contract, and what types of benefits/concessions should I expect from United given the basics I've outlined?

I know that meeting agreements are out there, but I'm more interested in a blanket deal that just works for us during the year rather than setting up a ton of meeting contracts. Plus, about half or more of our spend wouldn't fit within a meeting contract most likely, as it is spread out during the year into trips that aren't big enough to be meetings.

Am I off base in terms of the value of our spend to United? I know that 200k isn't a lot of money, but I'm pretty sure that my case represents a pretty clear situation in which I'm a "travel manager" who has near total control of the allocation of our entire airfare budget.

Other info:

I know people will ask, so to get it out there we generally buy cheap fares. Not as cheap as I'd like, but probably cheap from United's perspective. Lots of $200-$300 one-way transcon fares, a fair amount of international trips in low fare buckets (usually S, L, T, K etc), etc. I would not come close to a GS level of spend on my own; even though I do travel a lot, I treat the money like my own and am barely going to squeak by the 10k PQD requirement to make 1K again this year.

Sykes

For corporate PassPlus memberships, $100k/year gets you 1K (plus some other amenities). They have a $500k/year minimum for GS. Sometimes you can get in a little lower, but you're almost certainly not going to get GS on a $200k/year or less corporate program.

$50k/year on an individual PassPlus account (usable only by one person) will get that traveler GS though.

In general, United developed PassPlus so they won't have to deal with one-off corporate accounts for small businesses, so I wouldn't expect to see much else offered by them. If you're buying cheap fares (below H), my guess is that you'd be better off with a cash-back or mileage-earning credit card. If you have a meaningful amount of H or above fares, then PassPlus can be quite valuable. (Most international H fares are 20% off, which can make them cheaper than W fares.)

If you PM me, I'll be happy to put you in contact with a good west coast sales rep at United (if you'd like).

dcpdxtrans

Unfortunately, I cannot help you. I post because I have contemplated similar questions as I have seen small companies that spend considerable sums on airfare and wondered if they could work out similar arrangements or negotiate certain perks, i.e., GS.

In any event, I would imagine that you would simply contact UA and have them put you in touch with its department that handles this sort of thing. Also, I would PM Aaron, aka, UA Insider and request guidance.

Good luck and keep us posted if possible.

Often1

Pass Plus is the program designed for small business. I would not expect to see anything beyond PP as UA specifically designed PP so that neither businesses nor UA would have to spend time and money negotiating deals. And, so that small businesses would not be stuck with enrolled corporate TA's as UA requires for its negotiated deals.

micmcguire

I happen to think your $$ are pretty accurate if not a little low. I earned GS on the merits of my own travel and bookings on United. My company spends several million a year on United on travel and they offered ZERO GS status to the top flyers, maybe they saved them for C level executives, but they offered 1 1K and 1 Delta and 1 AA platinum with a couple of United Plantinum which the HVF and frequent travelers already had. YMMV

Tchiowa

I'm thinking that even though $200k is a lot of money for most of us, it's not a significant size corporate account for UA to mess with. I worked for a much bigger company (Fortune 10 company) and they had an arrangement where they bought tickets through a regular agency and UA kicked the company back a percentage.

I'm also thinking that since you're a non-profit, if your cause is somethat that UA would sympathize with, or like to brag about, they might be willing to work out something similar with you purely on that basis.

Contact someone in sales at corp headquarters. The worst they could do is say "No".

dank0014

You may want to reach out to companies like American Express Travel. Though you pay an upfront booking cost for their fares, they usually guarantee that at the end of the year, your reimbursement credit is greater than your fees or you at a minimum get the fees back. Your volume may not be enough though for American Express, but worth a shot.

BOISJC744

Thanks for all of the replies. I'm going to explore these options and see if I can find any value.