Originally Posted by
xooz
Welcome to the wonderful world of corporate booking tools. The illusory benefit to the company where they save money by getting rid of a corporate travel department gets completely washed away by traveling staff having to spend otherwise productve time searching and booking travel.
As a Flyertalker that is probably true but for the average flyer it may not be. I recall a story where a Flyertalker demonstrated that he could beat the company imposed travel agency several times and made a deal so he would be exempt from company policy. Document your searches and it may work.
Another strategy that usually worked for me was to play more with the parameters. Is MSP-ORD really the best, or would MSP-MDW be better? I doubt UA has the best routings on most trips from MSP.