BULK fares cannot be purchased directly from UA (unless you are a TA or consolidator purchasing in bulk). One of the savings to UA is that it does not deal with the customer service aspects of servicing the ticket (other than in IRROPS), but rather kicks those issues to the TA issuing the ticket, in this case United Vacations.
There are many consolidators out there who offer deeply discounted tickets. Presuming that you have done the due diligence to assure that you are not dealing with a fraud, you can save a great deal of money. Often more than you can save by booking through UV.
But, the key consideration is that these tickets are most often fully inflexible. E.g., if you do not fly the ticket as issued, you lose its entire value; no change fees and other bells & whistles. Other tickets may be changeable, but you pay the TA whatever fee it charges over UA's own fee. This does not make the ticket a bad value as decent travel insurance for the concerns one might have will mitigate that risk. Just make sure that you carefully review the travel insurance to be certain you are covered.
Last edited by Often1; Dec 12, 2019 at 7:14 pm